Andy Lee: Local for local – before it was necessary

Andy Lee, Körber site: Singapore 

When I joined Körber almost 20 years ago, all our service engineers in Southeast Asia were based in two places: Singapore and Malaysia. 

It worked. 
Until it didn’t. 

Our region spans half the globe — Australia, Bangladesh, Cambodia, Fiji, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Papua New Guinea, Pakistan, Taiwan, Thailand, Vietnam.  

Distances were long. 
Response times depended on flights. 
And every solution started far away from the customer.  

Around 2012, we took a different approach: 
local for local. 

Not as a slogan. 
As a direction.  

Engineers closer to customers. 
Teams operating directly in local markets.  

At first, it felt complicated. 
Different cultures. 
Different holidays. 
Different realities.  

And honestly — it raised questions. 
Even fears. 
What would this mean for our location? 
Would we still be needed?  

The answer:
We grew. 

Then COVID happened.

Borders closed. 
Planes stopped. 
And suddenly, what once felt “complex” became essential.  

Because we already had people on the ground. 
Because machines still had to run. 
Because customers couldn’t wait for global mobility to return.  

Local teams kept things running. 

In that moment, it became clear: 
The decision we had made back then made the difference. 

“Local for local” has become established. 
It is now part of how we work. 

You can’t predict the next crisis. 
But we can decide how well we are prepared when it happens.