Doing Business in Thailand

• The webinar provided insights on the aspects to look out when entering the Thailand market
• It covered cultural and legal problems that businesses might face when starting a business in Thailand
• Announcement of the official opening of BlackStorm (Thailand) Co. Ltd.

June 14, 2019: When entering any new country to start a business, there will be a different set of problems that companies will face. This is also relevant when entering into Thailand. Paddy Tan, Co-Founder of BlackStorm Consulting, held a webinar on “Doing Business in Thailand.”

The webinar addressed Thailand current startup and investor landscape and highlighted the cultural and legal differences that might cause problems to founders when entering Thailand.

Thailand is a lucrative market and a startup hub. Paddy predicts that “(There will be an) increase of businesses entering in Thailand rapidly in the next 18-24 months as the election is done and a new party is ruling.  Rules will be lifted (and there will be) more participation by countries that could have been banned before.”  Additionally, entering in Thailand will let businesses expand into other South East Asian countries such as Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, and Vietnam.

The webinar carried on going through the thought process on how to position the company to appeal to the investors. As Paddy would put it “one of the biggest problems is we tend to over- or underestimate our capability and capacity.” Founders need to be able to accurately understand the valuation of their company before they can sell themselves to their investors to get funded.

“What works in Singapore and other places of the world will not work in Thailand.” Paddy also elaborates how a new strategy has to be put in place when entering Thailand as there are many cultural differences such as taste and preferences, and working habits which will render the previous strategy used to be ineffective in Thailand. As such, the business model needs to be modified and localised for Thailand’s market.

One key point that Paddy emphasised was the need of proper planning. A company should not rush into entering a market if they have not done proper preparation. “Preparation takes more time than the actual entering of a market. The moment you start running you have to sprint. When you have done ample preparations and have understood the fundamentals, you will have an easier time to push and patch things along the way.”

During the Webinar, Blackstorm Consulting also announced the official opening of their Thailand company, BlackStorm (Thailand).

Material for the webinar

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About BlackStorm Consulting

BlackStorm Consulting is a boutique growth consultancy firm that specialises in corporate strategy, profit management and investment management. We mainly serve clients in four sectors: FinTech, Gaming, Technology, Media and Telecommunications (TMT), and manufacturing.

Our clients and connections are internationally present and range from small and medium sized businesses, MNCs, to government agencies.