Lab For the World: Developing Countries

iStock/Thinkstock

How do you recognize great ideas from developing countries - and bring them home? 

We imagine innovation as a trickle-down process. Companies in places such as the United States, Europe, and Japan deploy sophisticated technology to produce premium products for developed markets. Then they strip out some features, maybe substitute cheaper materials and eliminate most options, and ship their diminished creations to presumably less-demanding customers in Africa, Asia, and South America.

But the days of rich countries' hegemony over innovation may be numbered.

Authors Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble describe the developing world as a fertile research and development lab for companies in any market in their new book, Reverse Innovation: Create Far From Home, Win Everywhere (Harvard Business Review Press).

Learn how to recognize great ideas from developing countries - bring them home and about Reverse Innovation here.

Key statement in the article:  When entrepreneurs see an opportunity, they should partner.  There are lots of people in developing countries looking for alliances of this sort.