⚠️ Challenges
- Securing prime-location property and complying with interior fit-out regulations
- Acquiring a well-located property in central Singapore under favorable terms
- Addressing strict interior and facility regulations specific to beauty salons (e.g., plumbing and water-related requirements)
☑️ Support & Results
- Secured property through proprietary channels, negotiated with local contractors, and handled interior approval applications requiring PE (Professional Engineer) licensing
↳ Successfully achieved the grand opening as scheduled
💡 Keys to Success
- Deep understanding of local regulations
- Clearing fire safety and plumbing requirements—very different from Japan—at the design stage
⚠️ Pitfalls to Watch Out For
- Construction quality control
- Local contractors operate under different delivery timelines and quality standards than Japan, making daily on-site supervision essential
🌐 Key Takeaways from This Case
- For overseas store interiors, regulatory compliance takes priority over design
- Early involvement of specialists prevents cost overruns later on
⚠️ Challenges
- Simultaneous execution of physical retail and e-commerce strategies
- Low brand awareness in the Hong Kong market and the need to update information related to secondhand dealer licensing
- Securing shelf space at physical retailers (e.g., Watsons) while building sales on leading e-commerce platforms (HKTV Mall)
☑️ Support & Results
- Built an integrated OMO sales network
↳ Achieved distribution at key Watsons stores through partnerships with major distributors
↳ Launched an official store on HKTV Mall
↳ Established a customer journey where trust is built offline and repeat purchases occur online
💡 Keys to Success
- Offline × online synergy
- The fact that the products were “available at Watsons” significantly lowered psychological barriers to purchase on e-commerce platforms
⚠️ Pitfalls to Watch Out For
- Price control complexity
- Inconsistent campaign pricing between physical stores and e-commerce can damage brand value and cause channel conflict
🌐 Key Takeaways from This Case
- In Hong Kong, physical retail exposure functions as the most powerful form of advertising
- Building in-store track records often drives stronger e-commerce growth than pursuing online-only strategies
⚠️ Challenges
- Lead acquisition and local-language readiness
- Starting from zero brand recognition in the Thai market
- Attracting visitors at the exhibition and lacking Thai-language sales and follow-up capabilities
☑️ Support & Results
- End-to-end exhibition support
↳ Booth construction, arrangement of local interpreters, and establishment of a lead qualification and management process
↳ Successfully acquired a large number of high-quality leads
💡 Keys to Success
- Pre-designed sales conversation flows
- Moving beyond simple business card exchanges by conducting on-the-spot demos and securing next-step appointments
⚠️ Pitfalls to Watch Out For
- Delayed follow-up
- Post-exhibition momentum fades within days
- Same-day to next-day follow-up in the local language is critical
🌐 Key Takeaways from This Case
- The goal of a trade show is not merely “exhibiting”
- ROI is determined by on-site operations during the event and the structure of post-event follow-up
⚠️ Challenges
- Rapid establishment of a local entity and visa acquisition
- Completing company incorporation in the shortest possible timeframe to maintain business momentum
- Securing Employment Pass (EP) visas for expatriate staff with certainty
☑️ Support & Results
- End-to-end incorporation and back-office outsourcing
↳ One-stop support covering preparation of the company constitution, registration, bank account opening, and work visa applications
↳ Enabled a smooth and timely start of operations
💡 Keys to Success
- Accurate requirements definition
- Designing initial paid-up capital and board composition with future capital strategy and fundraising in mind
⚠️ Pitfalls to Watch Out For
- In recent years, bank account opening for newly established entities has become more stringent, with increased scrutiny on the logical consistency of business plans
🌐 Key Takeaways from This Case
- Company incorporation is not merely an administrative task, but the first step of business strategy
- Structures must be designed with future scalability in mind
⚠️ Challenges
- Appropriate valuation and stalled negotiations
- Ensuring transparency in the target company’s financials and bridging valuation gaps arising from differences in business practices
☑️ Support & Results
- Acquisition advisory and PMO services
- Overall coordination of due diligence (DD)
- Alignment with local accountants and legal counsel
- Facilitation of commercial term negotiations
💡 Keys to Success
- Negotiation skills that “read between the lines”
- Ability to identify unspoken intentions and concerns not reflected in the numbers, and to find workable compromise points
⚠️ Pitfalls to Watch Out For
- Underestimating post-merger integration (PMI)
- Failure to anticipate integration processes before signing can lead to talent attrition after acquisition
🌐 Key Takeaways from This Case
- In M&A, signing the agreement is only the starting line
- Risks related to post-integration cultural friction should be factored in from the due diligence stage
⚠️ Challenges
- Building a local supply chain
- Identifying local molding partners for environmentally friendly (biomass) materials
- Establishing a cost-competitive mass production framework
☑️ Support & Results
- Supported the identification and technical evaluation of local plastic molding factories, as well as prototype coordination
↳ Established a foundation for local production and local sales
💡 Keys to Success
- Localization of technical specifications
- Aligning Japan’s high quality standards with acceptable manufacturing tolerances in local production environments
