1. Watch the Ted Talk: Welcome to the age of the industrial internet

1. Watch the Ted Talk: Welcome to the age of the industrial internet https://www.ted.com/talks/marco_annunziata_welcome… 2. Watch the Ted Talk: Economic growth has stalled. Let’s fix it https://www.ted.com/talks/dambisa_moyo_economic_gr… 3. Initial Post (600 words) Discuss the challenges associated with penetrating emerging markets. What are some of the barriers related to infrastructure, quality, risk and cultural dimensions that need to be investigated? How can you effectively overcome these barriers as a global business leader? 4. Reply Posts (300 words each)

Choose two (2) students that you agree or disagree with and reply to them. You can also reply to your professor’s posts. Posts must contain thought provoking and analytical observations ; contributions embedded with academic literature and a list of references are encouraged.* *Post.s should be supported by academic literature. This will enhance the discussions discussion 1: Blue ocean market can be beneficial to those who want to start their own business in unrevealed areas or not well-known places. Especially, emerging markets are the ones that have many opportunities to entrepreneurs but also obstacles or challenges to open businesses. There are several barriers related to infrastructure, quality, risk, cultural dimensions, etc. that need to be investigated. Also, in order to become succeed in the emerging markets, those obstacles should be removed or the entrepreneurs should overcome those barriers. Infrastructure: According to Charles Jillings, chief executive at ICM investment Management, which manages the Utilico Investment trust, insists that it is really important to have a firm infrastructure in the emerging markets and it provides a lot of benefits or opportunities to entrepreneurs. On the other hand, he also believes that there are many problems with infrastructure for emerging markets. He thinks that politics can be disruptive. It means usually the countries that are socialist governments tend to have not strong the rule of law so their contractual rights are vague. Especially, Latin American countries have corruption scandals that influenced their heart of government. Also, sometimes they have poor planning and budgeting processes, inflation and delays so it causes the inefficiency of work in the emerging market. Culture dimensions: When many entrepreneurs bring their local businesses or business philosophy to the emerging markets, some of them often face failures due to lack of cultural awareness or understanding. There should be a part overlapped with infrastructure. One of the most commonly occurred reasons is language. Even though it is not that difficult to learn how to speak, read, and write to some of them, unless they grow up in the culture, it is hard to fully understand their culture. There are several countries in the world using same languages and alphabets but depending on their culture and custom, the meaning of sentences could be totally different. Some of the world’s largest infrastructure investors have been working on building a firm infrastructure in the emerging markets. They have different sectors in the worlds especially, Asia and Latin American countries to set up a firm infrastructure. They believe it is significant to have strong local partners. Local partners know about their own region and culture. They can learn and work together to set up so it could be beneficial to other countries to enter into the emerging markets. If they do not integrate their culture and their own strategies, it will be hard for them to succeed in the emerging markets. https://www.forbes.com/sites/cherryreynard/2018/07… https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_i… Ruiz, M. A. (2012). Challenges of emerging countries: barriers to get published. Revista Brasileira de Hematologia E Hemoterapia, 34(2), 71–72. http://doi.org/10.5581/1516-8484.20120021 discussion 2 : Emerging and frontier markets boast favorable circumstances for growth that often aren’t available in more developed economies. On the other hand, due to the political, social or financial risks, emerging markets are considered an unsafe investment. Emerging markets investors should be prepared to receive volatile returns and face a variety of challenges, such as infrastructures, quality, risk, and cultural dimensions. This discussion post reviews the main difficulties on the way to success penetrating unexplored markets and suggestions on how to overcome these barriers. An emerging market is a country that has some characteristics of a developed market but does not satisfy standards to be described an established market. This includes countries that may become developed markets in the future or were in the past. The MSCI Emerging Markets Index consists of 23 economies including Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Egypt, Greece, Hungary, Indonesia, Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Qatar, Russia, South Africa, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates and two largest economies China and India [Investopedia]. This discussion describes disputes based on South Africa’s case and provides examples of overcoming based on Chinese government activities in this area. Notably, infrastructure plays a central role in improving competitiveness, facilitating domestic and international trade, and enhancing the continent’s integration into the global economy. For example, the estimated financing requirement to close Africa’s infrastructure deficit amounts to USD 93 billion annually until 2020. [Economic Brief, 2010]. According to research from The World Bank Group (WBG), the 48 countries of sub-Saharan Africa (with a combined population of 800 million) generate roughly the same amount of power as Spain (with a population of 45 million). Infrastructure deficit is one of a major headache in South Africa and the Chinese government took this opportunity almost ten years ago and gained benefits for own economy. China’s investments in Africa are already huge; it was the fourth largest foreign investor in Africa spending about $40 billion in 2016, according to UNCTAD’s World Investment 2018 report. [World investment report, 2018. page 38]. There are dozens of construction firms on the dark continent looking to execute contracts with private or public sector clients. These construction contracts are often backed by Chinese financial institutions looking to support the exports or sales of Chinese products and services. Chinese infrastructure investment is no panacea for the land of the Sahara; meanwhile, it shows to investors from other regions a huge opportunity with low competition. Most traders are facing the same risks on emerging markets that can significantly change investors’ plans in a short time. For instance, most South Africa’s countries encounter problems of overwhelming corruption; most states are still in the process of economic reforms, high unemployment, poverty, skills and capacity storages, some countries are politically unstable with a potential risk of revolutions or civil war. However, opportunities in this area are still boundless not only for an international corporation but also for the new generation of entrepreneurs, who interested on problems (agriculture (farming), waste, affordable housing (construction sector), education sector, healthcare services and insurance, urban logistic, real estate and mortgage services, and tourism. According to Forbes, by 2050, 25% of the world’s nine billion population will be Africans, and most of them will be under 30. I believe, that Chinese government understood perspectives of this continent very clear and invest over $60 billion on local sovereign guarantees and strong local government support; comprehensively targeting areas that should foster sustainable economic growth: industrialization, agriculture modernization, infrastructure, financial services, green development, trade and investment facilitation, poverty reduction and public welfare, public health, people-to-people exchanges, and peace and security. The low quality of goods in the emerging market and cultural dimension are another challenges, furthermore, these issues are not typical for all emerging countries. For example, Brazil produces superiority cotton, coffee, cocoa, and beef; Chile is known by fresh fruit, fishmeal, and seafood, wines; Russia demonstrates knowhow in aviation and military equipment; Turkey exports excellent agriculture products to whole Europe, etc. However, the market of South Afrika is more vulnerable to low quality imported products, because of low living standards and income. In my opinion, the cultural barrier is not an exceptional feature for doing business in an emerging country. Every single market is unique, because of different traditions, languages, religions, beliefs, etc. Products or services sellers have to know customer needs and expectations, the way how they behave, interact and consume. REFERENCES 1. Economic Brief. 2010. Infrastructure Deficit and Opportunities in Africa. https://www.afdb.org/fileadmin/uploads/afdb/Docume… 2. Investopedia. MSCI Emerging Markets Index https://www.investopedia.com/terms/e/emergingmarke… 3. WORLD INVESTMENT REPORT. 2018. http://unctad.org/en/PublicationsLibrary/wir2018_e…