Technology Leaders Talk: The Seductive Promise of Emerging Markets

Emerging markets—in particular, China, India, Russia and Brazil—are experiencing explosive economic growth and attracting attention from organizations in all industries. Whether CIOs today consider these markets as a new customer base, a competitive challenge or a labor pool, it's clear that they are becoming a force to be reckoned with. Here, Accenture's technology leaders share their perspectives on the promises—and perils—of these fast-growing markets.

	Don Rippert, chief technology officer I often hear a seductive bit of logic about emerging markets and their ability to leapfrog mature markets in terms of technology. For example, there's been a lot of talk about these markets leading the adoption of wireless, but when you look at the actual leaders, it's the countries you would expect—the ones with established infrastructures. While emerging markets may move through the standard technology adoption patterns much quicker, I don't believe that puts them in a position to surpass. I see emerging markets as a key piece of a long-term growth strategy—a strategy that requires a lot of thought around issues such as governance and cultural differences. Companies need to find the right balance between global oversight and local economy, and they need to determine if they will view these markets as a labor pool or as a customer base. India, for example, has been seen as a key labor source but I believe there is plenty of demand and opportunities to sell there as well. And, while much of the focus has been on China, I think that India in particular, along with Russia and Brazil, offer huge growth opportunities.
	Frank Modruson, chief information officer Emerging markets are already re-shaping global organizations such as Accenture—for instance, India will soon surpass the United States in having the largest number of Accenture employees. But single-country companies are also seeing emerging markets open up opportunities, namely to move functions offshore with a trusted provider, lowering cost and enabling them to focus on their core business. The thing that will make or break an emerging market is infrastructure. Does the country have an infrastructure that can support a global market? Is there a talented labor pool available to drive growth? These are issues our IT organization grapples with every day as we look to grow our business or help clients grow theirs in these emerging markets. In China, for example, one adjustment we made when planning for growth there was building extra capacity upfront because the lead times for network capacity were long. Now we are hitting critical mass with the infrastructure, so we are focusing on people. Our goal is to always use local people in combination and directly connected to global resources. There is a lot of excitement around emerging markets right now—the trick is to stay just ahead of the curve and try to anticipate demand without stretching too far into the future.
	Gary Curtis, chief technology strategist Emerging markets are a reality for every company, and they force all of our clients to globalize their core capabilities. Most emerging markets are large, in population scale, and many have hyper-growth economies. These forces present important new market opportunities for every global company, as well as strong competition for established companies in terms emerging economies’ commodity and skilled labor capabilities. Companies in developed economies also have a lot to learn from emerging markets. The combination of large, rapidly developing populations and today’s modern technologies is changing the way societies develop and, especially, how businesses are developing to serve them. For example, some experts predict that China’s burgeoning population will bypass the “PC era” altogether and be an exclusively mobile technology culture. How to do business in such a culture will be challenging for every global company’s business model, not to mention its IT capability.