The 86 Percent Solution: How to Succeed in the Biggest Market Opportunity of the Next 50 Years

Chapter 5. Think Young

While the developed world is facing a crisis of aging, the 86 percent markets are a fountain of youth—although these youth may be different from their peers in developed countries. To understand this opportunity, companies have to think young.

Ramin looks across the table at his fiancée, Sogol, as they sip a morning cappuccino in a chic café in Tehran. She is careful not to get foam on the bandage on her nose, where she recently had plastic surgery. She adjusts her beautifully colored chador as she looks at Ramin. They are planning to go skiing next weekend at a resort in the Alborz Mountains in the north. He hopes she will be up to it. Ramin is just about to ask how she is recovering when his cellular phone vibrates. It ...