Project Experience

  • Business Strategy and Market Entry Planning
     

  • Product and Market Assessments
     

  • Competitive Analysis and Relative Competitive Assessments
     

  • Mergers & Acquisitions
  • Technology Experience

    Industry Experience

    Business Strategy and Market Entry Planning

    Without creating and adhering to a clear strategy, it is easy for a company to evolve in a reactive manner, with business decisions that are made in response to perceived market trends and the specific actions (or inactions) of a company's customers, competitors, or regulatory agencies.  Similarly, when companies launch new products or execute initial "go-to-market" strategies, they will often acquire new customers and accept new business at any cost even when these are not the "right" customers for the company in the long run.

    Sound strategic planning begins with an accurate assessment of current and expected performance, capabilities, and competitive advantages.  From there, it is important for the organization to define its long and short-term goals and to develop processes for evaluating performance and communicating results to the board or executive management team.  Accurate and objective measurement, reliable analysis, and an understanding of the unique fit between a company and its markets are critical to the development of business strategy and market entry planning.

    SMG's Experience with Business Strategy and Market Entry Planning

    Simon Management Group has advised executive teams at companies of all sizes, providing data-driven recommendations and forecasts that directly impact clients' strategies for growth.  Whether growth is achieved organically, through existing products, services, and capabilities, or through the acquisition of another technology or business (see M&A), sustaining that growth will depend heavily on creating a sound planning process, measuring performance, and developing feedback mechanisms for evaluation and future planning purposes.

    Often a company's growth can be slowed by the divergent requirements of a fragmented customer base, distribution channel limitations, maturing technologies, competitive activities, or by other constraints.  SMG specializes in identifying and measuring the impact of these business constraints through objective (and sometimes anonymous) data collection from a company's customers, competitors, partners, or other performance influencers.  We analyze our findings and deliver results that can be readily applied to a company's strategic or market entry planning decisions.

    Examples of our Business Strategy and Market Entry Planning experience include:

    Fortune 100 Computer Manufacturer
    SMG built a "services group" business model for a Fortune 100 computer manufacturer that was considering the creation of a new services business unit to support its handheld computing and other hardware product groups.  SMG forecasted the market opportunity and created a financial model for this client by:

    • Conducting market research to understand the timing and quantify the adoption of handheld computing applications and services.
    • Facilitating a cross-functional team of consultants and the client's product group members to measure and validate the client's business opportunities.
    • Building a series of linked spreadsheet models that integrated with our client's strategic plan.

    Mid-Tier Software Company:
    SMG worked with the executive team to assess and prioritize its various options for business growth.  In addition to providing a systematic methodology for identifying and ranking strategic options, SMG used a combination of secondary research and industry interviews to test the viability of specific growth opportunities.

    Venture-backed Managed Services Provider (MSP) Company:
    Through two phases of market interviews and analysis of prospective demand, SMG provided the founding management team of an IP-based PBX services company with a better understanding of its initial market opportunity by:

    • Interviewing prospective enterprise end-users by telephone to (a) determine the extent to which the market would adopt such an innovative replacement to conventional PBX and Centrex systems; (b) segment likely demand based on the size of the organizations interviewed - we targeted interviews across small, mid-tier, and large businesses; and, (c) evaluate feature and functionality preferences among the various segments.
    • Conducting a series of interviews with prospective channel partners, including CLECs and other telecommunications and data services providers.
    • Quantifying and projecting the likely market demand for this nascent market, based on measuring and ranking interest in the proposed solution.