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Businesses are not just local or even national anymore - good ideas are immediately global. So the market opportunities are much larger than we've ever imagined or seen.

In an era of global value chains, worldwide sourcing and the never-ending search for new markets, we must be careful to avoid the proliferation of regional standards. A multilateral approach holds wider benefits for more actors.

The markets where we've got real good presence are the older, more mature markets like Australia, and Western Europe - where we've only got 6,000 stores, compared to the US with 13,000.

Consumers no longer want only a great product - they want to buy products from companies that align with their own character and values.

As I spent tons of time with customers, not just in the United States, but in emerging markets, in Europe, in Latin America, top of mind for everybody is how do they drive growth for their business going forward.

The growth of markets in the region also provides opportunities for home-grown entities - whether established brand names like DBS, Singtel and Keppel Corporation, or SMEs - to establish and grow their presence in the region.

The last bastion of competitiveness is local advertising sales. There's little being spent by local advertisers on the Internet. That's where local media have leverage.

Never before in history has the global marketplace touched so many consumers and provided access to so many producers.