Companies based in small or developing countries tend to earn their success the hard way, and that rough schooling has made them formidable competitors. These aggressive firms are making a big impression on global markets. Mittal Steel, for example, is the world’s number one steel producer, and its Indian owner, Lakshmi Mittal, is one of the world’s richest men. Cemex (Mexico) is number three in cement. AmBev (Brazil) merged with Interbrew (Belgium) and became InBev; today, InBev and SAB (originally from South Africa) are the two largest suppliers of beer in the world. The trend goes beyond these mature industries: Embraer (Brazil), Wipro (India), and Lenovo (China) are all leaders in their high-tech fields—airplanes, software and IT services, and personal computing, respectively.
Strategy Lessons from Left Field
Companies based in small or developing countries tend to earn their success the hard way, and that rough schooling has made them formidable competitors. These aggressive firms are making a big impression on global markets. Mittal Steel, for example, is the world’s number one steel producer, and its Indian owner, Lakshmi Mittal, is one of […]
Summary.
Reprint: F0704A
Rough schooling helps multinationals from small or developing countries become formidable global competitors.
A version of this article appeared in the April 2007 issue of Harvard Business Review.