Expansion to emerging markets and collaboration with startups to gain insights on business innovation are the twomajor strategic imperatives, large western corporations are trying to ace. India and China are the markets they are most looking to get a foothold into. However, a mistake committed by many is to consider these two markets as homogeneous whereas they are as apart from each other as they are from the west itself. As a Harvard professor claimed, India is like a chaotic and institutionally-weaker part of the US and the UK, while China is qualitatively different. There is greater state support and consequently interference in China. The ecosystem orchestrators, participants and intermediaries likewise work according to the national priorities. China also has home-grown rivals such as the BAT -Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent. They can take on any western giant. State policy in China is implemented from the ground-up. So, in China, it is advisable for companies to partner in areas of national priority such as right now Artificial Intelligence (AI) and the Internet-of-Things (IoT). Intel’s Mass Makerspace Accelerator Program is one such example. In contrast, Nasscom’s 10k Warehouse Program is India’s response, where MNCs work with private-sector trade bodies.

Source:https://hbr.org/2018/06/what-western-companies-need-to-know-about-partnering-with-startups-in-india-and-china

Uploaded Date:27 June 2018