Boom times provide companies with abundant short-term opportunities. During downturns, however, opportunities seemingly “dry up” and managers need to explore new strategies to enact future business success.

Unfortunately, we do not have good recipes for building the right organisational competencies that fit and support strategic positions in tomorrow’s markets. An alternative approach is to replicate and rejuvenate existing competencies in emerging economies using “symbiotic business models” and thereby create new markets. This article provides some practical strategic pointers on how this can be done.