In a news release this morning, Abbott announced  it has completed its acquisition of a company called Evalve which makes devices for minimally invasive repair of mitral valves. On its face, this isn’t huge news but it is nevertheless a very interesting press release. Why? Because way at the end of the announcement it summarizes Abbott’s global strategy, noting that the Evalve deal is one of six strategic acquisitions for Abbott in the past 12 months. And, it goes on to itemize Abbott’s top three growth strategies. Here’s two  of these strategies:

…diversification of product portfolios, addition of new technology…

Now before revealing the third pillar in Abbott’s growth plans, it should be noted that Abbott is traded on the New York Stock Exchange. It operates in 130 countries. They employ 72,000 people. They have a market cap of $78 billion. You can find many more statistics here, courtesy of Yahoo Finance. Suffice to say, Abbott has clearly done some things right over the years. Therefore, others seeking insight into potential growth opportunities worldwide at a time of stagnant movement in developed markets may want to look at how Abbott sees things. To that point, here’s Abbott’s third stated strategy:

…expansion into key global emerging markets.

If you but in to this, then the very next place you ought to go is here, to GS1. That’s because more and more of the best emerging markets are mandating the use of the GS1 global standard in product marking: not compliant, no entry!