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A Food Company Mobilizes to Fend Off a Major Threat to its Core Business

CASE STUDY

A FOOD COMPANY MOBILIZES TO FEND OFF A MAJOR THREAT TO ITS CORE BUSINESS WWW.FULD.COM

Food Fight Company Overview

A leading food company that dominated a specific product category it supplied to commercial markets in North American suddenly found itself losing market share to a recent European entrant. Surprisingly, the rival was attacking our client’s core business, exposing its soft underbelly and jolting the client out its feelings of invulnerability about a market it had invented. Through a war game, carefully prepared and conducted by Fuld + Company, the client felt the full force of the competitive threat and explored strategic moves and countermoves. Subsequently, the company implemented the strategic recommendations that we extracted from the exercise, enabling them to defend their biggest market.

A FOOD COMPANY MOBILIZES TO FEND OFF A MAJOR THREAT TO ITS CORE BUSINESS WWW.FULD.COM

A Hydra-Headed Monster Key Business Challenges

The new entrant brought a daunting array of weapons to the battle. Its superior processing technology promised longer shelf like, lower transportation costs, and a healthier product. Its approach to promotion bundled the product, at little extra cost to customers, with one of its most popular products. The rival also built facilities in strategic locations to accelerate the velocity of its market entry. They customized their offerings and provided customers with greater ease of use of the product.

A FOOD COMPANY MOBILIZES TO FEND OFF A MAJOR THREAT TO ITS CORE BUSINESS WWW.FULD.COM

Beware the Comfortable Zone Key Business Challenges

Because the client company had been so successful decade after decade, the threat caught them by surprise. And because they had prospered without ever having had to fundamentally alter any aspect of the business, they also found themselves behind in critical areas like marketing and technology.

COMFORT

ZONE

AHEAD

A FOOD COMPANY MOBILIZES TO FEND OFF A MAJOR THREAT TO ITS CORE BUSINESS WWW.FULD.COM

Gaming Out How to Disrupt the Disruptors The Fuld Approach

Using carefully prepared briefing books and proven strategic frameworks for analyzing competitors, we conducted a rigorous and comprehensive war game. Two dozen product managers were divided into three teams – the client company and two separate teams representing the competitor. Over the course of several sessions each team:

Developed a strategy for the coming 12-18 months

Reacted to several disruptive scenarios

Identified key strategic issues

Rationalized into four key areas

A FOOD COMPANY MOBILIZES TO FEND OFF A MAJOR THREAT TO ITS CORE BUSINESS WWW.FULD.COM

Action on All Fronts Key Business Impact

Following the war game, we worked with the client to develop a strategic action plan, which they are now implementing. This comprehensive plan includes:

Aggressively pursuing new technology

Improving and increasing customer training to retain existing accounts, capture new ones, and win back defectors

Broadening the product portfolio to offer greater variety and packaging options

Introducing sales policies that enable customers to sign on with the client more easily

The company is now fully engaged in fending off the competitor on all fronts.

A FOOD COMPANY MOBILIZES TO FEND OFF A MAJOR THREAT TO ITS CORE BUSINESS WWW.FULD.COM

Heeding the Wake-Up Call The Fuld Review

Many companies we work with are leaders in their market and in some cases virtually invented it, as this client had done. But because these incumbents have been so successful, they often do not take competitive threats seriously until a threat blossoms into a full-blown problem like loss of market share. War games can have a bracing effect. In this case, the client was surprised to find that they had some serious blind spots in critical areas, including pricing, innovation, and customer intimacy. The rigorous strategic exercise of the war game not only surfaced the most viable strategies but created a deeply felt sense of urgency among participants – a visceral as well as an analytical engagement with the challenge.

A FOOD COMPANY MOBILIZES TO FEND OFF A MAJOR THREAT TO ITS CORE BUSINESS WWW.FULD.COM

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A FOOD COMPANY MOBILIZES TO FEND OFF A MAJOR THREAT TO ITS CORE BUSINESS WWW.FULD.COM

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About Fuld + Company

WHO WE ARE

Since 1979 Fuld + Company have pioneered competitive intelligence, and today we work with leading companies worldwide to deliver the competitive and market insights they need to make better business decisions. We don’t rest on our history and past successes. This means working hard to deliver uncompromising analysis that generates sound advice and earns us enduring partnerships with our clients.

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We are driven to expose our clients to insights about their industry, their competition and a changing market; designed to help avoid surprises and industry shocks. Through deep research, penetrating analysis and strategic gaming + advisory expertise, our team of professionals help you identify and solve tactical and strategic challenges. We help reduce the risks associated with business-critical decision making.

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