Tom Friedman's op-ed in the Times today touched on the same point: "Even more interesting is how Indian firms are taking the skills they learned from outsourcing and using them to develop low-cost products for the low-wage Indian market: a medical insurance plan for the poor for as little as $10 a year, a $2,000 car, a $200 laptop, supercheap cellphones, a low-fare airline ($75 one-way for the three-hour Bangalore-Delhi flight) that sells tickets from Internet kiosks in gas stations. Indian companies know that if they can make money producing low-cost technology for poor Indians, it gives them an incredible platform to then take these products global. (Imagine the profit potential if they work in the West?) China is doing the exact same thing."

Although both their books are coming at the issue from different direction, Hart and Friedman seem to agree on the main point: if they are to succeed and thrive (or even survive) in the coming decades, established multinationals need to make some fundamental changes in how they do business, and quickly. They can no longer shy away from radical innovation and creative destruction, fearful that it will cannibalize their established businesses, because if they don't lead that process, their competitors will.