Challenge 1 • Market Expansion

The client’s core business is stable and growing as expected. It seems to be the opportune time to expand your value proposition in the adjacent markets or new verticals. E-commerce players are becoming banks. Oil and gas companies are venturing into the ride sharing business. They are ready to build new capabilities to prepare for expansion. There are various markets that they have thought of to penetrate.

Which market should we expand into now?
How do we enter a new market with our brand?
What innovations can we develop that leverage our assets?

Challenge 2 • Commoditizing market

The client is in the commodity business or operating in a market that is rapidly commoditizing rapidly. Competing on price with razor thin margins on their products, they have to rely on high volumes to ensure the unit economics work and be profitable. With lowering barriers to entry, there are too many players entering the market and offering the same products and services - some do it better, cheaper, faster than the client. The client is aware that they have to compete beyond volume and price.

How do we decommoditize our business?
How do we leverage our assets to develop new value propositions?
How do we transition towards the new business model?

Challenge 3 • Technology commercialization

After an extensive time and resources invested in R&D, the client’s research team has achieved a breakthrough. An emerging technology has been invented that has the potential to drastically change many industries. The senior leaders evaluate it with high valuation and make a hockey-stick growth forecast. As excited as they are in the potential returns and impact of the technology invention, they are lacking clarity how to move forward with many possibilities open for them.

How do we commercialize the invention?
What are the use cases?
How do we get it adopted at a massive scale?”

Challenge 4 • Me-too brands

It’s not a secret that the client is a “me-too” company. Called a copycat by others, they did not care as long as market leaders have proven the value proposition and business model work. After all it is the formula that made them competitive. Playing quick catch-up is getting exhausting. With revenue declining and growth slowing down from an oversaturated market, the client is mustering for better conditions, and enlist your service to transform them from “me-too” to “I am”.

How can we reposition our brand as an industry leader?
How do we zig when others zag?
Should we even be in this market?”

Challenge 5 • Product evolution

The client has a good start. Niche and problems identified. Built an MVP and achieved product-market fit. After a period of time, customers kept coming back to them with the same issues. It’s time to upgrade but the product was not built right the first time. It’s clunky with poor user experience but it does the job nevertheless. The opportunity cost of not improving it is huge if something is not done.

What are the insights that can improve our value proposition?
How do we better design our product?
What is the future direction we should take with the product?

Challenge 6 • Future envisioning

The client has a vision to change the world. However their employees are not able to recite the company vision. They cannot see what the future looks like in the hands of the leaders. Since the future is uncertain and unpredictable, the client is only able to anticipate short-term vision. Master plans cannot be crafted without clarity of what the long-term future looks like in their hands.

What is the future of my industry?
What are the scenarios that could play out in the future?
How can we build the future we envisioned?

Challenge 7 • New Venture

The client has the next big idea for your startup. Their first order of business is to develop a prototype, even before the target market, problems and value proposition are validated. Everything is moving fast and chaotic in order to launch quickly and achieve product-market fit. They have a scattered knowledge about your users, market, and business model as shortcutting is the norm. To build a meaningful startup, the client is willing to learn about much of what they don’t know.

What are the riskiest assumptions we need to validate?
How do we achieve product-market fit ASAP?
What should be the right business model to grow our startup?

Challenge 8 • Smart city development

The new smart city has not garnered the outcomes as planned. After more than a decade of planning and building, the city is still a ghost town with high tech infrastructure. There are numerous empty overpriced buildings that are left abandoned. Different policies and measures have been put in place, but all efforts are at naught.

How should the smart city differentiate itself?
What services should we prioritize building in sequences?
How do we enable direct investment to co-create new businesses?

Challenge 9 • Digital transformation

External and internal forces have forced the client to embark on digital transformation. The old ways of doing things have become obsolete. Assets, processes, and business models must be digitized, in order to survive and compete in the digital economy. The client has started its digital transformation journey, but their initiatives are failing or previously failed. 

What is the digital journey that is uniquely ours that we need to embark on?
What is the new digital business we need to build?
How do we sustain digital transformation efforts?

Challenge 10 • triple bottom line

Your client is passionate to solve an important social issue that is marginalizing underserved communities or an environmental issues that are degrading the environment. The social and environmental issues present systemic problems that are costing the country millions of dollars. Past interventions have been put in place but new problems arise as the client discovers loopholes that are being exploited and red tapes slowing down resource allocation.

How do we do good and make money at the same time?
How do we develop value propositions with sustainable outcomes?
How do we operate without producing negative output?