What new business development opportunities exists within current customer segments?

Problem

The food industry is undergoing a shift in consumer preferences, with consumers increasingly becoming conscious of their choices. This is impacting their purchase behaviour as well as the overall food value chain from sourcing to sales. TechnoCo. sought to support its food industry customers by helping them identify improvement opportunities and supporting them in their must-win battles.

Situation

TechnoCo. is a leading IT and software company in the Nordics. TechnoCo. wanted to help its food industry customers in achieving their strategic ambitions. To achieve this, TechnoCo. wanted insights into the food industry through an outsider’s perspective. TechnoCo. utilized SprintlyWorks to accelerate their understanding on the industry and the potential opportunities. This sprint provided TechnoCo.’s with concrete opportunities to pursue with its customers.

Key research questions

Q1. What are the trends driving the industry?

Q2. What are the value chain challenges faced due to changing market trends?

Q3. Identify customer specific low-hanging fruits based on their must-win battles?

Our approach

Phase 1: Map industry drivers and their impact on key business functions

In order to identify the food industry drivers, the SprintlyWorks team first mapped the entire value chain. Next, macro and micro trends shaping the industry were identified. Finally, the SprintlyWorks team mapped the impact of each driver and sub-trend on key business functions.

Phase 2: Creation of business renewal themes

The SprintlyWorks team collated business process challenges arising from the impact of industry drivers. Three key business renewal themes were identified. Consumer-oriented changes were grouped as ‘Voice of the customer’, supply chain-related changes were grouped into ‘Supply-chain a balancing act’ and asset utilisation and waste problems were grouped as ‘operational performance’.

Phase 3: Opportunity validation

After the above exercise three TechnoCo.’s customers were selected to validate if these themes were also reflected in their activities. Based on these final recommendations were drafted and opportunities areas were highlighted for TechnoCo.

Results

TechnoCo. was able to validate and pursue 3 recommended opportunities, additionally got a fresh perspective on the industry. Finally with this engagement TechnoCo. was able to accelerate its business development by 6 months.