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16-Aug-02 Singapore, 16 August 2002 – A new breed of consultants are beginning to make their mark in Asia. The region’s business intelligence consulting industry is growing with support from clients, professional organisations and academia, and is currently estimated at US$150-200 million by Peter Read, Director at Fusion Consulting, though the boundaries of this emerging industry remain fuzzy, and no definitive figures are available. While you may have never heard them openly advertising their work as most of it is done on a confidential basis, they have been a growing force behind many market entry and business development strategies by multinationals in Asia since the financial crisis in 1997. Not to be confused with management consultants such as McKinsey and AT Kearney, business intelligence consultancies provide strategic market development advice based on industry research and experience – at a fraction of the cost of traditional strategy consulting. In recent years, the “big boys” in management consulting have struggled in Asia, shedding staff almost everywhere except China, where most players are losing money as they court the state owned enterprise sector. Reed Elsevier, Anglo-Dutch publishing and exhibitions giant, is one MNC which has benefited from business intelligence consulting. “Projects by management consultants can lack practical value,” says Ian Shelley, Commercial Director at Reed Elsevier’s regional headquarters in Singapore. “There is a growing commercial intelligence consulting industry in Asia, and the best of these consultancies are able to deliver practical business development strategies with a price tag four or five times less than a big management consultant, supported by factual evidence from the target markets. That’s real value, especially in these times.” he adds. “The business intelligence industry is young and fragmented. There are at least 80-100 companies engaged in some form of business intelligence consulting in Asia Pacific” says Mr. Read. “Some players focus on a particular country or industry, others offer regional coverage or simply rely on their research skills to uncover whatever information their clients require. A shakeout is likely over the next few years as the better quality players emerge and grow”, he says. Fusion Consulting’s directors are pioneers in the business intelligence industry and have developed analysis frameworks tailored to the main strategic issues their clients face, such as regional expansion and finding well-matched business partners. These processes help companies organise and understand market data to clarify complex strategic problems. It seems to work. The company counts heavyweight multinationals from the finance, chemicals, telecom and media sectors among its clients, and has negotiated strategic alliances with like-minded consulting firms in the USA and Europe. Fusion Consulting has also been asked to help develop a course on business intelligence at the Nanyang Technology University in Singapore, spearheaded by Dr Edna Reid, Associate Professor at the Nanyang Business School and President of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals of Singapore (SCIPsgp) – a branch of the 5,000 member SCIP in the Unites States. “We see a major gap in the industry. It is important for business analysts to have these skills,” says Dr Reid. The courses will encompass both ‘internal’ business intelligence (ie. based on customer information, company accounts, etc.) and ‘external’ business intelligence (ie. based on information about a company’s wider market environment and competitors). For undergraduates there is a course on Database and Business Intelligence, for MBA students, a Business Intelligence for Global Competitiveness course, and for executive education, seminars on Corporate Intelligence from Asian Perspectives. “This is just the beginning,” says Dr Reid. “We will offer more specialised courses as the interest grows and the industry develops.” These initiatives and the continued squeeze on corporate budgets mean business intelligence consulting is here to stay. The industry will find its regional voice in 2004, when a regional “Corporate Intelligence” conference, planned by SCIPsgp and other competitive intelligence and business intelligence societies in China, Japan and Australia, takes place. About Fusion Consulting For more information, please contact Fusion Consulting at
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