Emerging Markets and Inclusive Growth

About this course

GPS 406: Emerging Markets and Inclusive Growth How firms win in institutionally complex markets through localization, ecosystem partnerships, and inclusive innovation. You will analyze Solara Foods' expansion in Nigeria, Kenya, India, Indonesia, and Vietnam with attention to informality, infrastructure gaps, and shared value.

This is global business and policy for practitioners, not theory for its own sake. You will move from frameworks to evidence tables, stakeholder maps, and executive memos that survive finance, operations, and public affairs scrutiny.

Anchor company: Solara Foods, a multinational packaged foods company selling dairy alternatives, protein snacks, beverage concentrates, and cooking staples across retail, food service, and e-commerce. Revenue $3.1B, 42 markets, leadership including Amara Osei (Chief Sustainability Officer) and Omar Haddad (Global Policy VP).

Prerequisites: GPS 405: Social Enterprise and Impact Measurement. Length: 6 weeks. Assessment: 40% applied project, 35% knowledge checks, 25% reflections.

What you will be able to do

By the end of GPS 406, you should be able to:

• Assess institutions and market development stages in emerging economies
• Design distribution and pricing for informal retail and fragmented consumers
• Adapt business models through localization without losing global learning
• Navigate finance and infrastructure gaps with creative partnerships
• Build inclusive innovation programs that expand market access responsibly
• Scale in emerging markets with explicit risk and community accountability

How the course is organized

Six units, 24 lessons (four per unit). Work in order; each lesson includes Solara worked examples, practice problems with solutions, and managerial reads.

Unit	Topic	Lessons	You will
1	Institutions, Market Development, And State Capacity	4	Apply institutional quality indices to Solara decisions
2	Consumers, Informality, And Distribution Architecture	4	Apply last-mile design to Solara decisions
3	Localization, Business Model Adaptation, And Affordability	4	Apply 4A framework to Solara decisions
4	Finance Gaps, Infrastructure, And Ecosystem Partnerships	4	Apply infrastructure gap map to Solara decisions
5	Inclusive Innovation And Shared Value Creation	4	Apply inclusive innovation pipeline to Solara decisions
6	Scaling Responsibly In Emerging Markets	4	Apply responsible scaling checklist to Solara decisions

How to study

1. Read lessons sequentially. Early units supply vocabulary and frames; later units stress-test the same choices under uncertainty and scale.
2. Do practice problems without peeking. Policy and sustainability decisions need numeric reconciliation and explicit kill criteria.
3. Carry one decision through the course. Use Sequence market entry by institutional readiness and partner quality as a thread for your applied project.
4. Complete unit assessments after all four lessons in that unit. Knowledge checks test application, not definition recall.

Applied work

Across GPS 406 you will build portfolio pieces that compound:

• Institutional diagnostic for one Solara priority emerging market
• Localization plan for product, price, and channel architecture
• Partnership map addressing cold chain or finance infrastructure gaps
• Inclusive growth scaling memo with guardrail metrics

What comes next

GPS 405: Social Enterprise and Impact Measurement supplies strategic context; GPS 401: Global Strategy and Multinational Management (pathway integration) continues the Global Business/Policy/Sustainability pathway. CAP 600: Program Capstone Studio integrates global policy evidence into your final recommendation.