is an international management consulting firm that advises senior management of leading organizations on issues relating to establishing, investing in, growing, and improving the performance of businesses located in Asia and elsewhere in the Pacific Rim. The scope of our work includes strategy, operations, organizational effectiveness, and market research.
Consulting Approach
PRR believes strongly in fact-based decision making. Our staff in Asia and the USA conducts primary and secondary market research and analysis as required to support our consulting projects. We are expert at interviewing and obtaining market information from customers, potential customers, distributors, suppliers, competitors, and governmental sources. The professionals at PRR are fluent in Mandarin, Japanese, and other Asian languages and are normally able to obtain information first-hand from the most reliable sources without the need for the intervention of translators or intermediaries.
As a result of our long presence in Asia, the numerous business and governmental contacts we have established, our thorough understanding of the available information sources, our rigorous methodologies, and our highly-trained staff, we are very effective and highly efficient in obtaining accurate information even in situations where the information is considered difficult to get. These same factors enable us to be very cost-effective in obtaining information to support our consulting projects.
We form a dedicated team for each of our consulting projects. The team leader is an experienced senior consultant with expertise relevant to the consulting project. Team members include other staff with consulting, business analysis, and research skills. We select team members with experience, expertise, and language skills appropriate to the project, and typically staff projects with team members from both the USA and Asia.
Prior to initiating a project, we work with our client to identify the key issues that need to be resolved during the course of the project. Proper problem definition is essential everywhere, but is particularly difficult in Asia where culture, tradition, business conditions, and governmental regulation can be sources of potential difficulty. Because of our experience in the region, we are able to anticipate problems that are likely to arise and structure the project to efficiently resolve the key issues without getting sidetracked.
Projects normally begin by assembling a fact base obtained from internal interviews with client staff, secondary market research, and primary market research including face-to-face interviews. We are committed to drawing on all of the resources and experience we have gained in the region to develop a reliable and comprehensive fact base early on in each of our consulting projects, despite the difficulty of obtaining this kind of information in Asia. This fact base provides the foundation for making profitable business decisions.
The next phase of a project is typically the formulation and testing of hypotheses, which focuses additional research and analysis on the most promising areas. Issues are resolved and recommendations are developed and communicated as the best course of action becomes clear. During this phase of the project, we draw heavily upon our knowledge of how to get things done in the region. We have a long history of helping clients develop successful businesses in Asia, and we consider it our responsibility on each project to make recommendations that will work in the context of the business situation, regulatory environment, and social conditions.
We firmly believe that a client does not receive full value from a consulting project until the recommendations have been implemented and a real improvement in business performance has occurred. For this reason, we normally assist in implementing the recommendations that are accepted by client management. This often includes the preparation of a detailed implementation plan and timetable as the final task in completing a project. Our further participation in implementation varies depending on the client's needs. Sometimes our participation includes a part-time program of monitoring implementation progress and the results achieved by client personnel. In other cases, we conduct pilot tests, or help form and assist with implementation teams. In any event, our objective is to follow through on our work and ensure that the client obtains the full benefits expected from the project.
We prefer to conduct our consulting projects as a joint effort between PRR and the client organization. PRR assumes responsibility for the direction and quality of the work, for structuring analyses and presenting alternative points of view, for challenging and stimulating client thinking from an objective third-party point of view, and for integrating analyses and developing recommendations. The client is normally responsible for reviewing progress and modifying direction, making the major decisions that arise during the project, and implementing the recommendations.
Whenever feasible and appropriate, we ask that client personnel be made available to work with us as members of the project team. In our experience, important benefits result from this arrangement. First, the productivity of our consultants is multiplied and costs to the client are reduced, especially when internal fact-finding is required. Second, the knowledge and commitment developed by the client personnel who take part in the project can be of significant future value, particularly when the project is one that client personnel intend to implement with minimal continued involvement by PRR. For these reasons, we have developed methods of including client personnel on our projects without losing our objectivity, which is an important value we bring to clients.
During the course of a project, we hold informal meetings and formal progress reviews with the client organization as frequently as required. We seek to build consensus within the client organization regarding the nature and importance of the issues under study, the relevant facts, the alternative solutions, and the best course of action. This approach helps ensure that the recommended solutions are appropriate for the client organization, and that there will be widespread support within the client organization for implementing the recommended solutions.
We enforce strict policies regarding the confidentiality of information we obtain from clients, as well as the confidentiality of opinions expressed by client personnel during the course of interviews. Since our reputation and the success of our work depend on the trust of our clients, we observe confidentiality in all aspects of our client relationships, enforcing internal procedures for handling client documents and assigning consultants to projects.
PRR was founded in 1988 by Julie Reinganum, whose work in Asia began in the 1970s. Reinganum was among the first to conduct in-depth business research in China. PRR's Shanghai office was opened in 1992 as one of the first Western management consulting firms in China. Today, PRR maintains consulting, business analysis, and research staff in San Francisco and Shanghai.
PRR hires professional staff based on superior performance in business management, understanding of Asian business issues and climates, language ability, and educational achievement. Advancement at PRR is based on increasing ability to serve clients successfully, so PRR's senior staff all have successful track records helping clients solve a wide range of problems and seize a broad range of opportunities.
PRR's clients are often US or European multinationals selling into or investing in the Asia Pacific region. They represent many different industries, including manufacturing, transportation, communications, construction, high technology, wholesale and retail distribution, financial services, professional services, public utilities, and many others.
The majority of our private-sector work is carried out for large, successful companies, such as those in the Fortune 500 in the United States and their equivalents in other countries. We have also developed a special competence in serving substantially smaller, fast-growing companies, particularly in areas of high technology. A portion of our work in recent years has been aimed at helping dynamic organizations in this size range capitalize fully on their market potential in Asia.
A considerable portion of our work is in the areas of corporate strategy, overall organization, and related policy issues as they apply to the Asia Pacific region. We also provide direct efforts to improve short-term performance by helping clients turn around a decline in profits, reorient product-market strategies, cut operating and overhead costs, and increase productivity. Recently, we have seen an increasing need to improve sales and marketing effectiveness in client organizations throughout Asia.
In addition, we work in major functional and other specialized areas when the problems involved are of concern to top management. These areas include research and development, finance, sales and marketing, manufacturing, distribution, manpower development, expatriate compensation, and planning. In these cases, our aim is to help clients capitalize on the improvement potential of a particular area by studying it from the integrated point of view of senior management.
