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In our Work Stories series, we highlight examples of our recent client work to help others understand the work we do.  Today’s work story is a recent Market Opportunity Analysis that we performed for a technical B2B services company.  We’ll call this company TechServCo to protect its identity.

Industry: B2B Technical Services

Ownership: Privately Held

History: Founded circa 1990

HQ: U.S. (East Coast)

Geographic Scope: Worldwide

 

Company Scenario:

Since the 1990s, TechServCo has provided technical services to the U.S. military on large, multi-year contracts.  When TechServCo was awarded its first contract, it was a young startup working to gain a foothold in an industry with established players.  Over the past 20 years, TechServCo has chipped away at the leading providers’ market share, and has recently become the preferred vendor for the U.S. military for the services it provides.  In mid-2015, TechServCo’s new CEO made it a top priority to diversify into other industries.

TechServCo began exploring opportunities in the private sector, including the oil & gas, maritime, and electric utility industries.  After conducting its own internal analysis, it was decided that the electric utility industry best fit the company’s expertise.   As TechServCo’s CEO and leadership team weighed the pros and cons of entering this new industry, one persistent question nagged at the team: “Was entering this market a smart financial move?”  In order to help it answer this important question, Fletcher&Co. was brought in to assist in analyzing this new opportunity.

The scope of Fletcher&Co’s work was to understand the following:

  1. The Market and its Regulation
  2. The Customer’s Needs and Decision Making Process
  3. The Competition and Barriers to Entry
  4. The Size of the Market Opportunity

Outcomes/Deliverables:

In the process of conducting an exhaustive research of publicly available information, we identified several dozen key industry experts at the following organizations:

  • Electric Utilities
  • Trade Associations
  • Think Tanks
  • Regulatory Agencies

Over an 8 week period, we interviewed many of these key experts to gain a deeper understanding of the industry’s dynamics.  Through these conversations, in addition to our own economic analysis, we identified the size of the market opportunity, the key customers, the key decision makers, how customers selected technical service providers, the top competitors, the barriers to entry, and the key success factors.

Fletcher&Co. presented the interim findings to TechServCo’s CEO every two weeks during the duration of the project.  At the completion of the project, Fletcher&Co. presented the conclusive findings to TechServCo’s executive team at an offsite strategy retreat.  TechServCo has decided to move forward with this new opportunity and is sending its sales team to the leading industry conference in Q1/2016 to meet with prospective customers.  Having spent considerable time with TechServCo’s CEO and his leadership team over the past few months, Fletcher&Co. has complete confidence in their ultimate success at entering this new market, and accomplishing its strategic goal of diversifying its customer base in the coming year.