Massive in land size, population, and economic power, the BRIC countries—Brazil, Russia, India, and China—are global giants in every sense of the phrase. That includes the potential to give compliance executives giant headaches.
Like it or not, Corporate America is stuck with doing business in the BRIC nations. They comprise 40 percent of the world’s population and have a combined gross domestic product of $15.4 trillion. (By comparison, the U.S. GDP in 2006 was approximately $13.1 trillion.)
The BRIC nations also have an exploding middle class; by 2025, the number of BRIC citizens earning more than $15,000 annually—a king’s ransom ...