How to Win Second-Tier Emerging Markets
What IT Business Managers Can Learn from Macedonia

Second-tier emerging markets represent a growing population with significant growth potential for IT and telecommunications companies. As these countries begin rapidly adopting technology, multinational IT and telecommunications companies stand to gain access to large markets either directly or through partnerships with local companies. By understanding the product needs and business practices in these markets, technology firms will be better positioned to capture a larger percentage of sales.

An excellent case study of this second wave of technology adoption and expansion in smaller, less-wealthly nations is the Republic of Macedonia. In less than three years, the small nation of two million people has transformed itself from a technology backwater to a viable market for hardware, software and networking vendors. Broadband penetration has gone from four percent in 2004 to 34 percent in 2008, and more than 180,000 computing seats have been sold to schools, municipalities, and hospitals during that period.

This strategic brief considers lessons and implications from Macedonia and suggests ways that traditional IT and telecommunications market leaders can adjust their product offerings, business models, services or sales efforts to capture a larger percentage of new business in Central and Eastern Europe and other emerging-market regions where "second-tier" nations are experiencing strong growth in IT adoption.

6 Pages - $425