Emerging Markets Rule: Growth Strategies of the New Global Giants

AXIOM 2Cater to the Niches

Follow the path of least resistance.

Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black.

—HENRY FORD

IN 1909, HENRY FORD PROPOSED A RADICAL IDEA, THE world embraced it, and thus was launched the age of Mass Production and Mass Consumption—mass with a capital M. Ford made one car—the Model T—in one color, basic black. If you wanted a Ford, that was the choice. And it worked. By paying attention to the mainstream of the market and neglecting the niches, Henry Ford became history’s first billionaire.

Unfortunately, many executives today are stuck in a Henry Ford time warp. They continue to believe that only the mainstream mass market is attractive from the point of view of growth potential ...