Globalization used to mean, by and large, that business expanded from developed to emerging economies. Now it flows in both directions, and increasingly also from one developing economy to another. Business these days is all about "competing with everyone from everywhere for everything". One sign of the times is the growing number of companies from emerging markets that appear in the Fortune 500 rankings of the world's biggest firms. It now stands at 62, mostly from the so-called BRIC economies of Brazil, Russia, India and China, up from 31 in 2003, and is set to rise rapidly. On current trends, emerging-market companies will account for one-third of the Fortune list within 10 years.
There has been a sharp increase in the number of emerging-market companies acquiring established rich-world businesses and brands, starkly demonstrating that "globalization" is no longer just another word for "Americanization."
Source: Economist, http://www.economist.com