The street smart enterprise
They say necessity is the mother of invention. The problem for Western businesses is that by comparison they have everything they need in comparison to their emerging economy counterparts
In the West we have relatively reliable infrastructure and our customers often have a disposable mind set – “These shoes still work but they are of no use to me as they are now out of fashion”. So the demand is never ending.
But what about those countries where frugality is the watchword of the buyer; where infrastructure is unreliable and corruption / political instability weighs heavily on business decision making?
For me there is a strong analogy between people who have grown up in an impoverished neighbourhood but have applied their street smartness to the business world with great success.
Organisations that evolve in the emerging economies will find success in the more developed economies something of a cakewalk. Organisations in the West need to either toughen up or prepare to be hustled off the block.