The client was facing stiff Asian competition in the US on the lower and medium-priced technology products. The client's business strategy was to identify a low-cost Asian supplier of medium and low-end electronics products and import these products into the U.S in order to provide a broader product range for their U.S. customers. They eventually wanted to establish an Asian facility to satisfy both their export demand as well as the growing local demand in Asia.

Because of the proprietary nature of the client's technology and production, the client was significantly concerned about the protection of their Intellectual Property.

Challenge: A major challenge was to balance the desire for a low cost solution with the other planning considerations such as Intellectual Property protection, project confidentiality and maintenance of the client's reputation for the highest levels of quality and reliability. The client's proprietary technology required an understanding by East West of the product, manufacturing processes and applications.

East West was hired to develop an Operational Assessment of the client's strategy - this Assessment would provide specific recommendations about implementation in Asia and a defined Project Plan identifying the actions necessary to implement the strategy in a manner that met all planning requirements and positioned the client for optimal global results.

Solution: East West performed a full Assessment of the client's strategy. The assessment included an in-depth 2-week analysis by 2 East West consultants which

1. Identified the strengths and weaknesses of the client's business strategy.
2. Recommended clear steps to strengthen the strategy and specific operational steps to protect the IP in China as well as provided a defined timetable in which to implement this strategy.