This book provides some good pointers for business leaders who wish to identify where the key opportunities lie and how to compete successfully in emerging markets. The first half provides general advice to businesses and to finding patterns throughout the varied economies that fall into the category of “emerging markets” while the second half takes a country-by-country look at each of these markets.

Among the key trends it identifies is that the pace of catch-up between the emerged and emerging economies will slow in part because of the financial crisis in the West. In countries such as China and Russia, demographic changes will act as a drag on growth as their populations decline. Nonetheless, even with a slower pace of catch-up, the emerging world will be where the growth is in the years ahead.

The biggest economies, however, will not be the richest. While China is forecast to overtake the US in the global economy league table, its citizens will be considerably poorer than their Western counterparts and companies will not be able to farm out products developed with more affluent western consumers in mind. Pricing is key.