Global Agenda Council
on Emerging Multinationals
Issue Overview
As companies from emerging markets deal with extremely competitive environments in their
home countries, they expand abroad in an attempt to secure resources and to better serve
foreign demand. These new, emerging enterprises have already become new poles of business
excellence, which they achieved with inspiring leadership and innovative approaches to
traditional and tough problems.
The largest emerging multinationals – from China, India, Brazil and other emerging markets – are
increasingly challenging traditional enterprises. Some first-generation emerging economies, such
as South Korea, Hong Kong SAR and Taiwan, have even become net foreign direct investment
(FDI) exporters, a position traditionally reserved for developed countries.
In a world of global competition, where companies face the need to shift from a traditional
productivity-and-costs model to one that is equally focused on creativity and innovation,
emerging multinationals have the advantage of having been created with innovation at their core.
In addition, large and rapidly-growing domestic markets give them the space and funds to invest
easily abroad. Many of them have access to advantageous financing, and some are familycontrolled, public companies, in which decision-making is facilitated.
Emerging multinationals can become a bridge to the advanced economies by promoting
responsible business practices at home. Leaders of many of these companies understand the
positive role business must play in their societies, which helps to build trust with policy-makers
and the public.
S.D. Shibulal,
Chief Executive
Officer and
Managing
Director, Infosys,
India
Did You Know?
—— FDI outflows from developing and transition economies have rapidly increased from US$ 12
billion in 1990 to nearly US$ 457 billion in 2011, which is equivalent to 25.1% of the world
total.1
—— Among the top 500 multinationals worldwide, 202 companies are from developing countries
as of 2012, compared with only 19 in 1990.2
—— India and China together are projected to account for 42% of the total number of new
multinationals established over the next 15 years.3
Further Resources
Calendar
Khanna, Tarun and Palepu, Krishna. Winning in
Emerging Markets: A Road Map for Strategy and
Execution. Boston: Harvard Business School
Publishing, 2010
24-25 June 2012, Global India Business Meeting,
Antwerp, Belgium
13-15 March 2013, Emerging Markets Summit,
Istanbul, Turkey
http://wetware.blogspot.ch/
http://blogs.hbr.org/quelch/
Gupta, A.K., and Wang, H. Getting China and
India Right. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009
1
UNCTAD, 2012.
2
Fortune Global 500, 2012.
3
PricewaterhouseCoopers, Emerging Multinationals 2010.
24-27 June 2013, SuperReturn Emerging Markets
2013, Geneva, Switzerland
March 2013, BRICs Summit, South Africa
Reuben
Abraham,
Executive
Director, Centre
for Emerging
Markets
Solutions, Indian
School of
Business, India
Subramanian
Rangan,
The Abu Dhabi
Crown Prince
Court Endowed
Chair in Societal
Progress,
INSEAD, France
There is no good time for
transformation but if you
don’t do it, you will not
survive. Change is hard
for people; you are
resetting expectations;
you are recreating
processes; you are
changing people’s
aspirations. But look at
the history of corporates
in the world – whatever
makes you successful
today is not going to
make you successful
tomorrow.
You can’t redistribute
poverty, you can only
redistribute wealth. And
the only agent of society
that can create wealth is
business. Therefore the
focus should be squarely
on business and the
creation of wealth, which
unfortunately along the
way we seem to have
forgotten.
At the enterprise level
there has been a shift
from the broad view that
performance means
profitable growth, the
mantra of the 1980s and
1990s, to a broader
definition of sustainable
profitable growth.
