One successful business attracting the admiration of people in Southeast Asia, if not the whole of Asia, may be Air Asia, the no-frills budget airlines revolutionsing air travel for millions in this region. Founder and former accountant Tony Fernandes went on a trip to the UK, came across the concept of budget airlines, and considered it, he says, a “no brainer”.
And so he started Air Asia, by providing a seat on a plane for any person at minimal prices, and basing the company in Malaysia, between China and India and Indonesia (3 of the 4 most populous nations on this planet.
As the slogan of his budget airlines puts it, “Now Everyone Can Fly”. More importantly for the entrepeneurs’ perspective, by always selling enough tickets to his planes and acquiring his first plane for a dollar from Malaysian Airlines, he says Air Asia has made money from day one.
Air Asia may serve as a template for anyone wishing to do business in this region. A number of lessons can be drawn from this.
In particular, Air Asia is one of many examples one may notice that simply re-models the product or service of another company in the likes of the UK or the US, and brings it to the Asian region where such a business has yet to be provided. Air Asia brought in no-frills aviation personnel with the relevant experience from Europe, and let them provide the expertise and details for effecting what is a proven formula somewhere else.
As some may put it, don’t reinvent the wheel.
That is not to say quite a bit of adaption needs to be done in the local market. Tony himself has said he had to go all the way to the Prime Minister of Malaysia of the day to lobby for liberalisation of aviation routes away from the national carrier, Malaysia Airlines. The right destinations still had to be chosen and Air Asia had to concede control of its Indonesia and Thailand subsidiaries to Indonesian and Thai nationals respectively to obtain landing rights in these countries and to comply with local laws. Not the kind of issues prevalent in Europe perhaps.
But besides admiring Air Asia as vibrant business that is not only making money but is changing the way people lead their lives in this region, the lesson to learn regarding doing business in this region may simply be this: don’t reinvent the wheel, just use what works. A degree of adaptation may be required to make the business work in its local environment, but essentially someone has made most of the mistakes for you somewhere else, and human needs and wants worldwide are all the same.
Air Asia may win your admiration, but it could even teach one a lesson or two about making your business work.