Short characterization of the markets
The market parties place orders with the distributors (you) for different types of products at irregular intervals. There might be market fluctuations you have to watch.
The Asian market is divided into several geographic regions:
- Indian Market: The Indian market is very large; the country has over one billion inhabitants. The economy has posted an excellent average growth rate of 6% since 1990 [CIA World Factbook]. India is capitalizing on its large numbers of well-educated people skilled in the English language to become a major exporter of software services and software workers. The Indian market covers both India itself and Sri Lanka.
- Southeast Asian Market: The Southeast Asian market is growing as well, for instance due to the US-Vietnam Bilateral Trade Agreement, excellent facilities in Malaysia and Singapore, and a reasonable stable political situation.
- Chinese Market: One of the fastest growing markets around the world. This is an interesting region to operate in, because of the growing demand from the market as well as the growing number of good and cheap computer suppliers.
- Indonesian market: Indonesia is a difficult country to operate in as a foreign company. Corruption, the lack of reliable legal recourse in contract disputes, weaknesses in the banking system, and a generally poor climate for foreign investment make trading difficult. On the other hand, the almost 250 million inhabitants provide both a cheap labor force, and a potentially interesting market.
- Japanese Market: Japan is a very challenging and demanding market to operate in. Government-industry cooperation, a strong work ethic, mastery of high technology, and a comparatively small defense allocation (1% of GDP) helped Japan advance with extraordinary rapidity to the rank of second most technologically powerful economy in the world after the US and third-largest economy after the US and China [CIA World Factbook]. Both for production and consumption of new and innovative electronics and computer technology, Japan is the leading market.
- South Korean Market: The South Korean market is viewed as a separate market, as it is geographically disconnected from the rest of Asia. As a result, all shipments come in and go out by boat or by plane, increasing the transportation costs.
Each of the distributors has a local market, but of course it is allowed to compete on the other markets as well, or even internationally!
Short characterization of the distributors
There is one distribution company in each of the Asian markets. As you are managing the distributor in the game, not much can be said about the performance or competitiveness of the distributors. The competing distributors in Asia are:
| Market | Company | Location |
| India | Sitaram | Madras, India |
| Southeast Asia | Tanikalang | Davao, Philippines |
| China | Wuxi | Hong Kong, China |
| Indonesia | Sendang | Jakarta, Indonesia |
| Japan | Mitsuya | Osaka, Japan |
| South Korea | Woo | Seoul, South Korea |
Short characterization of the suppliers
India: Vishnu, Agra, India
Vishnu is a good computer manufacturer that has the full range of products, but the company mainly focuses on standard desktops and laptops, as these are most wanted in the local region that Vishnu is operating in. As a result, they can offer sharp prices for their line of desktops and laptops. Since two years, Vishnu also expanded their activities to the global market. They make heavy use of web portaling technologies to stay in contact with their customers, and use a very good workflow engine.
| Product type | Product quality | Workflow quality | Pricing |
| Desktop | Good | Good | Cheap |
| Laptop | Good | Good | Cheap |
| Linux | Average | Good | Pricey |
| Multimedia | Average | Good | Pricey |
India: Manaskriti, Nagpur, India
Nagpur city is, as they coin it themselves, the "complete computer literate city". It is also famous as one of the biggest marketplace for computer peripherals as well as IT products. It has many computer institutes that are serving the citizens and external customers since many years. Manaskriti clearly benefits from this environment, and offers high-end computers (Linux and Multimedia) for a good price. Their customer service is reasonable.
| Product type | Product quality | Workflow quality | Pricing |
| Linux | Excellent | Average | Cheap |
| Multimedia | Excellent | Average | Cheap |
Talam, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Talam is one of the companies involved in the Multimedia Super Corridor (MSC) project [www.msc.com.my]. MSC is Malaysia’s most exciting initiative for the global information and communication technology industry. The MSC is a dedicated 15 x 50 km Corridor, stretching from the Petronas Twin Towers in the north to the Kuala Lumpur International Airport in the south; and encompasses Cyberjaya (the Technology Core) and Putrajaya (the new administrative capital of Malaysia). Implementation of the MSC is divided into three phases from 1996-2020. Hosting more than 900 internationals, it creates a tremendous demand for multimedia computers. This is exactly what Talam focuses on.
