What Western Companies Need to Know About Partnering with Startups in India and China

Many business leaders are now facing two simultaneous strategic challenges: First, many Western companies are finding themselves increasingly focused on competing in emerging markets. Second, many of these companies are exploring opportunities to partner with startups in order to gain access to new, innovative ideas. This is only further complicated by the fact that two of the most common emerging markets that executives are considering — China and India — are in fact not all that similar. China’s state-supported economy is more organized than India’s, while India’s economy operates much like any Western economy, albeit with more institutional voids. In this piece, the author provides an overview of the specific ways that multinational companies should approach new initiatives in these two distinct environments.