Growth has become the elixir of government and corporate leaders. To satisfy their addiction to it, leaders have responded in a variety of ways, which we have grouped into five consecutive phases, creating a sort of development scale. We have called these five phases: the new industrial revolution phase; the domestic stimulation phase; the trade zone/protection phase; the market share battle phase; and the new market phase.
Economic realities and these various responses to them have created a different trade dynamic, one that could prove problematic to Asian economies and quite beneficial to Latin America. Any leader wishing to launch an enterprise in another country would do well to locate that country's position on this developmental scale and create a strategy that fits the appropriate phase. Each phase offers different opportunities and different risks.