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Fisher & Paykel Appliances has been trading in Singapore for more than 15 years, operating both retail and development sides of its appliances business there.
Advisors on New Zealand Trade and Enterprise’s Beachheads Southeast Asia advisory board have provided the company with access to key decision makers in Singapore, helping it achieve a new level of market cut-through.
New Zealanders have grown up with Fisher & Paykel Appliances’ products, but getting the brand noticed in overseas markets has required patience and a strategic approach to get in front of the right people.
Often the difficulty lies in identifying who the decision-makers are. Miles Webster, Fisher & Paykel Appliances country manager for Singapore, says businesses there sometimes have staff with “fancy titles” but no authority to make decisions.
Mr Webster started his Singapore role in 2008 and worked with NZTE staff based in the country from day one.
“We saw business the same way and saw the same opportunities,” he says.
Mr Webster tapped into other Kiwi support mechanisms as he worked out how to get into and understand Singapore’s business communities.
The company applied for NZTE’s Beachheads programme as he was keen to make the most of the expertise of advisors based in Singapore.
Ian Spence, a company director and business consultant in Southeast Asia, was assigned as Fisher & Paykel Appliance’s Beachheads advisor. The company has also had access to the Chair of the Southeast Asia Advisory Board, Chuan Seng Lee.
“Both of these guys are very strong in separate and distinct disciplines,” says Mr Webster.
“The pair of them are very well connected here. I use Ian Spence as a mentor. I bounce ideas off him because I know he’s been there, done that. He doesn’t solve problems. He listens and offers solutions. He allows me to make what in the past have turned out to be very solid business decisions based around his experience.
“Chuan Seng, on the other hand, has been fantastic for me with regard to the commercial development business.”
Mr Webster gives the example of contracts to supply appliances to large numbers of apartments in a condo.
“In the past, my sales manager and I would go and talk with the developers. We’d be visualising with these guys, talking about the product, what we could put where, the features and finishes they would want and how we could manage that.
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