Book description
In this vital book, visionary international investment manager Antoine
van Agtmael -- the pioneer who coined the term "emerging
markets" -- pulls back the curtain on the new powerhouses of the
world economy. Picking up where Thomas Friedman's
The World Is Flat
left off, he persuasively demonstrates that the world's center of
gravity is already tipping decisively in favor of the emerging
economies. With this seismic shift, competitive challenges and
investment risks are also being dramatically transformed, while new
opportunities are arising for those who are alert to them.
A new breed of world-leading companies are catching their Western
competitors off guard. Household names of today -- IBM, Ford, Sony,
and Shell -- are in danger of becoming has-beens as these more
innovative new superstars in the emerging markets claim dominance.
Understanding how they have become world-class market leaders, and
where they are taking the world economy, is crucial to understanding
not only the future of globalization, but the future of Western
competitiveness.
Each year we are buying more planes from Brazil's Embraer,
refrigerators from China's Haier appliance maker, smart cell phones
from Taiwan's HTC, and gas from Russia's Gazprom. How have these
relative unknowns come so far in the world markets so fast? What are
they doing right that their Western competitors are doing wrong, and
how can Western companies face the intensifying challenges and
survive?
With in-depth, inside knowledge of these emerging powerhouses that's
based on his thirty years of working, traveling, and investing in
emerging markets and his extraordinary access to the leading
companies, van Agtmael trains his experienced analyst's eye on
twenty-five of the top emerging giants, taking readers into the
executive suites and labs where they are outmaneuvering their Western
rivals. Profiling these major players, such as Korea's Samsung
Electronics, China's computer maker Lenovo, Brazil's iron ore giant
CVRD, and India's Infosys, van Agtmael divulges their strategies for
growth, and analyzes how their rise to dominance will change our
lives. His unique insights point the way to how we in the West can
capitalize on the opportunities these companies represent while also
mobilizing a powerful response to the challenges they present.
The Emerging Markets Century is a compelling and necessary
read for anyone who wants to understand the true magnitude of change
under way in the global economy today.
"The Emerging Markets Century is a
riveting discussion of the new competitive forces in the global
economy...essential reading for anyone who cares about what the world
will look like in the years ahead."
-- Jeffrey Garten, professor, Yale School of Management, and former
undersecretary of commerce
