Challenge -- Drug companies are under increasing pressure from health insurers and policymakers to differentiate their therapies against cheap competitors. There is no ability to change a molecule once it is in advanced clinical trials, so the business need is to create broader solutions to a disease, incorporating the drug along with other interventions, so that patient outcomes surpass what is achievable through prescribing an inexpensive pill alone.  

Activities -- New Markets helped to scope the range of potential disease-state solutions in the client's key therapeutic areas. It also met with a range of start-ups that could provide excellent complements to drug-based offerings, and it assisted in desiging business and go-to-market models that support the integrated offering.

Results -- The company is now forging partnerships with a handful of start-ups in a variety of areas, as well as bolstering internal capabilities in a strategic field. 

Challenge -- A leading worldwide manufacturer of branded foods sought to tap into the rapid growth occurring in markets adjacent to a historical profit center. The company wondered how it could create new markets that had synergies with this powerful core business.

Activities -- New Markets assessed consumer trends, analogies from other industries, and moves by upstarts to determine what adjacencies would be fruitful. It also shared experience from other corporate venturing work to recommend how these adjacencies could be pursued in a scrappy manner.

Results -- The company now has a detailed roadmap of potential opportunities that have been prioritized and probed for strengths and weaknesses. The client also has a clear list of next steps for key projects, and New Markets has been engaged to help build a venture in one priority area.

Challenge -- Faced with increasing competition from down-market rivals and a sub-scale position against traditional top-tier peers, an emerging market bank sought ways to change the game with a critical customer segment.

Activities -- New Markets engaged in primary research with customers, creating a rigorous map of opportunities and the full set of competing offerings (including those outside the banking industry) that customers use to get important jobs done.

Results -- The work led to the design of a highly-innovative offering that provides non-banking services to customers in a way that the bank is best placed to broker.

Challenge -- A leading firm in the medical technology space sought new growth opportunities in fields adjacent to the core business.

Activities -- New Markets assessed potential technologies, interviewed opinion leaders, and facilitated a working session for executives at the client firm.

Results -- The company now has clear priorities for which areas to pursue and has agreed key research imperatives within the leading areas. The client is currently identifying outside technical partners.

Challenge -- A venture-backed start-up in mobile devices had an intriguing, proprietary technology that could be commercialized in multiple ways. The company had to choose where it should focus, whom it should partner with, and what companies would be competitors vs. complements. Relatedly, it needed to set rigorous priorities for the coming 18 months, at which point it aimed to raise its next venture financing.

Activites -- New Markets evaluated the relative attractiveness of several fields the company could address, and it used this analysis to help structure a two-day working session with the company's management and investors that aimed to create consensus around strategy and detailed implementation plans.

Results -- The company has a clear focus for its technical and commercial resources, and it has identified several critical activities to undertake that were not previously on its roadmap.