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July 26, 2006

An invasion by multinationals from the South?

Business_week_coverBusiness Week's cover story details the penetration of US markets by emerging economy firms, like Embraer, Haier and Orascom.  

What makes these upstarts global contenders? Their key advantages are access to some of the world's most dynamic growth markets and immense pools of low-cost resources, be they production workers, engineers, land, petroleum, or iron ore. But these aspiring giants are about much more than low cost. The best of the pack are proving as innovative and expertly run as any in the business, astutely absorbing global consumer trends and technologies and getting new products to market faster than their rivals.

While the article casts the trend as some sort of generalized invasion from the South, it's really only the well-known handful of populous countries whose firms are threatening established players from the West. Of BCG's list of 100 emerging market companies with the most potential to become global powerhouses, only 10 do not hail from Mexico, Brazil, Russia, India or China.

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Hey, nice post! I recently wrote on the same article. If you are interested, you can check it out here: http://www.nextbillion.net/blogs/2006/07/21/globalization-comes-full-circle


Many thanks for checking in, Ethan! Sorry that I didn't see your excellent post in time to include it here.

You wrote - "I suspect that once businesses discover the potential in emerging economies, they will lose interest in the high end niche markets of developed economies." Do you really think so? The trouble with emerging markets is that firms are forced to compete primarily on price. By contrast, in the US/Europe/Japan the purchasing power of the middle and upper classes allows firms to make large profits off of product differentiation and niche marketing.

I agree with you that established multi-nationals who ignore the companies on BCG's list do so at their peril, but I'm less convinced that they'll lose their focus on middle class consumers.


Yeah, perhaps I was being a little too optimistic.


Also see this new report by Deutsche Bank: "Global champions in waiting: Perspectives on China's overseas direct investment"

http://neweconomist.blogs.com/new_economist/2006/08/chinas_champion.html


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