Last week, I moderated a panel on multinationals in emerging markets for the London Business School’s Global Leadership Summit. Four prominent business leaders–Paul Bulcke, CEO Nestlé; Anshu Jain, who runs Deutsche Bank’s investment banking business; Vittorio Colao, the CEO of Vodafone; and John Connolly, the global chairman of Deloitte shared their insights on several topics, including which multinationals (other than their own) they most admired for their success in emerging markets.

People often use the term “emerging markets” as a catch all phrase implying that all countries within this category are broadly similar to one another. In reality, of course, the differences between India and China or Brazil and Russia dwarf their similarities. The heterogeneity of emerging markets raises questions for companies seeking to invest in these countries: How should we prioritize investments across emerging markets? How do we differentiate a more attractive market from a less attractive one? What criteria should we use in evaluating and comparing different markets?

Below I summarize some of the insights on how four different executives from four very different industries evaluate emerging markets.

• Nestlé. GDP growth is important for a food company, of course. In Africa, for instance, GDP has grown at about 5% per year over the past decade. Second, a country or region needs to meet a threshold level of
  Continue reading: “Beyond GDP growth: What makes an emerging market attractive?”