Global Agenda Council
on Emerging Multinationals
Members
S. D. Shibulal, Chief Executive
Officer and Managing Director,
Infosys, India
*Reuben Abraham, Executive
Director, Centre for Emerging
Markets Solutions, Indian School
of Business, India
*Mauro F. Guillén, Zandman
Professor of International
Management, Wharton School,
University of Pennsylvania, USA
*Subramanian Rangan, The Abu
Dhabi Crown Prince Court
Endowed Chair in Societal
Progress, INSEAD, France
Carlos Alvarez, Deputy Director,
OECD Development Centre,
Organisation for Economic
Co-operation and Development
(OECD), France
*Anil Gupta, Michael Dingman
Chair in Global Strategy and
Entrepreneurship, University of
Maryland, USA
Rashad R. Kaldany, Acting
Executive Vice-President and Chief
Executive Officer, International
Finance Corporation (IFC), USA
*Tarun Khanna, Jorge Paulo
Lemann Professor, Harvard
Business School, USA
*Confirmed participation in the Summit on the Global Agenda 2012
Liu Jiren, Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer, Neusoft
Corporation, People’s Republic of
China
John A. Quelch, Dean, China
Europe International Business
School (CEIBS), People’s Republic
of China
*David C. Michael, Senior Partner
and Managing Director, Boston
Consulting Group, People’s
Republic of China
Anand P. Raman, Editor-at-Large,
Harvard Business Review, USA
*David Munro, Chief Executive,
Corporate and Investment
Banking, Standard Bank Group
Limited, South Africa
Christopher Rodrigues, Chairman,
International Personal Finance,
United Kingdom
Maria Ramos, Group Chief
Executive, Absa, South Africa
*Jean-Marie Péan, Chairman, Bain
& Company, United Arab Emirates
*Shantanu Prakash, Chairman and
Managing Director, Educomp
Solutions, India
*Ruben K. Vardanian, President,
Troika Dialog, Co-Head, Corporate
Investment Unit and Head, Wealth
Management, Sberbank, Russian
Federation
Council Insights
The Global Agenda Council on Emerging Multinationals, in
collaboration with the Council on Youth Unemployment, launched
TEN Youth, a pilot initiative aimed at urgently addressing youth
unemployment by creating a new approach to talent development
for the private sector. The key objectives of TEN Youth are to assist
enterprises in accessing new talent, facilitate career development
for the young and build trust between the private sector and young
people.
The initiative calls on all multinational corporations to leverage their
vast capabilities and resources to meet the global challenge of
youth unemployment, emphasizing that if emerging and established
multinationals can lean forward on this challenge, their supply chain
and channel partners might well be inspired to follow.
Enterprises taking part in the initiative pledge to employ and mentor
10 previously unemployed young people in roles that offer career
opportunities for at least two years. They commit to eventually hiring
these youths in a full-time role or assisting with their placement in
another company. The goal of TEN Youth is to reach 80% or greater
retention of these employees after two years.
Selected companies from among the Members of the Global
Agenda Council on Emerging Multinationals – including Aramex,
Educomp Solutions and Infosys – became the first enterprises
to participate in this pilot. At the World Economic Forum Annual
Meeting 2012, multinational corporations such as Hilton and DHL
also joined up. The Council’s ambitious goal is to engage up to
1,000 emerging and established enterprises in TEN Youth by the
end of 2012.
In addition to taking forward its initiative on youth unemployment,
in the coming term the Global Agenda Council on Emerging
Multinationals aims to:
– focus on the issue of innovation by emerging multinationals
– explore factors that explain the success or failure of emerging
multinationals in the transfer and integration of capabilities in
cross-border expansion, whether South-South, South-North or
North-South
Education &
Skills
Advanced
Manufacturing
Fostering
Entrepreneurship
Social
Innovation
Latin
America
Data-Driven
Development
Emerging
Multinationals
Africa
Competitiveness
Urbanization
India
China
Anti-Corruption
Fragile
States
Human
Rights
Contact Information
Research Analyst: Rigas Hadzilacos, Global Agenda Councils,
[email protected]
Council Manager: Lyuba Nazaruk, Associate Director, Communications Strategy
and Transformation, [email protected]
Forum Lead: Martina Gmür, Senior Director, Head of the Network of Global
Agenda Councils, [email protected]