Executive review 1/2007

Axel Schmidt

Emerging markets are tremendously lucrative, but the risks should not be ignored. China, where initial euphoria is slowly beginning to ebb, is a classic example. While still attractive, the Chinese market – like every market – has its own peculiar pitfalls. Moreover, as market players gradually adopt a more realistic view of the Middle Kingdom, other emerging markets too are coming more sharply into focus. Eastern Europe and India, for example, likewise have a lot to offer, including a high level of education and strong language skills.

Our first article on emerging markets zooms in on the opportunities that India and Turkey in particular afford to small and medium-sized enterprises, especially in the engineered products sector.

In a revealing interview, Dr. Kammüller, Managing Partner at Trumpf, then spells out how machinery companies can successfully leverage the potential of emerging markets. Trumpf, a global leading machine tool manufacturer and laser technology specialist, operates in countries such as India, China and Russia.

Now that Chinese and Indian firms are themselves initiating mergers and acquisitions in Europe, German companies perceive an ever greater threat from the East. In response, the article entitled "Risk or opportunity?" explores what such an acquisition can mean to German companies and discusses workable counterstrategies.

Russia too constitutes a vast target market. "Big country, big market" thus concerns itself with the results of a recent study of the Russian tractor market.