EMERGING MARKETS

In the following section, the focus on the business intelligence report is a review of the most promising emerging markets for your company. In this section, a review of the advantages and drawbacks of India, China, Russia, Africa and the Next 11 will be given hereafter.

If many observers do consider Emerging Markets are not as attractive as there were in the past decade, they miss the big point. As Mc Kinsey (2016) revealed it, emerging markets companies have reached the critical size thanks to an aggressive policy of revenues increase, they can from now on improve their efficiency through constant restructuring. As such the demand dependency will be lower for them…

But the necessity for developed markets companies to expand internationally remains. Therefore the focus on emerging markets should prevail.

India with Modi at his head offers the most promising growth in the world. On top of that the relatively low GDP/capita, inferior to 2.000 USD, enables a powerful lever in activities based on volume. However, entering the South Asia giant market remains as difficult as it was at Alexander the Great times if you expand without guidelines. Administrative duties, protectionism and uncertainties such as the demonetization in November 2016 can be considered as inhibitors even though India will be the most numerous country in 2020 with its fantastic workforce in IT and management. India remains country number 1 in the world for BPO, Offshoring and outsourcing… in always more valuable aspects of the supply chain of any industry.

On the other hand, China seems to experiment a lower growth in the last years after three decades of a Chinese miracle. However, the Middle Empire brings security to investor in terms of infrastructure and foreign direct investment. The great uncertainty concerning China will be to check out until what extent Xi Jinping Government will be able to pave the way to a policy that will provoke an increase of the internal demand without the initial back up of foreign firms that fled due to the increasing labour cost. Not surprisingly, Chinese FMCG took some advance in that sense compared to developed firms (FT, 2017), .

At last, it happened. Africa is no more considered as the lost continent. Maybe not as a new Eldorado pero many opportunities arise as BRIC powers challenge always more traditional powers in place (). If commodities remain the most seeked resources, the willingness to enhance local demand is always more patent in countries such as South Africa, Nigeria, Morocco, Kenya and Ivory Coast. Now, finding out the right agent and maneuvering through geopolitical upheavals require the support of a local specialist.

The Russian Federation seems less attractive with the embargo and the conflict in Ukraine and Syria. However, the organization of the football World Cup in 2018 can enlighten perspectives for companies in the infrastructure as well as for companies providing high customer experience. Moreover, being within Russia can provide your company a huge opportunity in terms of access to all Eurasian markets. Now, Russia is not a country for rookies in terms of export. It required financial muscle and constant guidance to avoid possible tricks. However, never forget that Russia can become the bigger market for the EU in twenty years. If this opportunity had not been given by EU to Germany at the end of WWII, EU would be far less powerful day as recently..

Or will the Next 11 be the surprise in terms of successful hubs to operate for companies eager to thrive in these countries?...