Layers Consulting Establishes Company in Singapore ~Aids Japanese Companies Having Difficulties After Expanding into ASEAN~

Wed., Feb. 26 2014

TOKYO, JAPAN – February 26, 2014 -Layers Consulting Co., Ltd. (hereafter Layers) established and officially began business operations at subsidiary Layers Consulting Singapore (hereafter Layers Singapore) since February.

There are already many Japanese companies expanding into the ASEAN region, but there are few that have been succeeding in the ASEAN market. Management style can be brought up as one of the reasons. Since the ASEAN region has different languages, religion, and currency, diversity in the Asian region is top class even in the world.

In order to fuse with this diversity and produce profit, ASEAN-style clarification of management best practice and commoditization that serves as this fusion’s core is indispensable, but in present times, simply introducing the Japanese business model or totally depending on the regional business partner without adequate governance from Japan are often seen.

The Japanese economy is on a recovery trend right now and Layers judged it is the optimum time for Japanese companies that have a base in Asia to seriously confront the ASEAN market and in order to support Japanese companies in the ASEAN market’s regrowth and business reform through an on-site location, the Singapore branch was established.

While the mission of Layers Singapore is “to facilitate the globalization of Japanese companies,” as the Layers located in Japan works closely with them, Layers Singapore will support the main office and on-site teams of Japanese companies that expand into ASEAN countries while following the companies’ overall strategy and contribute to the construction of an optimum business model that makes use of the ASEAN region’s special characteristics and accomplishes business goals.

The main consulting services are supply chain management and cost management with an abundant success record in the manufacturing industry, business management that optimizes governance for region and industry subsidiaries, deciding marketing strategies for local markets, and business reform for ASEAN group companies and regional branch companies (sales, production control, headquarter functions). Layers Singapore aims for 3 million USD worth of consulting orders in the first year.

Layers Singapore’s President Toshihiro Murata said the following things about his hopes: “In recent years, not only did Japanese companies open a sales and production point in the ASEAN region, the Japanese companies also formulated regional general functions and transferred control of headquarters functions, etc., activated trends seeking even more global management, and recognized ASEAN as important strategic region. However successful Japanese companies in the region are few.

Take sales and production control function reform projects for example, compared to projects done in Japan, not only regional business process reform in the ASEAN region, but also changing the person in charge of implementing business’s way of thinking has become extremely important. In our experience, continuing to ask ‘please change your attitude’ will not change the attitude of a person in charge. The person in charge should first fully understand ‘management philosophy and business objectives’ and start to take action, then they can ‘change their way of thinking through keep taking actions’ . Although the Japanese companies have management philosophies, cases where measures that accelerates action and brews understanding of person in charge are lacking can be seen a lot.

Because culture is different in each ASEAN country, the way to inform about each measure and the way to permeate them are different. Based on feelings of respect to each personnel in each country, Japanese companies need to create different approaches to adjust diversity in countries, ethnic groups, and organizations. In our way of thinking reform measures’s development and permeation, I believe we can provide powerful aid based on our 30 year track record of consulting to Japanese companies.

About Layers Consulting:

Our Japanese independent consulting company was established in 1983, retains over 300 companies mainly listed on the major section of the stock exchange as clients, and has accomplished over 600 projects in global business management, supply chain / cost management, growth strategy, business reform, IT management, etc. Projects from America, ASEAN, and China have been increasing along with our clients who are expanding overseas and we offer genuine client-first consulting from not only strategy concepts to implementation plan drafts, but also we take responsibility from the implementation of a plan to its completion. http://www.layers.co.jp

Overview of Layers Consulting Singapore:

Name: Layers Consulting Singapore PTE. LTD
President: Toshihiro Murata
Location: 77 Robinson Road Level 34, Robinson 77 Singapore 068896
URL: http:// sg.layers-consulting.com
TEL: +65 6420 6374
E-Mail: email hidden; JavaScript is required

For more information please contact:

Layers Consulting Co., Ltd.
Information Contact: Tetsunori Baba
TEL: +81 3 5547 1155 (Representative)
E-Mail: email hidden; JavaScript is required