Millward Brown Regional Hub in Singapore

At a time when many multi-national companies are relocating their Asia Pacific headquarters to Hong Kong and China, Millward Brown has chosen Singapore as the hub of its operations in this region.

Andreas Sperling, CEO of Millward Brown Asia Pacific, cites a number of reasons for the choice. 'Last year we brought together Japan, Australia and New Zealand, and our Asia offices to form one region spanning 12 markets. The resulting matrix business model sees each market retaining budget responsibility, leveraging the support provided by marketing and business development, operations, and finance. This means we can bring Asia Pacific clients global success metrics and insights - both at a regional and a local level.'

Sperling continued, ''The regional functions could in theory be based anywhere in the region. We chose Singapore because of its central location. Advances in technology have reduced the need to conduct frequent face-to-face meetings with clients and staff. And Singapore is only three hours from Hong Kong, and five hours from Shanghai where we already have established offices. Singapore also provides a pool of top quality graduates. And the quality of life here - housing, low pollution levels and minimal traffic congestion, safety, and low personal tax rates - makes it an attractive posting for expats. Business costs are lower in Singapore, English skills are strong, and the incentives on offer from the Economic Development Board make Singapore an obvious choice for a regional hub.'

Millward Brown Asia Pacific has an aggressive expansion plan. Within 5 years it expects to account for more than 20 - 25 percent of Millward Brown's global revenue, up from around 10 percent last year. The opening of the Taiwan office this month adds to the Firefly acquisition made in Bangkok last year, and brings the total number of offices in the region to eight. Indeed, at the end of February, Millward Brown adopted thousands of fireflies at the Night Safari Zoo in Singapore to mark the launch of Millward Brown Firefly, the Millward Brown qualitative offer across Asia Pacific.

Regional Marketing and Business Development Director, Jamie Lord, attributes part of Millward Brown's continued success to focus. 'We know what business we are in and what business we are not in. Understanding brands, what makes and keeps them strong, and diagnosing communications effectiveness is what we do best. We do not try and dilute our core competency by pursuing things which don't fit with this position. This enables us to focus our training resources, and deliver research-based solutions to clients that provide more actionable insights than our competitors. Several structural initiatives have allowed us to provide better solutions to our clients. Singapore has become our centre of excellence for project management and client service training. The creation of a project management department and protocol means that senior client service staff can spend more time developing research-based solutions for clients. And our Knowledge Management system is probably one of the most advanced in the world - ensuring client solutions include the latest learnings gained from the tens of thousands of copy testing, tracking, brand equity and qualitative research projects we have conducted around the globe.'

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.