Articles

The Former CEO of Procafecol on Building a Global Growth Strategy for Juan Valdez Coffee

Procafecol was created in the early 2000s to bring the Juan Valdez brand to retail consumers. The company has recently entered a new stage of global growth, maintaining its strength in Colombia but...

What a Fragmenting Digital Economy Means for Global Competition

Digitalization has reshaped the global economy for 25 years, but emerging forces—from U.S.–China tech rivalry and geopolitics to AI’s uneven impacts—are fragmenting what was once a more unified...

How Chinese Firms Are Saving Western Brands

A growing number of Western consumer brands are regaining momentum after being acquired by emerging‑market owners-often Chinese firms-challenging the assumption that such deals inevitably dilute...

Where the U.S.'s Chip Strategy Is Still Falling Short

Despite major investments in U.S. semiconductor fabrication, critical back-end processes-testing, cutting wafers into individual chips, packaging, and assembly-remain concentrated in Asia, leaving...

For Circular Economy Innovation, Look to the Global South

Most corporate circular economy strategies focus on incremental improvements in products and operations, overlooking transformative innovations emerging from grassroots communities. These local...

Worth Your Time This Week: The Euro Crisis, Van Halen, and Tupperware

The Hidden Cost of Rushing into Emerging Markets

Multinational companies often stumble in emerging markets because they underestimate how long success takes to materialize-a phenomenon known as the temporal optimism trap. Drawing on...

It's Time for Big Investments in the Middle East

2011 will be remembered as the year of the Arab Spring, when a generation found its voice on the streets of Tunis and Cairo. Less discussed is the fact that this political awakening is unfolding...

3 Ways Multinationals Can Invest in China-Without Damaging Their Valuation

Strategies from Anheuser-Busch InBev, Danaher Corporation, and McDonalds.

Recalibrate Your Strategy in China with This Framework

Despite challenges such as mixed policies on foreign investment, renewed tariffs, and economic slowdown, China remains a critical market due to its large economy and growing middle class. To better...

8 Lessons from the Career of Softbank's Masayoshi Son

What his successes - and failures - have to teach other leaders.

How to Build a Strategy for Coming Trade Battles

As they prepare for the coming years likely trade battles, company leaders - particularly CEOs and boards - need to recognize that uncertainty and volatility wont be short-term things; theyre...

What to Know About Using "Employers of Record" to Hire Globally

The benefits - and limits - of using these companies to help you broaden your talent pool.

The End of Banks as We Know Them?

Community financing has been around a long time. Its heyday may now have arrived.

A New Model to Expand Credit Access Globally

Poor consumers in credit-scarce economies are not easy to serve. These borrowers can be vulnerable to shocks, such as natural disasters or illness, and may not be able to provide documentation, like...

Research: How Should Multinational Firms Navigate Local Rules?

A study of five global companies identified tactics to maintain a competitive edge.

How to Support Your Iranian Colleagues

Show support and solidarity.

A Model for Expanding Your Business into Foreign Markets

It used to be thought that globalization would flatten out cultural differences among countries and regions of the world, making it easier than ever for companies to move into foreign markets...

Nigeria's GDP Just Doubled on Paper: What It Means in Practice

Investor interest is likely to increase.

Nigeria's Big Gamble on One Indigenous Entrepreneur

Why global firms struggle in emerging markets.

A U.S. Recession's Soft Impact on China

The liquidity crisis in the United States and the probable downturn in America's economy this year has executives in America and Europe scrambling to design plans to navigate through the crisis. Some...

Is China's Economic Dominance at an Inflection Point?

Six reasons why its position at the top may have been short lived.

Bangladesh's Garment Factories Still Aren't Safe

Consumers haven't demanded change, but some companies are trying to improve conditions anyway.

Is India the World's Next Great Economic Power?

Is Indias economic rise inevitable? Theres good reason to think that this latest round of Indo-optimism might be different than previous iterations, but the country still has major challenges to...

Digital Skills Provide a Development Path for Sub-Saharan Africa

Three policies that will support younger workers - and help scale promising economic opportunities.

The State of Globalization in 2023

Plummeting flows of trade, capital, and people at the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic prompted a wave of speculation about the end of globalization, and Russias invasion of Ukraine brought even...

U.S. corporations are from Mars, Chinese corporations are from Venus

Relations between U.S. and Chinese corporations are increasingly strained. In this article, we examine how differences in the key domains of corporate governance, underlying corporate philosophy,...

