ABC Technologies*, Inc.

* Names of company, industry, products and individuals have been changed to respect confidentiality

Walking through the New York headquarters of Nasdaq-listed ABC Technologies*, Scott Ferris, the firm’s Manager of Competitive Intelligence and William Lawson, Strategic Marketing Manager, seldom seem worried about what’s around the corner. That’s because there aren’t any corners in the building: nearly all of the walls at the $195-million company are curved to encourage "out of the box" thinking by the firm’s staff, including its technologist founders and over 100 PhD’s, scientists and statisticians.

However, seated at their well-grounded conference room table in mid-October 2001, Ferris and Lawson did reveal some anxiety and eagerness about the future. They wished to answer an especially pressing strategic question as the company positioned itself to make its next leap: Can ABC Technologies lucratively bring its [redacted] technology—an extremely profitable technology in the financial services sector—to a new, rapidly evolving market: toxicology?

 This critical question—coming as ABC’s growth plateaued and as its traditional markets approached saturation—spawned broader key questions: How is (should) the vast ‘toxicology’ space be segmented? Who are the key customers in each segment and what are their compelling unmet needs? To what degree and in what ways can the functional capabilities of ABC’s technologies translate into valued benefits for customers? Who would be ABC’s key competitors in providing those benefits to targeted customers? Would government regulatory bodies be a help or a hindrance (or a customer!) to market entry? And of course, the bottom line: What business model would best allow ABC to capture enough value in its proposition to exceed the firm’s minimum 19% hurdle rate?

Although ABC did not yet have answers to any of these questions, its scientists in late 2001 had created and unveiled a first toxicologic product entitled ToxSprectrum, with capabilities of detecting certain harmful toxins. The product was developed largely on U.S. government grants for the Defense Department, but commercializing and selling this product, even in the post-September 11^th bio-terrorist climate would prove to be a challenging task without first answering the prerequisite questions. Looking forward, it seemed that trying to find a market for this specific product, rather than figuring out where the needs and competitors lie, might be putting the cart before the horse. Ferris and Lawson wanted to make sure that their next steps into bioinformatic space were well-guided.

* Names of company, industry, products, and individuals have been changed to respect confidentiality

[This is just one excerpt from the Business Case Narrative.]