What is in this article?:
With so much focus on the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) and other emerging markets, we see a precarious assumption pervading the business landscape. It goes something like this:
If you want to do business properly in emerging markets, risk is a challenge and due diligence is a must; but we're operating only (or primarily) in mature markets, so we're on terra firma.
Well, actually, no. Just because a market is developed doesn't mean it's safe.
Effective leaders know they need to be vigilant in high-risk, high-growth markets; they shouldn't let their guard down by slipping into complacency in mature markets.
In each of the cases presented here, companies with overseas operations learned difficult lessons they likely could have learned of and corrected in more proactive and far less costly and damaging ways. Keep in mind that these real-life events took place not on the distant shores of fledgling markets, but in mature markets. A thorough understanding of your foreign operations, the local risks and how you can mitigate them can make the world a less formidable, more hospitable place in which to conduct business.
