The objective of this class is to develop capabilities to think strategically about capturing growth in emerging markets. The aim is to combine the development of a conceptual framework with real life examples and assignments of how to define a strategy for a specific opportunity. The conceptual framework lays the ground to:

• Understand the comparative development of the most relevant emerging markets.
• Identify common development patterns as emerging markets undergo similar development stages.
• Understand the evolution of the base of consumers from the rural poor to the urban middle class as they satisfy their needs and wants.
• Discuss commonalities and differences across countries and cultures.
• Analyze the evolution of industry structure and retail channels.
• Understand how growth opportunities evolve in a variety of businesses through increasing stages of development.
• Identify other factors affecting growth opportunities such as the impact of innovation, availability of consumer financing and government policies.
• Learn from cases and examples of relevant players in emerging markets. In parallel with the development of the conceptual framework, students will be working and applying it in a project to analyze an emerging market opportunity and define a strategy to capture it.

This will allow them to:

• Apply the conceptual framework to analyze a specific emerging market opportunity.
• Develop and defend a strategy to capture this opportunity.
• Learn from the presentations and discussions of other groups.
• Be exposed to a variety of emerging market opportunities across industries and geographies.
• Understand how different players value the opportunities, and how they weigh the risks and challenges involved in capturing them.

An additional benefit of this class is to gain some basic consulting skills, including framing and defining the scope of the strategic opportunity to be analyzed; developing hypothesis and defining the analysis to address them; gathering the right data and information; synthesizing information to drive key conclusions; and presenting well structured recommendations and conclusions. 

Rajeev Kohli

Ira Leon Rennert Professor of Business

Rajeev Kohli is the Ira Leon Rennert Professor of Business at Columbia Business School. His research interests are in mathematical models of non-compensatory choice, product design and recommendation systems. He has published papers in leading journals in marketing, operations research, discrete mathematics and mathematical psychology. He has also served on the editorial boards of leading journals  including Management Science

View full profile

Alonso Martinez

Senior Lecturer in Discipline

Professor Martinez is a Senior Lecturer at Columbia Business School. He combines teaching and research with extensive global experience doing strategy consulting, with particular expertise in emerging markets. He gives the Catching Growth Waves in Emerging Markets course in both the MBA and EMBA programs and the Defining and Developing wining Strategic Capabilities course to the MBAs.  He has also given the EMBA...

View full profile