As Regional MD for Southeast Asia, I was responsible for doubling revenue across five markets in four years: Malaysia, Indonesia, Thailand, Vietnam, and the Philippines.
The experience taught me more about what boards should focus on — and what they get wrong — than any strategy framework or governance training ever could.
Here’s what I learned.
LESSON 1: Boards love strategy decks. Operators need execution clarity.
Every market entry plan I presented to boards looked beautiful: market size analysis, competitive landscape, three-year revenue projections, go-to-market strategy.
The board would nod, ask a few questions about TAM and competitive positioning, and approve the plan.
Then I’d get on a plane to Jakarta or Kuala Lumpur and discover that the beautiful strategy deck had almost nothing to do with what mattered on the ground:
- Can we hire the quality of sales talent we need in this market, at the salary bands HQ approved?
- Do local distributors have the capability to execute our channel strategy, or are we assuming capabilities that don’t exist?
- What’s the real payment term dynamic with customers in this market — not what the contract says, but what happens?
These weren’t questions boards asked. But they were the questions that determined whether we’d hit plan or miss by 30%.
What I learned: The best boards don’t just approve strategy — they pressure-test execution assumptions.
They ask:
- “What has to be true operationally for this to work?”
- “What are the 3 things most likely to go wrong in the first 90 days?”
- “How will we know if we’re off-track before it shows up in the financials?”
LESSON 2: International expansion isn’t about scaling “The Model” — it’s about adapting it
HQ boards love the idea of “scaling the proven model” internationally:
“We’ve succeeded in the UK. Now let’s replicate that in Southeast Asia.”
Sounds logical. Rarely works.
What worked in London didn’t work in Kuala Lumpur:
- UK customers wanted premium products and were willing to pay for brand. Malaysian customers cared more about price and wanted functional value.
- UK distribution was consolidated (3-4 major players).
- Indonesia was fragmented (hundreds of regional distributors with wildly varying capability).
- UK marketing was digital-heavy (Facebook, Google). Thailand required offline retail presence and trade shows.
The revenue model, pricing strategy, and go-to-market had to be adapted — sometimes radically — to fit local market dynamics.
But boards didn’t want to hear “we’re adapting the model.” They wanted consistency. Efficiency. Leverage.
What I learned: Boards need to get comfortable with managed inconsistency across markets.
International growth isn’t about cloning the HQ playbook.
It’s about preserving the core (brand, product quality, values) while adapting everything else (pricing, GTM, partnerships) to local reality.
The best boards ask:
- “What’s non-negotiable across all markets?” (the core)
- “What needs to flex by market?” (everything else)
- “How do we balance local adaptation with operational efficiency?”
LESSON 3: The biggest risk isn’t competition — it’s your own assumptions about how the market works
Boards spend a lot of time discussing competitive threats.
“Who are the local players?”
“What’s their market share?”
“How will they respond to our entry?”
Valid questions. But in my experience, competition was rarely the reason international expansions failed.
The bigger risk: our own assumptions about market structure, customer behaviour, and operational dynamics.
Example from Indonesia
We assumed customers would pay for premium products if we educated them on quality and performance benefits.
Reality: Price was the primary decision driver for 80% of the market. Quality mattered, but only within a narrow price band. Our premium positioning isolated us to a tiny high-end segment that couldn’t support the revenue plan.
We didn’t lose to competitors. We lost to our own flawed assumptions about customer willingness to pay.
What I learned: The best boards don’t just review competitive landscape. They pressure-test market assumptions.
They ask:
- “What’s our core assumption about why customers will buy from us?”
- “How have we validated that assumption with real customer data?”
- “What would cause us to be wrong?”
LESSON 4: Cultural fit matters more than skills on paper
Boards spend a lot of time reviewing CVs and approving senior│
hires.
“This candidate has 15 years’ experience in FMCG.”
“They’ve worked for Unilever and P&G.”
“Their track record is solid.”
Great. But that tells you nothing about whether they’ll succeed in YOUR business.
I hired brilliant executives with flawless CVs who failed spectacularly — not because they lacked skills, but because they couldn’t adapt to our operating culture.
I hired a Country MD in Thailand who’d run a P&G division profitably for 8 years. On paper, perfect.
In practice: they struggled because P&G’s culture was process-driven, matrix-managed, and consensus-oriented.
Our culture required entrepreneurial decisiveness, comfort with ambiguity, and ability to operate without HQ support.
The skills were there. The cultural fit wasn’t.
What I learned: Boards should spend less time reviewing CVs and more time pressure-testing cultural fit.
Questions that matter:
- “Have they operated in ambiguous, under-resourced environments before?”
- “Do they need clear process and structure, or can they build it themselves?”
- “How do they handle being wrong — because they will be wrong repeatedly in a new market?”
What this means for boards today
International expansion is back on the agenda for many boards — either because PE funds are pushing portfolio companies to scale internationally, or because growth in home markets is slowing.
But most boards aren’t structured to provide the right kind of challenge and support.
They’re great at reviewing strategy decks and competitive analysis.
They’re much weaker at pressure-testing execution assumptions, validating market hypotheses, and ensuring cultural fit in senior hires.
If you’re a board considering international expansion, ask yourself:
- Do we have directors who’ve scaled businesses internationally — not just approved expansion plans?
- Are we asking the right questions about execution risk, or are we just reviewing strategy slides?
- Can we tell the difference between a market entry plan that│ will work and one that looks good on PowerPoint?
Because scaling across markets isn’t about having a great strategy.
It’s about knowing what breaks when you cross borders — and fixing it before it kills the plan.