Your Course of Study
World-renowned HBS faculty will lead you through a combination of classroom presentations, workshops, and case discussions that examine untapped opportunities in the world's emerging markets. With a focus on the key differences between mature and developing economies, the program offers versatile frameworks that help you plot the best routes to growth, explore opportunities presented by low-income markets, establish effective operations, and maintain a competitive market position. Curriculum topics include:
Analyzing and Developing Strategies for Emerging Markets
- Formulating your goals for emerging markets
- Evaluating emerging-market opportunities
- Conducting macro-economic analysis to assess the risks and opportunities associated with a given market
- Understanding a market's business environment, including its institutional infrastructure and market mechanisms
- Evaluating product or service needs and related revenue opportunities across the entire spectrum of an emerging market
- Shifting your traditional strategies to address the unique characteristics of emerging markets
- Generating multiple business model options and choosing the one that will provide a sustainable advantage
- Recognizing the market forces compelling countries to adopt certain economic models and adapting your strategy as necessary
- Formulating flexible, customized strategies that maximize responsiveness to local conditions while overcoming market barriers
- Aligning your company's revenue goals with its corporate goals for creating social value
Exploring Opportunities at the Base of the Pyramid
- Examining the needs of a market's population at the base of the socioeconomic pyramid—a widely untapped yet tremendous base of potential purchasing power
- Understanding the commercial viability of products and services targeted at the base of the pyramid
- Adjusting marketing, distribution, product packaging, and financing instruments to meet the needs and requirements of very poor customers
Filling Institutional Voids
- Identifying gaps in core business infrastructure—such as lack of consumer credit systems or holes in the supply chain—which limit successful business operations
- Filling institutional voids and addressing market failures in product, labor, and capital markets
- Developing new capabilities and building potential partnerships or joint ventures to address these gaps and capitalize on market opportunities
- Realizing when institutional voids cannot be filled and determining how this may impact your strategies
Driving Market Success
- Defining a practical go-to-market plan that includes demand generation
- Fostering a new level of product innovation essential to addressing demand in new markets with little precedent for similar products or services
- Establishing talent acquisition and leadership development practices that align with company strategy and local conditions
- Communicating strategy throughout the organization and listening to local feedback
- Anticipating and responding to operational challenges presented by changing local conditions
"Since I am responsible for developing a business in an emerging market, I was focused on improving my knowledge of how companies manage their businesses there. As a Brazilian, I also was curious to understand how participants and faculty compare Brazil with other emerging countries. If you want a better understanding of emerging markets, a highly interactive exchange with faculty and colleagues, and a taste of the famous HBS case method, this is the right program. Be prepared to study a lot, have dynamic discussions in your living group, and enjoy the experience."
Rodrigo Sarac Martineli [Market & Strategic Planning Manager], Hewlett-Packard, Brazil