A European advanced-materials company considers establishing production operations in Japan. The raw material, carbon fibre waste generated by Japanese industry, cannot be exported under Basel Convention constraints. The firm must produce locally to access the input. But whether the operation is viable depends on a question no market study can answer: whether the Japanese manufacturers who generate the waste have a real incentive to supply it rather than valorise it themselves, and are willing to do so.
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SDI delivers a go/no-go recommendation, grounded in direct engagement with local industrial actors. The assessment builds on SDI's capacity to understand the industrial logic and regulatory constraints of the model, and to demonstrate to Japanese partners that the client's operations serve their interests rather than compete with them.

A European fintech has built a profitable cashback and loyalty platform around a model enabled by PSD2, which gives third-party applications access to bank transaction data. The company is expanding internationally, beginning with the United States. Japan, despite its scale and advanced payments landscape, remains outside the roadmap, not because it has been rejected, but because no one has yet determined whether the model can work there at all.

Japan's open banking regime does not replicate PSD2. Access to transaction data depends on bank-by-bank agreements, while the payments ecosystem is fragmented across cards, transit systems, QR platforms, telecom operators, and retailer-led point schemes that operate largely as closed loops.

SDI delivers a go/no-go assessment built on a deep understanding of the business model and the ability to test its assumptions through strategic conversations with industry and institutional actors, at the level where the real answers lie.

A Japanese mid-sized manufacturer has been discussing international expansion for years. It appears in every mid-term plan. Delegations have attended trade fairs. JETRO has been consulted. A trading house once proposed a partnership in Southeast Asia. Nothing came of it. There was always a reason to wait: the team was not ready, the domestic market might recover, the timing was not right.
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Now something has shifted. A major domestic client has reduced orders. A competitor that expanded abroad two years ago is winning contracts with better margins. The president wants to move. The board, for the first time, is serious. But the company has no international experience, no framework for choosing where to go, and no way to distinguish between the opportunities that are now arriving from all sides: an advisor recommending Europe, a trading house pushing Southeast Asia, a former distributor proposing West Africa. Each comes with projections. Each comes with assumptions. And none has an interest in recommending that the firm stay home and prepare before deploying capital abroad.
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SDI provides what the firm's international lead cannot produce alone: an assessment grounded in direct access to the institutional and commercial actors in each target market, and in its cross-border experience to know which opportunity fits this specific company and which does not. The recommendation may be to move, to wait, or to prepare first. But it is built on substance leadership can fully trust, not on projections from parties with an interest in the answer.

A Japanese technology company has scaled successfully in its domestic market. The product is proven, the business is profitable, and the founder is considering international expansion beginning with Europe or the United States. There is no shortage of encouragement. Trade promotion agencies offer introductions. Ecosystem facilitators propose acceleration programmes. Foreign chambers of commerce present market overviews. Local advisors recommend entry strategies. Each has something to offer. None has an interest in recommending that the company wait, reconsider, or choose a different market. And none evaluates which market environment is actually optimal for the company's specific model, as opposed to simply the most visible or the most welcoming.
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The founder may sense this. But the decision to commit resources abroad is not his alone. The board must approve the investment. Investors want assurance that the chosen market in the right one. The bank financing the expansion needs a basis for confidence that no startup advisor or ecosystem partner can provide.
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SDI delivers what the decision chain actually requires: an independent assessment of whether the target market is viable for this specific company, under what conditions, and at what cost — produced by professionals whose institutional credibility speaks to the board, the investors, and the bank in a language they trust.