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Dealing with the global transformation.

Article Excerpt
Editor's Note: Following is an edited transcript of remarks by Alain Belda, chairman and CEO of Alcoa Inc., Pittsburgh, who spoke May 7 during the Aluminum Association's spring meeting.

We are in the midst of a market transformation and growth similar to the one experienced in the 1950s. It is a discontinuity from the 1980s and 1990s, as that one was a discontinuity from previous decades, albeit influenced by two World Wars.

This is the good news. The bad news is that rather than happening in your backyard, it is happening in the BRICK countries--Brazil, Russia, India, China and Korea.

The good news is that the world is smaller. The bad news is that the other guys, the competitors, know this, too.

What's driving this transformation? Two revolutions are happening at the same time. Urbanization in the BRICK countries will consume an enormous amount of resources. It will impact the environment and create another Western world in terms of population with per-capita income in excess of $20,000. Labor and resource arbitrage will create a new set of competitive dynamics. It will challenge those of us with legacy costs in the Western world and create opportunities for new ones in the BRICKs that will leverage their markets in the same way.

It will affect your company and my company in many ways....

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