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Business model transformation

June 1, 2017 Case Study 1 min read

A leading telecommunications research company successfully transitions a service entity, captures new growth opportunities, reduces costs, and stays ahead of customer needs.

Image of two people shaking hands 

The client

CableLabs®, a non-profit innovation and R&D leader to the global cable industry.

The challenge 

The company wanted to spin-off their testing lab services into a for-profit company.

The solution 

Our team provided a third-party perspective and undertook a six-week operations improvement assessment. Our in-depth process improvement expertise allowed us to quickly identify critical insights in a highly complex business environment. We combined a review of current operations with customer interviews to identify existing obstacles – and potential solutions.

To capture new growth opportunities, reduce costs, and anticipate customer needs, we identified three major initiatives:

  1. Introduce a business development model that successfully moves opportunities from identification to operationalized state.
  2. Improve performance by increasing communication, measuring work performance, developing formal improvement plans, and organizing the physical work place.
  3. Develop a new testing introduction process that ensures testing can be performed efficiently and effectively.

To support the initiatives, our team developed a business roadmap that identified work activities CableLabs could immediately implement – with its current staff – to dramatically advance its culture of continuous improvement and innovation.

Finally, we developed an integrated, multi-year financial model using alternative forecasting techniques to build on their core competencies and determine strategies to meet future market demands, profitability, and growth.

The benefit

Meetings with their executive leadership, staff, and customers allowed for a comprehensive assessment of CableLabs' lab services. We were able to understand their operations, sales and marketing activities, finances, performance pressures, and talent management processes which lead to informed recommendations that helped drive business and cultural changes required to achieve their strategic vision. We helped CableLabs convert their lab services into a for-profit entity.

“We looked at a few other firms, but the Plante Moran team picked things up faster than other consultants, integrated business processes at a quicker rate and at a deeper level, and understood our business. We are very pleased with the engagement and would hire Plante Moran again.” —Wylie Nelson, VP of Wireless and Testing Services

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