Wamda contributor Gulay Ozkan talks to Duncan Clark, Chairman of advisory firm BDA in China and Visiting Scholar at Stanford University, about how investment in emerging markets is evolving, how China is moving to invest in the Middle East region, and why the world is becoming flat.

While Clark cautions that "You should think about China as competition no matter where you are in the world," he also notes that "Wherever there's a smart idea in the world, now there's a greater opportunity for it to be discovered."

His advice to entrepreneurs? You can learn a lot from people you never meet, but only interact with online. Yet it's still crucial to adapt to your local market and understand your customer, so do your homework.