If you have the time and the funds, nothing beats a visit to a country you are about to do business in to fully understand and appreciate how the people live day-to-day. Even Pepsi CEO, Indra Nooyi, realizes this:

The visit, one sweltering morning last week, was part of a 10-day "immersion" tour of China for Ms. Nooyi, who is seeking to strengthen the Purchase, N.Y., company's business in emerging markets. "I wanted to look at how people live, how they eat, what the growth possibilities are," she said in an interview Tuesday in Beijing. What she has seen has persuaded her that PepsiCo's approach to the Chinese market "is good, but not good enough. The opportunities are so much bigger." The company's "model for China has to be vastly different."

Read the entire article: "Pepsi CEO Tours China To Get a Feel for Market."

And one of the final points made in the article by Ms. Nooyi is right in line with our Top 10 Global Trends For Small Businesses For 2009 report published January 21st (refer to No. 1: "Disruptive innovation will be both the coolest and hottest new growth strategy in 2009 because it will transcend all boundaries and transform businesses" -- quote by Laurel Delaney) is this:

Ms. Nooyi challenged her China team to come up with ideas for products that cater to China's large older population. She also called for more in-depth research into women who, in China, are likely juggling work and motherhood and making the key day-to-day consumption decisions for households. She says she's calling on her executives to think "differently and disruptively," encouraging them to look beyond the company's traditional businesses in China.

Are you thinking differently and causing a little innovative disruption at your company?

Here's a look at the top trends shaping social entrepreneurship in 2009. Three of them touch on our outlook as well: social enterprises (as it applies to education), mobile technology and green innovation.

We need to innovate our way to a new business model, at least that's what The New York Times, Sunday, February 1, 2009 article, "Disruptive Innovation, Applied to Health Care," states regarding health care.

Using innovation management models previously applied to other industries, Clayton M. Christensen, a Harvard Business School professor, argues in “The Innovator’s Prescription” that the concepts behind “disruptive innovation” can reinvent health care. The term “disruptive innovation,” which he introduced in 2003, refers to an unexpected new offering that through price or quality improvements turns a market on its head.

Disruptive innovators in health care aim to shape a new system that provides a continuum of care focused on each individual patient’s needs, instead of focusing on crises. Mr. Christensen and his co-authors argue that by putting the financial interests of hospitals and doctors at the center, the current system gives routine illnesses with proven therapies the same intensive and costly specialized care that more complicated cases require.

This falls right in line with our Trend No. 1 in Top 10 Global Trends for Small Businesses for 2009 (published January 21, 2009):

1. Disruptive innovation will be both the coolest and hottest new growth strategy in 2009 because it will transcend all boundaries and transform businesses.

Clayton Christensen, a Harvard Business School professor who focuses on innovation, discusses this very same topic in “How Hard Times Can Drive Innovation.” Also, a hip report by Trendwatching covers half a dozen consumer trends for 2009 and supports Christensen’s, and our theory, with prediction No. 6: Happy Ending. It states:

“At the same time, this is a great moment to innovate: shrinking budgets and diminishing revenues from existing offerings normally bring out the best and most creative in business professionals.”

Economist Joseph Schumpeter popularized a similar concept called “creative destruction” in 1942 in his book, “Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy,” that describes the process of transformation that accompanies radical innovation. Look for more of this type of disruptive innovation in 2009.

Here's my list of top 10 global small business trends for 2009.