The U.S.-India Relationship Is Key to the Future of Tech

As the U.S. becomes more concerned about China, its relationship with India will become more important. This is particularly true in terms of technology. Both countries need to invest in creating a...

Blue Oceans in Outer Space

The void beyond Earth has become an exciting frontier for entrepreneurial ventures. SpaceX, Blue Origin, and scads of other companies are pursuing commercial activities in outer space-launching...

When Best Practices Don't Travel

In a foreign market, do you need to tweak your efforts - or entirely reframe them?

Geopolitics Are Changing. Venture Capital Must, Too.

For decades, the tech industry thrived based on a set of unique macroeconomic and geopolitical conditions. U.S. hegemony, globalization, and cheap money combined to allow tech startups to spread...

We All Work at Enron Now

Remember Enron? That paragon of turn-of-the-century new-economy triumphalism, gushed over by pundits, lauded by investors, celebrated by the cognoscenti - until it turned out to be a roadside bomb in...

Welcome to the Age of Dilemma

Another week, another potentially destabilizing global mini-crisis. This time, it's (yet another) global food crisis: food prices are set to skyrocket and the FAO's food price index is already...

Four Economic Benchmarks We Need Now

Should governments accept the dictates of markets? It's the question raging across the econoverse in the wake of demands for austerity from bondholders. But it's the wrong question. The right...

The Protests and the Metamovement

Across the globe, protests are rippling out like vectors in an epidemic. I believe that we're witnessing the rise of a global Metamovement. The Metamovement is a movement of movements. Not all these...

The New Economics of Business (Or, the Case For Going Great-to-Good)

It's like a neon sign blaring: "EXIT." A gigantic global economic meltdown, possibly leading to a second Great Depression, should illustrate with finality: business as usual is no longer the road to...

Coping With Change in Emerging Markets

Your strategy doesn't have to fall out-of-sync with reality.

Think Global, Not Emerging Markets, Century

Nokia's recent burning platform travails serve as an object lesson to companies trying to navigate a rapidly-changing global economy. As multinational corporations pursue opportunities in emerging...

What the Next Era of Globalization Will Look Like

Rana Forhoohar, a columnist at the Financial Times, makes the case for less global, more local supply chains. In her view, the last few decades of globalization hasnt worked for most people. And more...

The Chinese Market Is More Than Just Its Urban Centers

Multinationals are exiting China in record numbers - and much of this is due to geopolitical uncertainty. But not all failures can be blamed on politics; poor strategic choices are also to blame. Too...

How Women Can Flourish in the Workplace

When I asked last week if women were dissatisfied enough to force change in the corporate world, my post triggered off a global debate. Many participants, thankfully, focused on what we can do to...

The Employability Crisis is a Global Crisis

High quality talent needs to be available across the globe. Unfortunately, this is not currently the case. While there are good examples of some countries putting emphasis on changing their education...

Peak Globalization

Centuries sometimes take a decade or so before their true contours take shape and the 21st is no exception. In an uncanny fashion, the beginning of this century mirrors that of the last - the speed,...

Cracking Hierarchies In Japan After the Tohoku Earthquake

I returned to Tokyo from Kansai late last week, burdened with about 20 liters of water. A friend is pregnant and it has become hard to buy water at local convenience stores and supermarkets in Tokyo...

India's Demographics: Favorable Today, Costly Tomorrow

India's favorable demographics are often touted as one of the major reasons behind the country's growth. Millions of educated Indians under the age of 30 act as the pistons firing in a multi-cylinder...

How to Build a Multilingual, Multicultural Customer Experience

Customer service experience can be a critical business differentiator. Many companies - from American Express to Zappos - have found business value in creating satisfying customer service experiences...

Out of Africa

Recently I worked with five senior managers from a fast-expanding African mobile telecom. They had come to London to discuss strategy and the operational challenges of working across the African...

Navigating Cultures

Leading across cultures is a critical skill in the global world of business. Yet how many managers truly have the ability to motivate multicultural teams or manage international staff? In many ways,...

Dubai: Welcome to the Future

I have just returned from the future. It is a breathtaking place, a global work-in-progress that is drawing people, companies, and ideas into a whirling vortex of opportunities. I had thought that...

Eastern Blocks

London has become a magnet for Eastern Europeans, with around 400,000 Russians and 600,000 others, mostly Polish, working in the capital. From plumbers to energy billionaires, Eastern Europeans can...

India's New Leaders

Young, smart, and focused, Raj is typical of the thousands of Indian students who have enrolled at British and American business schools over the last decade. The 28-year-old civil engineering...