⚠️ Pitfalls to Watch Out For
- Raw material sourcing routes
- Without stable procurement channels for materials, supply bottlenecks will emerge at the mass production stage
🌐 Key Takeaways from This Case
- Sustainable products cannot succeed on “ideals” alone
- Demonstrating economic rationality that allows local partners to generate profits is essential
⚠️ Challenges
- Localization of training content
- Adapting Japanese-style manners and hospitality training for Singapore’s multicultural and multinational business environment
☑️ Support & Results
- Optimized programs for both local and Japanese-affiliated companies and supported outreach to HR departments
↳ Successfully achieved trial program implementations
💡 Keys to Success
- Cultural context transformation
- Rather than imposing “Japanese norms,” redefining why these skills matter using locally relevant logic and business rationale
⚠️ Pitfalls to Watch Out For
- Developing and securing instructors who can consistently deliver the content locally becomes a major scalability challenge
🌐 Key Takeaways from This Case
- Exporting education services is not about “translation,” but “re-editing”
- Flexibility and courage to adapt curricula to local contexts are essential
⚠️ Challenges
- Increasing brand awareness among target segments (locals and expatriates) in highly competitive locations
- Improving customer repeat rates
☑️ Support & Results
- Branding and marketing support
↳ Clarified the store concept and executed promotional initiatives using SNS and influencer marketing
💡 Keys to Success
- Balancing “Instagrammability” with taste
- Creating visuals that are easy to share
- Maintaining food and service quality that drives repeat visits
⚠️ Pitfalls to Watch Out For
- Converting short-term traffic spikes from promotions into long-term customer loyalty
🌐 Key Takeaways from This Case
- Restaurants sell experiences, not just food. The entire customer journey—from entry to exit—must be intentionally designed
⚠️ Challenges
- Misalignment in decision-making speed and communication gaps between headquarters in Japan and overseas subsidiaries, leading to project delays
☑️ Support & Results
- Execution of a cross-border PMO
↳ Designed governance structures, managed issues, and facilitated discussions, effectively acting as a “translator” between headquarters and local teams to realign and stabilize projects
💡 Keys to Success
- Managing conflicts among culturally diverse stakeholders with both logical rigor and emotional sensitivity
⚠️ Pitfalls to Watch Out For
- Simply reporting issues without proposing solutions adds no real value as a PMO
🌐 Key Takeaways from This Case
- The value of a global PMO lies in “driving execution,” not merely “managing”
- The ability to articulate ambiguity and push initiatives forward is critical
⚠️ Challenges
- Shortage of consultants with a combined skill set in Japanese, English, IT, and accounting for the implementation of a large-scale management accounting system
☑️ Support & Results
- OJT-based deployment of specialized professionals
↳ Dispatched a Hong Kong–based consultant from our firm
↳ Acquired product expertise through on-the-job training and operated as a core member of actual client implementation projects
💡 Keys to Success
- Ability to integrate immediately into cross-cultural teams and rapidly grasp complex system specifications
⚠️ Pitfalls to Watch Out For
- To avoid knowledge silos, it is essential to document expertise during the assignment period and embed it within the organization
🌐 Key Takeaways from This Case
- Project success depends not on simple “headcount augmentation,” but on functional contribution by highly skilled professionals
⚠️ Challenges
- Establishing a Japan base to support overseas customers
- Increasing complexity in inventory management across multiple locations
- Difficulty recruiting bilingual talent with automotive industry expertise
☑️ Support & Results
- Establishment of a Japanese subsidiary
↳ Completed company registration in Tokyo and recruitment of sales and warehouse personnel - Logistics operations visualization
↳ Visualized logistics flows, reducing delivery issues and improving accuracy - Business Manager Visa
↳ One approval obtained; one application documents prepared (application temporarily suspended)
💡 Keys to Success
- Optimized recruitment costs at approximately JPY 6 million while establishing a sustainable training framework
⚠️ Pitfalls to Watch Out For
- Bilingual talent in niche industries is highly competitive, making cost and schedule control critical
🌐 Key Takeaways from This Case
- Establishing a logistics base is not about the “facility,” but about designing people and operations
- Talent development leveraging the Japan base accelerates global expansion
⚠️ Challenges
- Increasing operational complexity due to annual turnover of approximately 70 SKUs
- Inconsistent data standards across countries and insufficient inter-vendor system integration
☑️ Support & Results
- Implemented a Product Information Management (PIM) platform to automate data linkage across e-commerce, logistics, and sales systems
↳ Achieved a 30% increase in inventory turnover and a 25% improvement in operational efficiency
💡 Keys to Success
- Bilingual PMO facilitation between Japan and local teams, including integration with the company’s internal platform (POM), streamlined decision-making
⚠️ Pitfalls to Watch Out For
- Underestimating the workload required for data cleansing due to differences in local business practices and system environments can derail project plans
🌐 Key Takeaways from This Case
- The first step in global DX is establishing a “common data language”
- Only by consolidating data from all locations onto a unified platform can management visibility truly be achieved
