At the intersection of reverse innovation and design thinking, you find opportunities to create innovations that are global by design.
To solve wicked problems and seize opportunities in emerging markets, innovators must think and act globally. Thoughtful, innovative solutions can be global in scope and succeed in developing markets while disrupting equivalent, higher-cost products in established ones. But creating the right innovations that can succeed in both places will require a diligent, targeted design process.
In Global by Design, Amos Winter, a pioneering engineering design expert, and Vijay Govindarajan, one of the world's leading thinkers on strategy and innovation, offer a powerful framework for creating innovations that scale across borders, industries, and income levels.
Standing at the intersection of reverse innovation and design thinking, they draw on their deep experience in industry, academia, and government to move beyond theory and provide a practical, disciplined approach to spotting consequential problems, leveraging innovation to solve them, and building an ecosystem that produces high-value, low-cost solutions that have global appeal.
Whether you're a CEO, product leader, engineer, policymaker, or entrepreneur, Global by Design provides the tools and perspectives to turn ambitious ideas into life-changing innovations that matter.
Amos Winter and Vijay Govindarajan bring a powerful interdisciplinary lens to designing high-value, low-cost products that win in emerging markets and often disrupt developed ones. This is seminal work.
Indra Nooyi
Former Chairman and CEO, PepsiCo; Member of the Board, Amazon
Global by Design rethinks Design Thinking for the more complex problem of designing for resource-constrained markets. It presents a new frontier, integrating for-profits, governments, and foundations for both commercial and social innovation. The absolutely fascinating case studies convey the hard-earned wisdom of Winter and Govindarajan's collective experience. This book is essential reading if you want to make a real difference innovating for a better world.
Harry West
Professor of Practice at Columbia University, Former CEO of Continuum and frog
Global by Design is an essential playbook for tackling some of the world's most challenging design problems while capturing the lucrative opportunities of developing and emerging markets. The authors provide a step-by-step, actionable framework to create high-value, low-cost innovations that meet the unique requirements of resource-constrained communities.
Rebecca Richards-Kortum
Malcolm Gillis University Professor at Rice University and Co-Director, Rice360; MacArthur Fellow and member of the National Academy of Engineering, National Academy of Sciences, and National Academy of Medicine
Reading Global by Design was a mind-stimulating experience for me. The twenty-first century is witnessing two disruptive phenomena simultaneously: technological advancement at an exponential pace and the unstoppable rise of the Global South. As Amos Winter and Vijay Govindarajan have persuasively shown, the only way to ensure enterprise profitability and competitive advantage is to develop the ability to design innovative and scalable products with a global perspective and context-driven engineering.
Mukesh Ambani
Chairman and Managing Director, Reliance Industries, India
Globalization remains a major growth opportunity, but you must see it as a systems problem. Good leaders see markets from the ground level, align their internal systems, and are intentional about winning. Global By Design teaches leaders how to be systems thinkers in design. At a moment when many are giving up on globalization, this can be a real differentiator.
Jeff Immelt
Former Chairman and CEO, General Electric; Venture Partner, New Enterprise Associates
Global by Design beautifully articulates the philosophy of inclusive innovation. The idea that solutions must emerge from a genuine understanding of local realities before scaling globally is something I've witnessed firsthand. Amos Winter and Vijay Govindarajan expand and deepen innovation thinking—connecting purpose, inclusivity, and global relevance.
Mostafa Terrab
Chairman and CEO, OCP Group, Morocco
This book is Design Thinking 2.0. It is a tour de force in developing globally relevant multi-market solutions.
Carlos Rodriguez-Pastor
Chairman and CEO, Intercorp Group, Peru
This book addresses the quintessential challenge: Designing under scarcity. Scarcity isn't just a developing-world problem anymore—rare-earth minerals, energy limits, and water stress have become strategic choke points for even the most advanced economies. This book is a must-read for every manager navigating innovation under constraint.
Kinya Seto
CEO, LIXIL Corporation, Japan
Global by Design examines how multinational companies can expand into emerging and global markets. Amos Winter and Vijay Govindarajan provide a set of tools that empower innovators to go beyond traditional design thinking by seeing problems from a wider perspective, identifying where to create value, and understanding how to position new products within their ecosystems.
Rick Olson
Chairman and CEO, The Toro Company