2. Would Carrefour be able to replicate its strategy in India? What do you see as the principal obstacles? Albert Montgolfier is the deputy head of Carrefour’s strategic planning department.

He has been charged with a review of Carrefour’s options with respect to the Indian market and would submit his preliminary recommendations to Carrefour’s board meeting next April 2007. India had been on Carrefour’s radar for some time now and, as late as 2004, Carrefour had been close to entering the Indian market through franchising but decided to defer any strategic move. Bharti Enterprise’s recent announcement, in late November 2006, of a large-scale joint venture withWalmart12 changed the competitive landscape in a major way and Albert knew that Carrefour could not defer and temporize forever as time was of the essence. For “Big Box” retailers – the likes of Walmart, Ahold, Tesco, or Carrefour – India was the last uncharted frontier.

Indeed, with more than 1.1 billion people, half of them 25 years old or younger, an economy growing at an annual rate of 8–10 percent