You are Livia Meier, one week into the job as chief executive of Helvetia Precision Group in Winterthur. The board has handed you Horizon Asia: triple Asia-Pacific revenue in three years, with the first two of four market entries running within twelve months. Before you choose a market, you must say what stands between the committee you inherited and the plan.
The situation
It is February 2026. Helvetia makes high-end measurement and process-control instruments for pharmaceutical, food and semiconductor customers: CHF 2.3 billion of revenue, a 16% EBIT margin and 8,900 people in 14 countries. But 68% of sales come from Europe, 22% from North America and only 10%, CHF 230 million, from Asia-Pacific, while European industrial demand stagnates.
Horizon Asia asks for CHF 690 million from Asia-Pacific within three years, through entries into Japan, South Korea, India and Southeast Asia. A well-capitalised regional competitor is already there, signing up the distributors Helvetia will need.
Your executive committee has nine members. Eight are Swiss or German nationals, seven have spent their whole careers in Helvetia's European organisation, and none has ever run a business in Asia. Two of them were passed over when the board chose you. The committee can grow to twelve seats, and you have CHF 18 million a year for senior hiring and relocation.
You spent six years running the Americas from Chicago, reviving a stagnant division without gutting its culture, but you have never operated in Asia yourself. Your pay is tied to the Asia-Pacific trajectory the board will review at twelve and thirty-six months. Eleven candidates and internal contenders have already asked for a call.