Ranked #1 in the World
By Thunderbird Professor Mary Teagarden
Pay no attention to talk of China and India growing together as a unified Chindia. That won’t happen. What the world will see instead is the emergence of two economic powerhouses that will feed off each other as natural trade partners. To survive and thrive in this new global economy, multinational companies in the West will have to engage with these dragons and tigers of Asia. It’s simply a matter of numbers.
Almost 40 percent of the world’s population lives in China or India, which gives these countries a competitive advantage through the sheer size of their markets and talent pools.
College is beyond the reach of most people in China and India, but that doesn’t matter. Collectively, the two countries graduate about 12 times as many scientists and engineers as does the United States.
As Microsoft points out, if you’re one in a million in China, there are 1,300 people just like you. In India, there are 1,000 people just like you.
>> To learn more on this topic, enroll in Thunderbird’s online certificate program, “Doing Business in China” or “Doing Business in India.”
The countries are close geographically and share other similarities. Both countries struggle with class divisions and extreme gaps between rich and poor. Both are ultramodern and rustic at the same time. And both experienced dramatic GDP growth in the decade leading up to the current global recession.
But China and India also have key differences that draw the countries together as reciprocal trade and investment partners. China excels at the tangible, while India excels at the intangible.
These differences developed over decades. China pursued foreign direct investment and export growth while India pursued domestic entrepreneurship and domestic consumption. When you bring these models together, you have the opportunity to produce extraordinary results.
Consider, for example, the way China’s competitiveness in computer hardware manufacturing complements India’s competitiveness in software development and information technology support.
The global recession has taken its toll in China and India, but the countries will continue to grow together in power, size, impact and global reach. There’s no putting the genie back in the bottle.
Mary Teagarden, Ph.D., is a professor of global strategy at Thunderbird School of Global Management and editor of Thunderbird International Business Review. She has lived and worked in 11 Latin American countries, five European countries and eight Asian countries –- in addition to the United States and Canada. She has a doctor of philosophy in business administration strategy from the University of Southern California.
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