How can a company from an emerging economy manage to make waves in global business?
Ask Embraer. The Brazilian firm also known as Empresa Brasileira de Aeronautica S.A. is the fourth largest commercial aircraft manufacturer in the world, behind Boeing, Airbus and Bombardier. In mid-August, it posted a 54 percent jump in sales and a 35 percent gain in second-quarter earnings.
A new HBS case study on Embraer, presented in Buenos Aires (in a modified version of how such a case might be taught in a standard classroom setting), offered plenty of room for lively debate among conference participants. Questions they considered: What key elements of strategy and competitiveness will help a firm from an emerging market suceed internationally? How can a government assist a company without smothering it?
Another point of central interest in the Embraer example was an ongoing dispute between Embraer and the Canadian manufacturer Bombardier, which has yet to be settled by the World Trade Organization. Conference participants offered a variety of predictions on how they thought the dispute could and should pan out.
According to Professor Pankaj Ghemawat, who led the discussion (while injecting what he called "procedural asides" to demonstrate how the case might be taught in a classroom), the Embraer case also illuminated ways that companies might craft a strategy to balance two spheres of influence: market and non-market forces.
Issues unique to the region
The case on Embraer, Ghemawat explained to the audience in his introduction, is one of the first "outputs" of the School's new Latin America Research Center (LARC). It was co-written by Ghemawat with LARC executive director Gustavo Herrero and senior researcher Luis Felipe Monteiro. Ghemawat, wh ...