Tuesday, May 10, 2005

Name That Project

...why not assign (your consulting projects) cheesy Apprentice-like names?

- Dutch Driver


Good idea. The problem is I can't think of a clever name (some consultant I am, huh?). So my proposal is to provide a broad overview of the project and you, Dear Reader, get to input a cheesy Apprentice-like name, from which I will select the cheesiest. Here it is:

1) It is a tech product

2) There are two ways to make the product: Process A and Process B

3) Process A has the largest market share, about 65%, since it is the lowest cost. Process B is a little higher cost, but requires lower capital investment at the factory, so smaller, less efficient companies usually end up using it.

4) My customer has come up with a procedure that will make Process B cheaper than Process A (I'll call it Process B+) . Their proposal is to license the technology to others who are already established in the market.

5) My job is to do some market research to see if the cost of B+ is low enough to displace Process A, and if so, create a business plan on how I would penetrate the market. Selling it to Process B people is seen as a secondary benefit since if A goes, the B manufacturers will follow.

6) To make things interesting:

o B+ is barely out of the R&D stage

o The customer has never participated in this market (which is why they hired me to consult them on this) . To their credit they don't want to go into the market themselves, but license the technology and take a royalty.

o Process A manufacturers obviously have a lot of sunk cost in that process already, so even if B+ requires low capital investment and offers lower cost, is it enough to get customer to switch from A (or add it to their factories)?

Okay, there are the notes. Name that project (leave submission in the comments section).

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