In No Ordinary Disruption Richard Dobbs, James Manyika, and Jonathan Woetzel explain how to cope with “four global forces breaking all the trends”: emerging growth markets (including cities) as the new gravitational centers of economic activity, increasingly faster pace of technological breakthroughs and adoptions, aging demographics, and globalization of trade driven by rapidly increasing connectedness and interactivity.

With regard to emerging growth markets (including cities) as the new gravitational centers of economic activity, they offer five specific recommendations (Pages 23-30):

1. Get to know the newcomers…and others who do business with them.
2. Create new services…or new applications more appropriate to newcomers’ needs.
3. Tap urban talent and innovation pools…and seek the counsel of business school faculty and business journalists.
4. Think of cities as laboratories…and collaborate with new allies on low-cost, low-risk experiments
5. Manage operational complexity…especially costs and cultural sensitivities.

Dobbs, Manyika, and Woetzel: “The portraits we take of cities [and other emerging markets] must capture the dynamism underneath the surface and highlight the brightness of opportunities, while toning down the alarming flares of risk. Most of all, they must be able to project forward motion.”

Richard Dobbs is a director of the McKinsey Global Institute and a director in McKinsey’s London office, James Manyika is a director of the McKinsey Global Institute and a director in the San Francisco office, and Jonathan Woetzel is a director of the McKinsey Global Institute and a director in the Shanghai office.