The case studies provided here are testimonials on how a select group of U.S. environmental infrastructure companies have succeeded in Asia. These case studies illustrate that U.S. firms are having to adjust their ways of doing business to succeed in Asia. The pathways to success vary depending on company size, segment, and willingness and ability to handle risk. Although the successful pathways vary, these case studies identify certain recurring themes, which can act as guideposts to U.S. environmental firms looking to Asia for growth.

The following five case studies have two basic formats. The first is the in-depth interview format, which is designed to give the reader direct input from the minds of the top international business strategists Ram Gupta, director, Wheelabrator Asia-Pacific, and Jim Patton, managing partner, Infrastructure Business, Black & Veatch. These discussions explore the decision process for identifying the best Asian countries for market entry and examine business development approaches for environmental infrastructure consulting services and equipment sales. Deciding on acquisitions, joint ventures, or simply whether to have in-country representatives is also discussed to determine which combination provides the best risk/reward trade-off. The second type of case study follows a narrative format discussing the quantitative and qualitative aspects of Asian strategies. The narrative case studies include U.S. Filter (USF), Wheelabrator Water Technologies, and Pate Engineering. The Wheelabrator case study details the divestiture of its manufacturing division, including its Asian headquarters, to U.S. Filter. The U.S. Filter case describes how acquisition of Wheelabrator's manufacturing division fits USF's overall global business strategy with explicit links to Asia. The Pate case demonstrates how a smaller U.S. environmental engineering firm can penetrate markets when it usually takes considerable resources to do so. It is intended that through these case studies U.S. firms may consider how best to approach Asian markets and what corporate attitudes need to be cultivated to succeed in the Asian markets they choose.

These case studies have yielded definite lessons. Some of these lessons are applicable to any U.S. company going to Asian markets. Others depend on company size and the resources companies can marshal for Asian market penetration. Specifically:

• U.S. companies must have a local presence.
• U.S. companies must have staying power, The minimum Asian market entry budget should support two or three years of local operations. If you don't have it, don't go.
• Face-to-face time with both overseas clients and partners is critical. Good business development tactics dictate finding ways to get in front of key clients as often as possible, both formally and informally.
• For small or large companies, U.S. government assistance cannot substitute for good planning, careful product and service selection, and, most important, commitment of the resources necessary to go into Asia. U.S. government assistance can only help U.S. firms who are doing their best to help themselves.
• U.S. infrastructure firms are seeing subsidized foreign competition, especially in the form of up-front financing of project feasibility studies. This type of foreign government subsidy gives foreign competitors a significant advantage in subsequent phases of the project, that is, project design, construction, and equipment sales.

• Market entry for larger companies is best done by acquiring local firms. Acquisitions provide an instant backlog of projects and a client base. Focusing on growing an existing backlog is much more likely to succeed than investing in start-up operations and beginning from scratch.
• For larger companies making acquisitions, a majority control over a smaller Asian company is better than minority control over a larger company. More control translates into higher priority for your company's products and services.
• For larger companies, the ability to take an equity position and help bring project financing is no longer just a good idea but required to compete with European and Japanese firms.
• For larger engineering companies, moving from design-only to design-procure-construct is key to servicing Asian clients who demand one-stop shopping.

• Smaller companies with limited business development resources need to specialize and focus on one country and one area of service and/or product. Resist the temptation to be an opportunistic generalist.
• Smaller companies need to do their homework before pursuing Asian markets. Where possible, find out who will be target customers and key accounts before deciding on a market entry point. Start a dialogue with key customers before entering the market.
• For smaller companies, local sales representatives are the low-risk, low-cost, market entry and business development alternative. The problem with local reps has been their simultaneous representation of competing products. This problem has been solved in part by having proactive regional managers focused only on following up and managing the in- country reps.