Designers, manufacturers, and vendors are continually trying to extend their reach into “emerging markets,” and I suspect that’ll be the case until there are no more markets left to emerge. Although in that case, they will probably start talking about “re-emerging markets.”
In many cases, it takes a real commitment from a government to transform its country into a technology player. Without that commitment, it’s almost impossible to get a grassroots movement to move in an upward direction. To some extent, buy-in from a few of the larger companies in the world can help expedite the process.
Depending on the markets and applications you serve, different countries can be at varying states of “emergence.” For example, in the electronics space, China is far beyond the emerging state, and India is mostly in the same boat, although there are definitely differences between the two. The biggest difference is that India has more resources in the software space than in hardware.
I’ve long been a proponent of the Eastern European counties as the next place to emerge. However, I was somewhat caught off guard by the emergence of Brazil over the past couple of years. It’s a place where embedded software is being developed in a big way. It’s also a region where there is a fair amount of medical device development and manufacturing going on.
What led me to think down the path of “who, what, and where” are the emerging countries was a discussion I had at the recent NI Week conference (early August, in Austin, Texas). National Instruments announced a program called Planet NI, the goal of which is to nurture innovation and entrepreneurship in developing countries (clearly you have to “develop” before you can emerge).
In the company’s own words: “Planet NI is an initiative designed to empower engineers and students in developing countries to achieve economic prosperity and sustainable development through access to NI technology.”
In the same way that many vendors put their tools, software, and so on, into the hands of university students, NI is making its technology available to designers in these developing countries. Initially, it's targeting designers in Turkey, Lebanon, Egypt, Pakistan, Tunisia, the Philippines, Cameroon, and Nigeria.
Clearly, there’s a financial reason for such an undertaking -- to eventually make paying customers out of these folks. If a few of them turn out to be big customers, the goal is realized.
Before the fan mail starts to pour in, I want to be clear that NI is far from the only vendor doing outreach like this. it's merely the one that put the bug in my ear recently. Another fine example comes from DuPont. That firm has a long history of active participation in the communities in which it operates, including volunteer efforts, grants, educational programs, and sponsorships. This includes underwriting education programs that benefit students of all levels, as well as teachers and laboratory researchers.
What’s your take? Tell us in the comments section below.
Yes, this educational model has been very effective in exposing kids to engineering and science careers. The hands-on approach really helps them to see the excitement and creativity these careers bring to companies and corporations solving real world problems. Students who obtain the entrepreneurial bug help fuel new industries and businesses that influence emerging markets. it's truly a win-win scenario for all involved in the economic creation process!
Yes, it seems an extreme percentage, Jim. But who knows, maybe these countries have been able to seal in markets that buy large from a small country. This must do a lot for the country's economy and overall standard of living.
Right, and further; Luxembourg has the historical highs running 165% -175% across the board. But the champion was Singapore, running consistently above the 200% mark since the oldest 2007 data. Both very small countries, relatively speaking. But I'm not really clear how they can document exporting 2x what they actually produce. I think there's some "data-smithing" happening there I don't fully comprehend.
@Mrdon: Wow, those programs sound really impressive. Coming from the Boston area which is so heavily entrenched in great universities and colleges, I know that programs like this are very prominent in higher education. Unfortunately, I haven't seen as much inflitration in the public K-12 schools. I like your example where the auto makers help develop and seed engineering and STEM-oriented programs in schools that not only promote the disciplines, but benefit those companies and industries by giving kids early exposure to possible career opportunities. Perhaps every industry should follow suit. In the Boston area, then, we should be seeing similar programs from the biomedical and pharmaceutical giants and from the technology industry. (I'm sure there are such programs, but let's see more of them.) Same goes in California, which might have a lot of alternative energy companies or areas where steel or manufacturing is big. Is should be the responsibility of every big company and industry.
It won't be long before the U.S. becomes an emerging market the way our politicians have decimated the economy and the U.S. dollar. We need a strong economy and have a strong dollar if we are to survive the world recession for three reasons. 1. obviously a strong economy means massive US employment 2. a strong dollar means we are not borrowing and printing our way to prosperity, which just doesn't work 3. we need to show the rest of the world how to be successful. We cannot discount how important our example is to the rest of the world.
Well said, MrDon. I thought the same thing as I read this piece. The U.S. is far from being one big, monolithic country. There are pockets -- possibly whole states in the U.S. -- that could use an outreach program that empowers engineers and students.
Excellent Post Richard. OK, I suppose one is never too old to show his ignorance. That's were I am right now. I think anyone who can "divine" the next important market might be labeled a hero, certainly in line for a company bonus. Can you define what matrices are used to determine an emerging market? Exports, number of patents, number of university graduates, power stations, airline flights into and out of country, GDP, home-building,etc. You get the picture. While an employee at GE, Latin American Pole, we tried to predict what country would be the best recipient for our products. We were pretty much right with Brazil but definitely missed the boat with Colombia. Considerable resources were spent on marketing and sales only to lose the battle to MABE Mexico on developing outlets in Colombia. Any discussion would be greatly appreciated.
That's a fascinating chart, Jim. One of my favorite little stats is the one showing that the percentage of exports as a portion of GDP in Luxembourg is 165. That's quite impressive.
Hey naperlou- your discussion of % of GNP as exports got me thinking, and I google'd the worldbank.org site. The entire global economy is captured on this one page (% of GNP as export) and the numbers you posted were pretty much right-on.
Interesting that to so many commenters "emerging markets" is now a geographic term. It usually refers to countries with a rising middle class. But back in the day of early, "emerging" mobile computing/communication devices it usually meant various segments of the (mostly) US population who hadn't been exposed to the technology--at that time, mostly everyone. As Beth and mrdon point out, these segments still exist.
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