The markets that will
define the next decade
The global business order is being reshaped by shifts that most Western executive teams are either watching from a distance or missing entirely.
The organisations that are best positioned for the next decade of global commerce are not, in many cases, the ones that are best positioned today. This follows directly from an examination of where population growth, middle-class expansion, infrastructure investment, and institutional development are concentrated — and that examination produces a picture that looks quite different from the current geography of global corporate attention.
Africa: the scale argument
Africa is the fastest-urbanising continent on earth. By 2050, the continent will be home to approximately 2.5 billion people — more than a quarter of the projected global population. The median age across sub-Saharan Africa is currently nineteen. The implications of this demographic structure for consumption, labour supply, and economic activity over the next thirty years are profound and, in our assessment, significantly underpriced by most global corporate strategies.
The leaders and companies we follow across the continent are building in a context that is structurally different from that of more mature markets: infrastructure that is mobile-first by necessity rather than by design choice; financial systems built around the reality of large unbanked populations; agricultural systems being restructured through digital platforms to connect smallholder farmers to previously inaccessible markets.
The organisations best positioned for the next decade are not, in many cases, the ones best positioned today. The geography of where value will be created over the next twenty years looks substantially different from the current geography of corporate attention.”
— The Victory Magazine Editorial Analysis, 2026
Southeast Asia: the middle class
With a combined population of 680 million and a growing middle class spanning highly diverse markets — from the mature financial sophistication of Singapore to the rapidly expanding consumer economy of Vietnam and the scale of Indonesia — Southeast Asia is assembling the conditions for a sustained period of consumption-driven growth.
The digital infrastructure being built across the region reflects its specific characteristics: mobile-first, designed for variable connectivity, optimised for high transaction volumes at low individual values. The companies building on this infrastructure are developing capabilities in payments, logistics, insurance, and agricultural supply chains that are, in several cases, significantly ahead of analogous capabilities in more developed markets.
Latin America: the institutional moment
Latin America’s economic story has been complicated by political volatility, currency instability, and periodic institutional breakdown. These real challenges have, in our view, caused many international investors to underweight a genuine and sustained improvement in several of the region’s most significant economies.
The fintech sector across the region has built payment rails, credit products, and insurance services for populations that were poorly served by traditional banking — and is now applying those capabilities to serve a growing middle class with specific needs the traditional financial sector has been slow to address.
What this means for strategy
The practical implication for global executive teams is not that everyone should immediately expand into these markets. It is that a strategic conversation that does not include these markets is operating with an incomplete picture of where value will be created over the next ten to twenty years.
The organisations that are best positioned are those that have established relationships, local knowledge, and operational experience in these markets before scale and competition make entry significantly more expensive. Across seven years of profiling executives for The Victory Magazine, the leaders most consistently underestimated by international business media are those building companies in African, Southeast Asian, and Latin American markets. They are worth watching, worth learning from, and increasingly worth competing with.
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