A few months ago, I found myself spending four nights in a public hospital in Vietnam.

Not an experience I would have chosen—but one I’m ultimately grateful for.

Because it gave me something that’s surprisingly rare in business:
a genuine, unfiltered view of how a system actually works.

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The Experience

When you operate in a market—especially one that is not your home market—it’s very easy to see what you expect to see.

Modern buildings.
Professional staff.
Familiar processes.

And from that, to conclude:
“I understand how this market works.”

But reality often sits somewhere else entirely.

In the hospital, I saw:

• Families deeply involved in patient care
• Processes that relied on personal responsibility rather than institutional structure
• A system that functioned effectively—but very differently from Western expectations

None of this is visible from the outside.

You only see it when you are inside the system.

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The Business Parallel

This is where the lesson becomes relevant for business owners.

Too many strategic decisions are made based on:

• Surface-level observations
• Second-hand research
• Conversations with people who operate at the edges of the system

Instead of asking:

How does this market really work when you are inside it?

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Where This Goes Wrong

I’ve seen this repeatedly in my work with MNCs and SMEs expanding internationally.

Companies assume:

• Customers behave the same way
• Distribution works the same way
• Decision-making follows familiar patterns

And then they are surprised when:

• Sales don’t materialise
• Partnerships underperform
• Pricing doesn’t land

The issue isn’t execution.

It’s understanding.

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What Real Market Understanding Requires

If you want to truly understand a market, you need to go beyond what you are shown.

That means:

• Observing behaviour, not just listening to explanations
• Spending time where your customers actually operate
• Being willing to feel uncomfortable or out of place
• Questioning assumptions that feel “obvious”

In short:

You need to experience the system, not just analyse it.

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What This Means for Business Owners

If you are entering a new market—or even reassessing your current one—ask yourself:

• Am I seeing what is real, or what is presented to me?
• Have I observed how customers actually behave?
• Do I understand how decisions are really made?
• Where might my assumptions be wrong?

Because the difference between success and failure often sits in that gap.

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Four nights in a hospital wasn’t part of any strategic plan.

But it reinforced something I’ve seen time and again:

The most valuable insights rarely come from reports or presentations.
They come from being close enough to reality to see how things actually work.