Acknowledgments

Writing a book is hard work, and it could not have been done without the help and support of many colleagues and friends, especially those from our Southeast Asia unit. We would like to thank everyone who has contributed in ways large and small to our book, especially the following:

• We could not have written this book without Cris Prystay, who helped us craft it and put our thoughts into words, and Vu Kim Ngan, who was tireless in doing much of the research, as well as Patricia Sibo, T. Govindasamy, Janice Tan, Gerald Hoe, Jaron Tay, Francine Tan, Bai Zhiyong, and Akrit Soin, who helped out in one way or another in research, graphics, editing, and proofreading.
• We leveraged prior A.T. Kearney white papers, articles, and presentations for the book. Special mention goes to Jürgen Rothenbücher, who is one of our firm’s leading thinkers on M&A and who has written extensively on the topic. There are also many others who have written on ideas we have touched on in this book. They include Joerg Schrottke, Naveen Menon, Martin Handschuh, Badri Veeraghanta, Mui-Fong Goh, Sumit Chandra, Sandra Niewiem, Sebastian Declercq, Phil Dunne, Simon Mezger, Christian Hagen, Pablo Moliner, Marcy Beitle, Arjun Sethi, Jessica Milesko, Alyson Potenza, Chee Wee Gan, Jeffrey Perry, Thomas Herd, Karambir Anand, Jian Li, Francesco Cigala, Kiran Karunakaran, Jason Miller, Tejal Thakkar, Abha Thakkar, Tammy Ku, Adam Qaiser, Rizal Paramarta, and Navin Nathani.
• A few partners and consultants have contributed time and energy to patiently expand on some of the ideas and examples we have incorporated in the book. Besides Chee Wee, Badri, and Karambir, whom we have mentioned above, we would also like to thank Yasushi Kubokawa, Akifumi Hirao, and Saurine Doshi for their contributions.
• Special thanks goes to Nick Melchior, who gave us the opportunity to work with a prestigious publishing firm, and Joon Ooi, who as unit head of Southeast Asia gave us unqualified support for the work.

Finally, this book is a deep collaboration between two authors who have worked closely over the past decade. We would like to give thanks to the large number of business leaders whom we have interacted with over the past decade, and who have helped us understand the world of business and the true essence of competitiveness.