Issue:
The rich and the rest
Fly Title:
Schumpeter
Rubric:
Firms from the developing world are rapidly catching up with their old-world competitors
Location:
Main image:
20110122_wbd000_0.jpg
IT IS remarkable how soon the idea that firms from emerging economies pose a serious threat to multinationals from the rich world has become old hat. “The novelty has become the norm,” concludes the latest annual report on these “new challengers” by the Boston Consulting Group (BCG). But familiarity does not make that threat any less real.
Five years ago, when BCG first reported on the rising stars of the developing world, the rich world was still reeling from the shock of the purchase of IBM's personal-computing business by Lenovo, a Chinese company. That this acquisition proved something of a dud may comfort those in the old guard who suspect that the ambitions of these newcomers to enter the global stage exceed their ability to perform. Yet it has not diminished those ambitions. After a brief fall following the financial crisis ...
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