In a recent TED Talk, Hans and Ola Rosling of Gapminder discussed the global misperceptions people from developed countries have about the rest of the world. The overwhelming majority of people they surveyed on topics such as health care, women's rights and education, were wrong about the current state of social and economic progress in the world's emerging and frontier markets. Gapminder, a non-profit foundation based in Sweden, creates historical statistical measures of global development and achievement. For investors and business executives, the salient point raised by the Roslings about our misperceptions of developing economies is that - to think about, to makes business plans for, and to invest in the future - it is imperative to accurately know about the present.
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