BCG worked with the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to support the design and operationalization of a ground-breaking digital transformation program, called JICA DXLab, that has revitalized JICA frontline operations in emerging markets.
How We Support Building Businesses in Emerging Markets
Our experts have their finger on the pulse of these emerging economies, and we partner with clients to capture the opportunities that emerging markets present. We have cultivated a powerful, experienced, and well-connected presence on the ground in the world’s rising hot spots.
Broad and Deep Expertise
As a leader in emerging-markets consulting, we bring a global team of local-market experts. We mobilize this vast network to collaborate on critical topics including go-to-market strategies, digital ecosystems, joint ventures, and strategic alliances in emerging markets.
Thorough Understanding
Our broad expertise in emerging-market strategy consulting is supported by the BCG Center for Customer Insight, one of the world’s richest sources of data. Covering 4 billion consumers in 35 markets, CCI provides us with a nuanced understanding of evolving behavior, sentiment, spending habits, and consumption patterns.
Competitive Insights
We conduct proprietary research that delves into the strategies and models that drive success among leading domestic and regional competitors in emerging markets. For more than a decade, we have tracked the rise and development of “global challengers” that are becoming multinationals in their own right, rising “local challengers” such as multilatinas and African Lions that are emerging as regional players, and hard-charging, up-and-coming “local dynamos.”
The Key Drivers of Emerging Market Growth
Four megatrends are shaping the future of emerging markets:
- Population Growth. The combined population of emerging markets is projected to swell by about 1 billion over the coming decade, and in many developing countries these populations remain relatively young. Roughly half of India’s nearly 1.4 billion people are younger than 25, for example.
- The Rise of the Consumer Class. Annual household private spending in emerging markets is rising nearly three times faster than in advanced markets as hundreds of millions of households enter the middle and affluent classes. And while disposable incomes remain low by world standards, our research shows that consumer optimism and aspirations are high in most key markets.
- Rapid Urbanization. More than 500 million people have moved from the countryside to urban areas in emerging markets since 2007, and this trend continues. This shift is fueling surging demand for services and housing and spurring trillions of dollars in infrastructure investment.
- Digital Leapfrogging. More than 2.6 billion people in developing nations use the internet, and consumers in many emerging markets are among the world’s most digitally savvy. Smartphone penetration is soaring, and many consumers are leaping directly from cash to digital payment.
Our Client Impact in Emerging Markets
125k+
participating merchants
Accelerating Go-to-Market Strategies. We collaborated with Celcom Axiata, one of Asia’s largest telecommunications companies, to create an e-wallet and lifestyle app called Boost. In less than two years, it became Malaysia’s leading cashless platform—a digital ecosystem of 17 banks and a growing list of more than 125,000 participating merchants.
Top 5
loyalty program
Unleashing the Power of Consumer Insights. We conducted an end-to-end customer experience transformation for a leading cinema operator in India. The team leveraged deep consumer insights to reimagine the cinema-going journey for consumers—physically and digitally—and built a top-five loyalty program with a first-in-market personalization engine.
Recognizing the complexity surrounding unprecedented shifts in global power dynamics, our Center for Geopolitics cuts through the noise to bring both clarity and action to the intersection of geopolitics and business strategy, merging advanced geopolitical insights with BCG’s world-class analytical capabilities.
Our Latest Thinking in Emerging Markets
Article
April 28, 2025
In addition to their traditional advantages in cost and resources, companies in the region are now expanding globally through innovation, cultural influence, and strategic risk-taking.
Article
March 13, 2025
Companies have a huge growth opportunity in emerging markets, but only if they have the right approach to get their products onto store shelves and into consumers’ hands.
Article
January 6, 2025
Fractal innovation enables large companies to be more responsive to customer needs, leverage their global scale, and set the pace for their competition.
Article
April 22, 2025
As the Western-led order frays, the Global South is rising to craft its own economic and diplomatic path in a multipolar world.
