KTN is a Belgian-based logistics firm that over the last decade has successfully expanded throughout the world. Its growth strategy has been based on an innovative approach to organisational and HRM issues, and a business model that emphasises value-added, high tech services. The specific context of the case is KTN's recent entry into Thailand and the next logical place for expansion is China.

The case illustrates the effects of the Asian currency crisis on a diversified Thai conglomerate, the Champaca group. It describes the efforts of its founder, an ethnic Chinese entrepreneur, to save his group by restructuring his debts and, in a culture where western-style downsizing is not acceptable, find a way of cutting his workforce.

In 1993 Thailand’s Champaca, a major Asian trading company, was attracted to the newly opened Russian market. A promising deal to supply canned fruits (pineapple) produced by a local Thai company, Pinco, was waked out. A series of mistakes and unforeseen circumstances caused the deal to collapse with serious losses for Champaca.