A car is born

LAUNCHING a new product is so fraught with difficulties that many companies prefer to do so in the safety of their own home markets rather than in strange and distant lands. That makes it easier for them to correct any early problems before transferring production overseas. But it also leads too many firms to go into emerging markets with inappropriate products, designed with the wrong consumers in mind. Such a strategy is increasingly ill-suited to these markets, which are getting almost as competitive as the ones back home.