Consider the following facts, from The $10 Trillion Prizepublished by Harvard Business Review Press, which provide a snapshot of what the opportunity is for the rest of this decade:
• There will be nearly one billion middle-class consumers - some 320 million households - in China and India by 2020. They are demanding "more, better, now" for themselves and their children.
• The number of billionaires is rising: in 2001, China had 1 billionaire and India had 4; today, there are 115 billionaires in China and 55 in India.
• The two markets will give rise to some of the world's most powerful companies. China already has three of the world's top ten companies, ranked by market value: PetroChina, China's ICBC bank, and China Mobile.
• Some eighty-three million Chinese and fifty-four million Indians will become college graduates over the next ten years. Over the same period, the United States will see just thirty million new college graduates.
• The rapid growth in both China and India has led to enormous growth in the consumption of the building blocks of households-from copper to corn to chicken to coal-plus almost every other ingredient important to better lives, particularly a diet higher in protein but also vertical dwellings with modern conveniences and vehicles of transportation of all kinds.
Clearly, the growth of the middle and upper classes in these two nations will provide enormous opportunities for businesses.
