Which products and services should we be taking to which markets?

​

How do we ensure that our product compares favourably to that of the competition in the eyes of the buyer?

​

To answer the first question management needs to take a good look at the "prospects for profitability" of different market opportunities and marry these to the company's "competitive capability".

​

There are many tried and trusted ways of doing this. Our approach which we have deployed many times as industry participants and as consultants is based on the Shell Directional Policy framework. We work with you to adapt the suite of questions adapted to your particular circumstance and then lead you through a series of workshops to identify the options available and to plot them on a grid with "prospects for profitability" as the y axis and "competitive capability" as the x axis.

​

This enables you to:

​

• Identify the clear winners - high scores on both dimensions

• Create clusters of bigger options through combining options at a higher level of abstraction with a more compelling benefits case associated with them

• Identify attractive market opportunities where competitive capability is lacking - and then identifying way of filling the capability gap through recruitment or partnering

​

"Enstra's proposition development process was a real boon for a hard charging team focused on managing the here and now issues resulting from very rapid business growth. The process was creative, both cost and time effective in addition to being an enjoyable experience for all involved. The approach used combined ideas from within the business at all levels with the independent view of industry experts to produce a long list of potential offerings. The enstra team were then able to use their deep industry experience to produce high level business cases for each option to enable rapid screening so we could focus on a few "big ideas" that would make the most money for our customers - and hence ourselves." General Manager British Energy Direct Supply

​

"enstra worked with Fujitsu's Utilities Business Unit to develop a Utility Sector Business Strategy which included the segmentation of the sector and the creation of a segment oriented Proposition Portfolio supported by Go to Market approaches and Strategic Marketing." Utilities Industry Consultant, Fujitsu