| Product type | Product quality | Workflow quality | Pricing |
| Multimedia | Excellent | Good | Cheap |
Southeast Asia: Dinhvu: Hanoi, Vietnam
Dinhvu is a new company in Vietnam that only recently started to profit from the more open market structure and uplift of the economy in Vietnam to access the global market. Due to low labor prices, their computers are quite cheap, for a reasonable quality. Their customer service process is, however, not yet up international standards. They offer all computers, except for Linux servers.
| Product type | Product quality | Workflow quality | Pricing |
| Desktop | Good | Average | Cheap |
| Laptop | Good | Average | Cheap |
| Multimedia | Good | Average | Pricey |
China region: Hongda, Shenyang, China
Shen-yang, formerly Mukden, is a city in northeastern China on the Hun River. The city is and has always been a major industrial center. Manufactures include tools, processed copper, machinery, steel, and electrical equipment. Shenyang is both one of Chinese megalopolises (4,5 mln. inhabitants) and an important industrial base, and the center of economy, culture, science and technology, trade, finance and transportation. Hongda company is rooted in this industrial tradition, and offers a full range of heavy duty computers. Hongda has excellent logistical qualities as well.
| Product type | Product quality | Workflow quality | Pricing |
| Desktop | Good | Good | Pricey |
| Laptop | Good | Good | Pricey |
| Linux | Good | Good | Pricey |
| Multimedia | Good | Good | Pricey |
China region: Cheemay, Chengdu, China
Cheemay's founders are all educated in Chinese Universities and in North American Universities. The founders worked in Chinese hi-tech enterprises as well as in North American and European enterprises, including some of the best-known hardware and software companies around the world. The company has a broad vision on computer developments. Their motto is: "Being the promoter of the globalization strategy." Their focus is 100% on desktops, for which they offer a unique and very competitive line of products.
| Product type | Product quality | Workflow quality | Pricing |
| Desktop | Excellent | Good | Very cheap |
China region: Xinlian, Wuhan, China
Wuhan is one of the six biggest cities in China. It is an important industrial, financial, commercial, educational and scientific research center for the central part of China. Transportation facilities are excellent, with railway, waterway and highway facilities. Pricing is a little expensive, but their workflow is excellent. Xinlian offers a full range of computers for a reasonable price.
| Product type | Product quality | Workflow quality | Pricing |
| Desktop | Good | Good | Pricey |
| Laptop | Good | Good | Pricey |
| Linux | Good | Good | Pricey |
| Multimedia | Good | Good | Pricey |
China region: Haqiang, Changsa, China
Haqiang just had a big fire in their main production facility. In spite of a lot of hard work, they are having big trouble to get their operation up and running for a competitive market again. The price of their desktops and laptop computers suffers from the restructuring costs. Because the entire client administration was lost in the fire, workflow quality is also a problem. The desktop and laptop computers that they offer are, however, of a good quality.
| Product type | Product quality | Workflow quality | Pricing |
| Desktop | Good | Problematic | Expensive |
| Laptop | Good | Problematic | Expensive |
Indonesia: Aryajati, Padang, Indonesia
This company is a family owned business on Sumatra that only does the final parts of the assembly before shipping out the computers. Parts and computer modules are bought on the world market, for laptops, they buy the entire laptop and only build in the hard disk and memory. All other types of computers are bought as complete as possible, giving Aryajati sometimes more the characteristics of a distributor than of a supplier.
| Product type | Product quality | Workflow quality | Pricing |
| Desktop | Fair | Fair | Cheap |
| Laptop | Good | Fair | Average |
| Linux | Good | Fair | Average |
| Multimedia | Fair | Fair | Cheap |
Japan: Kanetsuma, Saporro, Japan
Kanetsumo is a sound company that delivers high-end desktops and Linux servers. Having an excellent sales support staff and good relations to local shippers, they are able to dispatch their shipments fast.
| Product type | Product quality | Workflow quality | Pricing |
| Desktop | Good | Excellent | Average |
| Linux | Good | Excellent | Average |
South Korean market: Hanwha, Pusan, South Korea
Hanwha is a well established company, that has consistently offered a full range of computers for a reasonable to good price to the South Korean market. Their workflow could be handled better, but on average, the company is doing well. Transportation from Pusang is excellent, as it is the largest port city in Korea and the marine transportation center of the south coastal area of the Korean peninsula.
| Product type | Product quality | Workflow quality | Pricing |
| Desktop | Fair | Fair | Cheap |
| Laptop | Good | Fair | Average |
| Linux | Good | Fair | Average |
| Multimedia | Fair | Fair | Cheap |
