Corporate and Market Strategy

Expanding Revenue Base

Communication Hardware

A $20 B communications hardware company was concerned that it was not winning its fair share of post-sale service revenues. A detailed analysis indicated that was indeed missing two-thirds of its service revenue opportunity. We then analyzed how this revenue could be recovered in each of the companyis several distribution channels. In the ensuing 18 months, service revenue increased from less than 5% of revenues to 12%.

Diversification

Financial Information Service

A $400 M financial information company was concerned that its revenue and profitability were very closely linked to the extremely cyclical market for initial public offerings. We were asked to identify new services, which could be sold primarily to existing customers, that would help smooth the cycles and grow the business faster. We recommended offering a variety of outsourcing services tailored to the special needs of the financial institutions and law firms that comprised our clientis core customer base. The recommended services have since become a material part of the clientis business and have deepened its relationships with its principal customers.

Increasing Added Value

Wireless Telecom Service

A major European cellular carrier wanted to add value to its basic communications service to differentiate it from the competition. Based on a carefully structured program of market research and analysis of related markets, we helped the company assemble a portfolio of information services for its most important customer segments. These services all revolved around the needs of the traveler away from home and included such elements as wireless e-mail, hotel and restaurant reservations, automobile services, and health care referrals. The client is now assembling the relevant set of partners to support a robust service portfolio.

Communications Market Strategy

Electronics and System Integration Company

This $6 B division of a Fortune 50 company had developed numerous telecommunications products and service concepts in its R&D laboratory and sought help in commercializing them. We reviewed the project portfolio and identified several multi-billion dollar product ideas. We then helped the company determine which to pursue on its own, which to develop in conjunction with partners, and which to partially spin out to take advantage of the investment communityis current large appetite for communications technology companies.

Channel Strategy

Computer Products

An office equipment and computer products company recognized that the growth in its markets was shifting from the high-priced office and IT-shop equipment, which it had traditionally sold with its direct sales force, toward network printers sold through PC channels. The problem was that while the company had some competitive printers, its previous attempts to sell through PC channels had failed. We helped our client determine which products to sell through which channels, develop value propositions that would lead to channel share worth $1 B+ in new revenues among tier one and tier two PC distributors, and develop processes to manage channel conflict between the indirect channels organization and the direct sales force. The key market analysis concerned the channel partnersi needs when viewed as customers of our client.

Joint Venture

Wireless Internet Services

Our client, a producer of print- and Internet-based information services, sought new ways to expand its business. We developed the model of a joint venture with a wireless Internet company to produce new promotional services for the mobile business customer. We identified the natural partner, opened discussions between the two companies, and developed the appropriate deal structure. The business is now under joint development, with initial service launch scheduled within two quarters. The resulting company is expected to achieve profitable revenues in the high hundreds of thousands of dollars within three years of launch.

Growth Renewal Strategy

Print and Electronic Publisher

This newly public company had recently been spun out from a Fortune 500 parent under whose ownership the business had languished. Widespread perception that the company was a shrinking business in a declining industry segment had led to a dangerously low share price, falling staff morale, and poor financial results. We developed a three-part turn-around approach consisting of:

1. Making the company the most cost effective player in its core business
2. Developing line extensions using Internet technology to increase delivered value
3. Leading an industry consolidation based on superior operating effectiveness

This strategy should increase value for customers, double EPS and share price within three years, and provide rewarding careers for the staff.

Building Distribution Channels

Enterprise Internet and Software Company

An Internet services division of a much larger company had identified a need in its marketplace for a major software product and had developed an enterprise-level offering to fill that need. While initial sales came from the company's own sales force, such sales were unlikely to achieve the level of market penetration that the corporate parent expected. We helped our client develop a set of channel partners and build an internal organization to manage and extend the channels program. This program is expected to account for more than half of all sales within two years.

Internet Strategy

Financial Information Service

Our $4 B client was concerned that it might lose a significant fraction of its customers to new competitors offering Internet-based solutions. Using primary market research and microeconomic modeling tools, we determined which customers would be affected, what new products they would require, with what revenue impacts on our client, and over what time period. Based on our work, the client has accelerated development of an Internet-specific version of its core service and has unbundled certain service elements to better meet its customersi needs for iopeni services. These new services are expected to grow to as much as one-third of our clientis revenues within five years.

Internet Strategy

Commercial Printing

A $1 B century-old commercial printer was concerned that the growth in its customersi businesses was increasingly moving to online and away from print. We helped the client define a needed set of complementary online offerings, identify candidates for acquisition who could supply them, and acquire a successful Internet company. The acquired company has since quintupled its revenues through organic growth. In a second assignment, we helped our client accelerate growth still further by developing a process to cross-sell the Internet divisionsi services by treating the other divisions as indirect sales channels for the Internet division.

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