This projects aims to develop a new concept of selecting the first market entry for new products and processes. The concept suggests that for many innovations there are leading markets that initiate the international diffusion of an innovation. These lead markets can be leveraged for the development of global innovation designs. The projects aims to predicting these lead markets ex ante, i.e. before an innovation is developed and tested in the market. An indicator-based methodology is developed that approximates the lead attributes of a country. The lead market concept was tested with two real innovation projects at the truck division of DaimlerChrysler AG. The method proposed proofed to be valid. It derives information that are of importance for the development phase and the market entry of globally standardised innovations.