Connecting the dots between two businesses to systematically identify synergistic growth opportunities
Challenge: Systematically investigate growth opportunities between two different business units
Impact: A pipeline of growth opportunities identified and some already launched commercially (links below)
Situation: We had two businesses one a manufacturer of industrial safety products and the other a leader in advanced material science. Everyone felt that there had to be synergies here, but we had never had taken the time to explore things systematically. Some of the challenges we faced
- Natural silos….a tendency that this is nobodies job as it falls in between the two business units. For example who claims revenues for new offerings?
- Neither group as they were housed in different strategic business units had a in-depth understanding of each other capabilities or markets
- How does one connect the dots here without getting stuck in the weeds?
Approach: There were certain relevant strengths that each business unit brought to the table. The key was in trying to identify these and systematically connect the dots.
- Worked with general managers and technology leaders in both the business units to identify an inventory of relevant core strengths and market needs.
- The safety products business would leverage our advanced materials business to solve their end-market needs
- During the workshop we had immersive sessions where product managers from the safety products business brought some of their products and introduced them to our advanced material scientists explaining key challenges/needs
- Defined a ‘Creative Matrix’ – with one axis with key customer needs e.g. Lightweight but durable and the other axis with some of our key high performance materials e.g. high strength lightweight fiber’
- Using the creative matrix – systematically 24+ senior leaders from both the businesses were able to ask ‘How might we…” questions to see how our materials might solve key needs.
- The team generated dozens of ideas and prioritized 6 based on impact vs difficulty. Several of these have now been launched
Impact: By means of definition and application of various structured approaches to identify and connect the dots between the two business units we were able to
- Identify significant new projected growth revenues from these projects. Several new businesses have already been since launched. (e.g. Anti-fog Coating for Safety Glasses and Visors, Industrial Ultra Light Cut Protective Gloves, Lightweight Shoe Soles)
- We also devised a repeatable easy to use visual framework for defining synergies between different other business units
