Own the Future: 50 Ways to Win from The Boston Consulting Group

Chapter 7

The New Global Challengers

Marcos Aguiar, Arindam K. Bhattacharya, Thomas Bradtke, David C. Michael, Tenbite Ermias, Whitney Haring-Smith, David Lee, Michael Meyer, Andrew Tratz, Masao Ukon, and Bernd Waltermann

Emerging markets have become the world's economic engines. They are large and becoming larger, thanks to annual GDP growth exceeding 6 percent and a rapidly growing class of consumers with disposable income.

These markets have become highly prized by companies everywhere, not just for their growth, but also as sources of talent, capital, and companies. Over the past five years, nearly 1,000 public companies headquartered in emerging markets have reached at least $1 billion in annual sales.

Many of these companies are content to focus on their home market, while others are expanding abroad; many of those going overseas aspire to be global leaders in their industries. These are the global challengers. They are the companies that will shape the global economy over the next decade.

The 2013 BCG global challengers have moved far beyond the low-cost position that placed many of them on the original 2006 list. These 100 companies are winning with a broad range of strategies and capabilities. In doing so, they are fundamentally altering industries ranging from aircraft manufacturing and medical devices to e-commerce and mobile telephony.

Not just competitors of multinationals, global challengers can be attractive potential customers. In 2011, the 2013 BCG global challengers ...