[博主序：经贝恩咨询公司同意，现摘录下文，以飨读者。作者Satish
Shankar和Vijay Vishwanath在文章中指出了国际跨国公司进军新兴市场成功的5个秘诀：一,控制降低成本；二,本土化；三,全球思维，本地招聘；四,本土并购应有很好的业务相关性；五,建立新兴市场的领导力。目前中国公司大举通过并购或其他方式进入欧美和其它新兴市场，此文对于国内公司应有一定的借鉴作用。］
Winning in emerging
markets
by Satish Shankar and Vijay Vishwanath
Village roads can be impassable, home cooking is
still a way of life, and local products often have generations of
loyal customers. Nevertheless, emerging markets are delivering some
of the strongest growth for global firms despite concerns that
lower prices would translate into lower profits.
Leaders like
Coca-Cola, Unilever, Danone, and Pepsi now earn 9 percent to 15
percent of their total revenues from the three largest emerging
markets in Asia—China, India, and Indonesia. The trend is likely
to continue: the gross domestic product of emerging markets equaled
that of advanced nations for the first time in 2006.
As
growth slows in the mature markets of North America and Western
Europe, some consumer goods companies have figured out how to tap
into the purchasing power of a newly prosperous and growing middle
class in emerging markets. The rewards can be substantial; in some
product categories, growth there is three times that of developed
markets. While each market requires different adaptations, the
emerging market leaders share six common practices. What does it
take to win?
Drive down costs by
entering the mainstream. Originally, multinationals targeted
premium segments with higher profit margins in developing nations.
But leading firms have started selling brands aimed at the masses.
Cosmetics giant L’Oreal took that approach in Eastern Europe,
introducing a line of facial and body-care brands targeting the
mass market, as well as its affordable “luxury” skin-care brands.
Sales in Eastern Europe have grown steadily year to year. In the
first quarter of 2008, L’Oreal’s sales reportedly grew 25.9
percent in Eastern European markets while North American sales
slumped 3.9 percent year over year, and Western European sales grew
by only 2.3 percent.
Localize at every
level. Homegrown competitors have several incumbent advantages,
including consumer loyalty, lower costs, and sympathetic government
regulators. By taking the time to master local complexities,
multinationals can gain a competitive edge. That often requires
fundamental changes to the product offering. Procter & Gamble,
for example, knew that winning over Chinese toothpaste consumers
meant catering to local preferences. After extensive research,
P&G rolled out reformulated versions of its Crest brand in
fruit, tea, and herbal flavors. P&G’s approach to localization
helped boost its share of toothpaste sales from nearly zero in 1997
to 25 percent in 2007.
Develop a “good enough”
cost mentality. In between the traditional high- and low-end
market segments is the large and flourishing market for what we
call good-enough products, offering higher quality than low-end
goods at affordable prices that still generate profits. Feeding the
good-enough market requires that companies keep a tight lid on
costs, taking advantage of used plants, local suppliers, and
outsourcing. Unilever’s India subsidiary, Hindustan Lever,
aggressively managed production, packaging, distribution, and
marketing outlays to help create a low-cost laundry detergent line
to compete with a popular new domestic brand. By hitting the
pricing sweet spot, Hindustan Lever gained a 36 percent market
share in the segment.
Think global, hire
local. Too often, multinationals count on expatriates to guide
their entry into emerging markets. Market leaders cultivate strong
local management teams with market insights that give them an edge
in product design, promotion, and distribution. Empowering local
teams fosters loyalty and develops a talent pool to tap when
entering other emerging markets. Consider P&G, the most
successful consumer products company in China: 98 percent of its
employees are Chinese.
Make sure local
acquisitions have a strong business fit. A strategic
acquisition can accelerate a multinational’s entry into an
emerging market by adding popular local brands to its product
lineup, strengthening its distribution network, and lowering
operating costs. Last July, Coca-Cola acquired Russian beverage
group Aquavision, adding state-of-the-art production capabilities.
The move builds on Coke’s previous purchase of a leading Russian
fruit juice maker, strengthening the multinational’s position in
Eastern Europe’s hotly contested soft-drinks
market.
Build dedicated
emerging-markets capabilities. The leaders approach each
emerging market with strategies crafted to distinguish the
characteristics they find there from established practices they
pursue in developed economies. One UK multinational has a formal
emerging-markets organization separate from its other international
operations. Putting the emerging-markets operation under one tent
sharpens focus and improves managers’ ability to evaluate the
relative risk-return trade-offs across its emerging-markets
portfolio.
For
multinationals, succeeding in emerging markets is essential in
order to defend and increase their share of the global market.
Ultimately, how they fare there is a key indicator of how they’ll
fare everywhere else in the world.
创业板即将推出，我们关注两个事情：第一，是它如何来实施的，具体的操作层面是如何操作的。第二，我们可能从宏观角度更加关心，创业板推出以后，整个创业板的这么一个生态链的或者是价值链的建立。