If you’re a fast-growing company in an emerging economy, you need a strategy for competing in your home market in the short term. But you also need a longer-term strategy that will help you grow beyond that initial market.says the challenge is building both strategies simultaneously. Jullens is a longtime management consultant who specializes in corporate and business unit strategy.
JOHN JULLENS: No, I don’t really think so. I think what’s happening with emerging markets right now is mostly driven by the investment community. And so I think it is hot money that’s been flowing in and now out of emerging markets. The way that’s impacted different emerging markets has been different.
And I think that’s very important because the strategy and the capabilities that are required to be a successful pioneer– So things like a bold vision, risk tolerance, flexibility, speed, and so on are, of course, not the same as what you need to do to catch up to world class competitors, which is much more around a systematic process of developing capabilities to compete with those competitors in your home market and elsewhere.
ANDY O’CONNELL: Do you see a certain predictable set of stages or development of these large corporations for emerging markets as they go through their growing pains? ANDY O’CONNELL: And are you seeing the same patterns repeated in other parts of the world? I know you’re very focused on China. But are you seeing the same patterns in South America, in other parts of Asia?
So I think in the first stage, it’s all about, can I spot the opportunity to begin with, can I capitalize on that, and can I sort of navigate all of these gaps and voids– some people call them institutional voids– that are out there. And local companies are, of course, much better able to do this.