Executive Summary:
With emerging-market giants such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China experiencing slowdowns, investors, entrepreneurs, and multinationals are looking elsewhere. They’ve been eyeing frontier economies such as Nigeria and Pakistan with great interest—and enormous trepidation. Can one find serious growth opportunities amid extreme poverty and a lack of infrastructure and institutions?
The answer, the authors argue, is yes. The key lies in market-creating innovations: products and services that speak to unmet local needs, create local jobs, and scale up quickly. Examples include MicroEnsure, which has made insurance affordable for 56 million people in emerging economies, and Galanz, which has brought microwave ovens to millions of Chinese consumers previously considered too poor to buy such an appliance.
What’s more, the essentials of development can be “pulled in” by market-creating innovators—and over time, governments and financial institutions tend to offer their support.
With emerging-market giants such as Brazil, Russia, India, and China experiencing slowdowns, investors, entrepreneurs, and multinationals are looking elsewhere. They’ve been eyeing frontier economies such as Nigeria and Pakistan with great interest—and enormous trepidation. Can one find serious growth opportunities amid extreme poverty and a lack of infrastructure and institutions?
The answer, the authors argue, is yes. The key lies in market-creating innovations: products and services that speak to unmet local needs, create local jobs, and scale up quickly. Examples include MicroEnsure, which has made insurance affordable for 56 million people in emerging economies, and Galanz, which has brought microwave ovens to millions of Chinese consumers previously considered too poor to buy such an appliance.
What’s more, the essentials of development can be “pulled in” by market-creating innovators—and over time, governments and financial institutions tend to offer their support.
Keywords: Emerging Markets; Market Entry and Exit; Growth and Development Strategy; Demand and Consumers; Innovation and Invention; Development Economics;
Citation:
Christensen, Clayton M., Efosa Ojomo, and Karen Dillon. "Cracking Frontier Markets." Harvard Business Review 97, no. 1 (January–February 2019): 90–101. View Details