Harvard Business Review on Thriving in Emerging Markets

New Business Models In Emerging Markets

Targeting the middle market can be lucrative—but companies won’t be able to deliver unless they start from scratch

by Matthew J. Eyring, Mark W. Johnson, and Hari Nair

RIGHT NOW MORE THAN 20,000 multinationals are operating in emerging economies. According to the Economist, Western multinationals expect to find 70% of their future growth there—40% of it in China and India alone. But if the opportunity is huge, so are the obstacles to seizing it. On its 2010 Ease of Doing Business Index, the World Bank ranked China 89th, Brazil 129th, and India 133rd out of 183 countries. Summarizing the bank’s conclusions, the Economist wrote, “The only way that companies can prosper in these markets is to cut costs relentlessly ...