How It All Began

In 1999, THE STRATEGY EXPERT®’s founder/CEO (Scott Romeo) was working on a PPP project for the government of Vietnam. The country of Vietnam had recently completed a Need’s Assessment and determined that it needed 2.4 million small houses and 50,000 four-room classroom schools. Mr. Romeo was asked to identify potential US partners in the modular/SIP (structured insulated panel) industries who might be interested in helping to fulfill this need. 

While working with a manufacturer in Houston, Texas, one evening Mr. Romeo met Mr. Suniti Varma, a management consultant from New Delhi, India, who was working on a project for his firm and staying in the same hotel as Mr. Romeo. The two walked over to the lobby bar, shared a drink, and quickly discovered that they were both management consultants and both members of an international management consulting association. Their discussions continued over dinner where they discovered they had similar strategic approaches and philosophies on consulting and client engagements. Thus, a friendship was born. 

Over the next few years, they continued to build upon their friendship. On two occasions when Mr. Varma was in Canada working on engagements, Mr. Romeo traveled to Toronto to meet with him. 

In the meantime, Mr. Romeo was also traveling to Southeast Asia, working with over a dozen companies looking to expand throughout the Asian marketplace via strategic alliances and joint ventures. 

Over the past 20+ years, they have continued to nurture and grow their friendship and grow their consulting practices. Mr. Varma has been to Phoenix and Mr. Romeo has traveled to India on multiple occasions to help introduce US companies to potential India partners. In 2012 Mr. Romeo attended the 2nd India ASEAN Business Fair & Business Conclave in New Delhi as a Delegate. They even took one US executive to the Taj Mahal as part of a relationship building trip.  

Today, these two gentlemen and their firms lead the collaborative efforts to help US companies form strategic alliances, joint ventures, mergers, acquisitions, technology transfers and/or license agreements.  Their collective teams have financial, legal, cultural, business and management experts in both countries who can help companies on both sides develop and implement their strategic relationships. And while the collaboration has grown to include other consulting firms and global financial institutions, these two gentlemen and their respective teams continue to lead the efforts on projects large and small that deal with cross-cultural relationships.