Most companies know that China is a country with a reputation for high risks/high rewards. Leaders know that you don’t have to make trade-offs when it comes to integrity, and that loose standards are not a long-term competitive advantage.

Ask any chicken-or-egg question you wish about how to build strong organizational systems steeped with integrity, and one answer will be certain, you can’t have integrity without leadership. Each of our clients — whether they are a CEO, corporate counsel, brand protection director or security manager — is a leader.

I-OnAsia helps these leaders by doing what we do best in Asia: improve transparency, investigate the facts skillfully and objectively, offer advice of pitfalls, and support compliance. Our job is to make this complicated and opaque environment easier to navigate — without more smoke and mirrors.

Leaders ask for assistance with staff education and training. Why not training on how to get better integrity from employees and partners in Asia?

Each year without fail, I-OnAsia receives the highest honor any supplier of services can be given by a client. We are called in to educate and train one of them. Because our team has seen hundreds of examples where links in a manufacturing chain can fail due to integrity lapses, we are asked to impart our expertise on improving vendor and employee oversight, for example, or to help explain what a thorough compliance or “due diligence” check should look like in the region.

We provide executive briefings, often to Board retreats; author Case Studies and facilitate their discussion; and create custom training videos that incorporate the local language and customs to help deliver our client’s message. In response to the seriousness of counterfeiting, we have designed programs that focus on anti-counterfeiting issues and the ramifications that this illegal activity can have on the future of a company and its employees.

In addition, our training sessions focus on combating corruption, the corrosive effects of gambling, child labor, workplace violence, drug and alcohol addictions, and a myriad of other issues affecting a company’s ability to operate successfully in Asia.

Back to top

I-OnAsia is an independent entity in conducting fraud investigations and Leaders know that they don’t want to work with people of poor character or questionable backgrounds.

I-OnAsia offers employee screening services for clients expecting to avoid the pitfalls of hiring unsuitable employees in Asia. Our services are all conducted ethically and legally. Although employee screening in Asia is conducted more regularly these days on executives, major foreign corporations are still slow to understand that the necessity of protecting themselves against applicants with fraudulent backgrounds and bad habits is just as material in Asia as it is at home.

Our experts are skilled in ferreting out information, such as educational and professional qualifications; civil or criminal litigation records; drug or alcohol problems; and links to criminal gangs or other bad actors.
I-OnAsia’s Employee Screening services are customized to meet our clients’ needs. We are dedicated to helping them reduce the risk of doing business in Asia.

Back to top

Leaders understand you are only as good as your weakest link.

“Everything is made in China these days” — a quote often heard virtually anywhere in the world. Labor is cheap, and there’s plenty of it. Contract manufacturers make production easy — sometimes too easy. I-OnAsia is actively involved with clients who are interested in manufacturing products in Asia but require a thorough survey before entering an agreement. When determining whether a client understands enough about a contract manufacturer,

I-OnAsia suggests they ask themselves:

• Have you visited the factory, or just seen the website?
• Is the company on solid ground or on the verge of bankruptcy?
• Is it a glorified sweatshop?
• Does your potential partner have a reputation for stealing IP?
• Are turnarounds quick, or do they have weeklong delays because
  of electricity shortages?

I-OnAsia is prepared to deliver the answers to these questions and many more, including such information as how the contract manufacturer intends to comply with special Regulatory Requirements; provide security controls to prevent IPR theft and counterfeit; and ensure Quality Control.

Back to top

Leaders know that if you are going to forge any kind of lasting partnership, it is wise to take the time to understand what’s driving the other side.

I-OnAsia offers clients a series of in-depth, due diligence services, of which many are performed in order to look closely at a given company in Asia to consider potential acquisition. Typically this is for venture capital companies and foreign direct investors. In other cases, due diligence is requested to examine a specific company’s status in China and acquire financial, technical or other information to be used for internal purposes. I-OnAsia believes that there are two important elements in performing a fruitful due diligence in Asia: 1) accessing the right information, and 2) producing accurate results. Here is a partial list of I-OnAsia’s due diligence services:

• Officers and Directors background and reputation checks
• Sources of funding
• Litigation
• Licenses, Filings & Reports, regulatory approvals and relationships
• Corporate control and organizational structures
• Contracts and Arrangements, along with how they are upheld
• Properties and Leases
• Intellectual Property
• Vendor and Distributor Relationships
• Environmental and Related Matters
• Labor Law Compliance
• Customers

Venture Capital
Leading private equity and hedge fund managers know that they are investing in other leaders, and that one bad partner can destroy any hope of distributing returns.

I-OnAsia has been assisting some of Asia’s largest venture capital funds conduct due diligence operations on potential investees. We also assist general partners choose reliable hedge fund managers.

To help clients determine the viability of a business deal, a large portion of any I-OnAsia due diligence assignment involves interviewing people. I-OnAsia also searches Asian databases for critical financial and legal information about prospective partners; interviewing key people in leadership roles; performing assessments of IP rights, obtaining independent feedback on key assumptions; providing data on key operational risks to a particular industry; assessing the competition; and even examining physical security. At the conclusion, we provide our clients with an accurate, impartial report of our findings.

Back to top