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Im afraid I have to agree with the negative comments, chances are its going to be a complete disaster. But I ignored similar advice once and had a great time! :D

My suggestions (SEA exp):

- Brief your CEO on how she should introduce you. She should big up your background, your skills, your accomplishment. Make it clear your here to help. And if she is good she will pitch it in a way where your not appearing as a firefighter or saviour.

- Start by telling everyone how unbelievably good they were to get as far as they did. Its likely they were working their asses off at bad salaries and poor communications. The last thing they need to hear is how wrong they are getting it.

- The things you mention about hierarchy is ridiculously dependant on geography. The right thing to do in Bangladesh could be the absolute worst thing you could do in Indonesia. Both are hierarchical, but in extremely different ways. You need location specific advice!

- On the actual improvements just do whatever is practical to ship the product. Try to see why they were tripping up on the basics and help them sort it. If its extremely poor skills get your CEO to cough up and start bringing on good guys to help teach. If its because people are pissed ease off the pressure and improve the working environment.

A final note. Of the dozens of foreign owned companies in developing countries I have encountered - I cant remember a single time a bad dev team was not as the result of poor management. Typically from the foreign component or their direct reports. Skills can be improved but only in the right environment.




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