Waves of globalization continue to surge across the competitive landscape of the world’s businesses. In response, enterprises in developing countries seem to be using two pervading strategies to harness growth and innovation. In Reverse Innovation, authors Vijay Govindarajan and Chris Trimble outline these strategies and build a case for a more radical approach.

The first widely used strategy is to create business environments that are conducive to attracting foreign direct investments. For instance, through legal reforms and the introduction of electronic processing, it is now possible to start a business in Rwanda in three days with just two procedures. This has in turn attracted several multinational companies to set up branches in the capital of Kigali.

Improving the business environment for trade tends to promote a phenomenon known as “glocalization,” in which multinational companies customize their products and services for their local consumers in order to maximize market share. This decision typically means removing premium features from existing products in order to reduce costs.

The second dominant approach, perfected by Chinese businesses, is to leverage Western technology and information. This often creates local versions of business models that mirror their Western counterparts, with the exception of a few alterations that cater to local tastes.

While both of these strategies account for a high level of growth, the authors of Reverse Innovation advise the active development of innovation from scratch within local emerging markets. This market-based approach starts by identifying the distinctive needs of customers without being compromised by corporate culture or by glocalization.

Recent innovations that are referenced and make a strong case for reverse innovation include the Nano by Tata, which — at just over US$2,000 — is the world’s most affordable car, and VScan, a small battery-powered imaging device by GE based on ultrasound technology.

The irony is that more and more of these radical innovations are emerging from companies in the developing world, which, until recently, have been completely off the radar of the world’s business elite. Not only does this blind spot jeopardize the global expansion prospects of multinational corporations, but it also threatens their positions in their own markets.

Several corporations have woken up to this reality. As Robert McDonald, chairman and CEO of Proctor and Gamble, attests to in Reverse Innovation, “Our innovation strategy is not just diluting the top-tier product for their lower-end consumer. You have to discretely innovate for every one of the consumers on that economic curve, and if you don’t do that, you’ll fail.”

The authors provide strategic guidelines on how to execute such innovation. Their rule of thumb for penetrating these markets is to create products and services that provide a 50-percent solution for only 15 percent of the cost. This is why corporations must scrap assumptions of glocalization that will likely produce an inadequate or inferior product. They have to learn how to cultivate reverse innovation alongside local adaption of current products, in spite of the conflicting strategies or potential cannibalization.

Though it takes time to restructure this innovation process, now is an opportune moment for current or aspiring global professionals across regions like Africa to embrace this phenomenon and put it into practice. This could become the key to reversing the brain drain in Africa and other developing regions while creating business solutions that better serve Africa’s consumers and stimulate high-quality economic growth.