Do the old ways still work?

Recently I started reading a book about branding in Asia and the one of the comparisons made by the writer between the Asian business and ones in the West was the fact that the Asian business entrepreneur does not see branding efforts as investments but rather as “cost” items with promised returns far into the future. So the Asian business person tends to stinge on branding activities. One other point made was the brand owner could do so much more in promoting their own brand – it costs less and has higher authenticity. The passion the owner has towards their brand/product would be more evident. The writer of the book I’m reading attributed this behaviour to the fact that Asians are shy and prefer to remain low key. Given the fast moving changes sweeping the business world, can we afford to stick to the ways of old, ways that have proven their worth (in the past…) but which may be anachronistic or downright outdated to meet the challenges posed by the world today? Is there still a place for Asian business conservatism? Could this explain the old belief that an Asian business (particular the family variety) will not last beyond the third generation? What do you think?