Accenture Business Research

While the shortest route between two points is usually a straight line, sometimes it's faster to follow the contours of the land. When it comes to selling products and services in new markets that means learning the terrain to determine the unique characteristics of the market. Unfortunately, many companies overlook this basic marketing tenet, assuming that what is popular in one country will automatically be popular in another or that a new country can be seen as a monolithic market.

Here are the companies that made the Bloomberg Businessweek 50 list in 2010:

Bloomberg Businessweek 50 2010

Companies are operating in a sea of their own data. Many are just treading water, but some companies are swimming toward new forms of competitive advantage by using business analytics.