That is the "official" explanation given by the consulting industry. The reality though is that institutional ownership structure and board composition are very different in ASEAN compared to US/EU and this in turn present rather different market dynamics.

I was in this industry for many years serving the European and Asian markets as well. The reality is that most consultancies were charging outrageous amounts for relatively simple work that was pretty turnkey once you figured out the methodology initially.

As ownership tends to be disperse and separation of powers between directors is more entrenched in US/EU governance, the decision makers were more inclined to pay whatever amounts consultants asked for as long as it is a reputable third party with an independent opinion which they can sell to all the shareholders.

My managing partner has always remarked privately that we were more in the insurance business than a consulting one. Our role was really to provide insurance to directors and executives that what they were doing was in line with industry best practices and any strategy screw up must by definition be due to 'unforeseen circumstances' rather than their own incompetency.

ASEAN businesses on the other hand are far more owner driven and usually have a government entity, individual or a group of strongmen dictating the running of the business. Board and excos are more formality and everyone knows who exactly the real apex decision maker is. Minority shareholders either accept and go along with the system or exit their positions. There really is nothing much they can do to influence any key strategic decision.

Under such context, these dominant owners naturally are not inclined to overpay huge amounts for supposed expert advise to validate what internally they have already decided on. The usual tactic these guys deploy is to invite multiple consultancies to the tender process, dangle a potential contract carrot to keep them coming back for engagement, pick up a few latest industry buzz words and trends from their presentations and either subsequently dump them or squeeze project terms when they feel confident enough.

I would view Western and ASEAN more as a different competitive landscape rather than there is some sort of inherent lack of intelligence/sophistication in ASEAN business executives that cause them not to recognize the value of paying for "expert advice".