Supporting Business Development in Developing Countries
Recently there has been a trend of incorporating business-oriented perspectives in the support of developing countries. This is because conventional assistance approaches cannot always successfully contribute to the development of these countries. On the other hand, Japanese small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) that own specific technologies are looking to enter developing countries’ markets, and they therefore also require professional support to overcome the strategic issues of advancement into these countries.
Now, people who are interested in doing business in developing countries have started paying special attention to the BOP (Bottom of the Pyramid) socio-economic group. There are 4 billion people who can be classified as this group, and they are those who earn less than 3000 USDs a year.
IMG offers services to support businesses aimed at people of BOP status. In addition to this we can support businesses targeting wealthier socio-economic groups.
Research on the Dissemination of Point of Use Water Purification Technology in Vietnam
Less than 64% of people have access to safe drinking water in Vietnam. This is a worryingly high percentage as it has been reported that bacterial diarrhea, hepatitis A, typhoid and dysentery are all caused by polluted water. These diseases can all be deadly, and therefore more than 40 billion VNDs have been spent over the past 4 years to try to cure these water-related diseases.
IMG has supported the business development of a Japanese private company that supplies a product called CLINKA205, which is a sand-like water purification material that eliminates aerobic bacteria from polluted water. The project IMG worked on was successfully adopted and funded by JICA as a BOP project.
Business in developing countries used to be largely focused on urban areas where marketing channels were established. However, in our project, we targeted both rural and urban areas where there is a serious problem of access to safe drinking water. This is because we have the knowledge and skills to support both of these areas with help from NGOs and local governments.
Overseas Training Service
Due to high market competition, there is an imminent need for Japanese enterprises to train human resources to be able to find new business possibilities in emerging markets such as the BRIC and NEXT11 countries.
IMG has a large overseas network and many years of experience in developing human resources in both private companies and governments with ODA projects. We can therefore offer training for the staff of Japanese enterprises (OJT program) that are aiming to expand overseas.
FUJITSU University ‘Field Experience Program in Emerging Markets’
The program is aimed at getting managers of FUJITSU Limited to realize the potential needs of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) development, and then to allow them to search for possible business chances in the future. In 2011 and 2012, the program gave opportunities to selected FUJITSU managers to work within local governments, private companies and NGOs in Cambodia and Mongolia.
A benefit of the program is that it has allowed the participants to directly perceive differences in cultures and business environments, as well as the opportunities and constraints of the emerging market. Furthermore, it has given the participants an opportunity to identify the problems in the management of their host organizations, and then search for the solutions to these problems together with their counterparts.
IMG has successfully coordinated the program by making use of our experience together with our strong local and human resource networks (coordination of local pre-research, and planning and implementation of training).