Summary
Diversification is the name of the game once a business grows and takes on the moniker of an empire. And one major area of diversification, both from a growth and visibility standpoint going forward is sustainability. With the growing demand for sustainability from customers as well as through changing policy, integration of circular economy solutions in the portfolio has become critical for businesses to not only retain their existing clientele but to chart a clean future growth trajectory. Our team of decarbonisation experts recently fuelled this drive to sustainability for a client by helping their expansion into the circular economy with some innovative solutions.
the Challenge
One of Asia’s leading construction material manufacturers engaged Evalueserve to help them in their quest for portfolio expansion in the circular economy space. Our client’s prime interest was the identification and evaluation of emerging circular economy technologies that could help them manage the post-consumer and industrial waste arising from their clientele across sectors – primarily in the Southeast Asia region. Our client wanted to integrate emerging circular economy solutions in its business portfolio that could offer recycling benefits, in a bid to not only ensure client retention but also emerge as the preferred choice for effective waste management produced for its customers. The primary sector targeted by our client was the management of waste generated across oil & gas, petrochemicals, automotive, electronics and electric (E&E), and FMCG sectors. In addition, it was also looking to develop an understanding to identify prospective partners, value-chain, and cost economics.
Client requirements:
- To identify circular economy opportunities, including identifying alternate business models, technology, and enablement partners across countries of specific interest for our client in Southeast Asia, where it has an extensive presence
- Benchmarking and prioritisation of identified technologies that are aligned with our client’s capabilities and long-term ambitions along with the deep-dive assessment of technology reach, scale, value chain, end-products market, and ‘best-fit’ business models
- To develop a long list of potential customers that could be targeted by our client across specific sectors in Southeast Asia along with the deep-dive assessment of their sustainability targets, initiatives, sustainability wallet to spend, opportunities for our client
- To develop an effective future strategy through a detailed assessment of critical pain areas faced in post-consumer & industrial waste management and circular economy initiatives and what value proposition could be offered by our client
- Developing a thorough understanding of prospective partners and business models to integrate identified technologies in our client’s portfolio. Additionally, assessment of key regulatory changes and market dynamics that could aid/impact our client in the longer term
Our Solution
The client’s requirements led us to leverage our team’s expertise in creating insights to support decarbonisation initiatives at each stage from strategy formulation all the way to market execution. Our team of experts first generated incremental insights under the following major brackets:
- Prioritising sectors and industries
Our experts first undertook a knowledge transfer to align with the client’s growth objectives and understand key focus sectors. This was followed by exhaustive list-building of the client’s existing customer base as well as their peers and competition. - Assessment of customer sustainability initiatives
Based on the prioritisation, a deep-dive assessment of the client’s above-identified customers and their associated sustainability targets, initiatives, sustainability wallet as well as growth prospects was carried out. This also led to the identification of unmet needs and critical challenges for achieving the identified goals. - Existing technology and partnership overview
The next step was to ascertain the technologies and new business models being employed to meet the identified sustainability goals. After ample options were listed, similar technologies were bucketed together to gather the key technology emerging across the client’s serviced sectors and amongst its customers. - Technology benchmarking
After identifying the technologies, our team of experts put them through their paces in a well-defined technology benchmarking framework. An elaborate multi-dimension analysis of their critical details brought about the prioritisation of the technologies, innovations, and investment avenues. - Deep-dive evaluation
Subsequently, a deep-dive assessment of the identified technologies was carried out based on reach and scale, value chain, and end-products market, among other criteria. This was enhanced further with the identification of potential partners for our client.
The key output from our team of experts utilising this thorough process was the identification of 18 innovative solutions aligned with the client’s requirement, from which the top five technologies and business models were shortlisted after a deep-dive evaluation on the basis of their impact, scalability, adoption, and disruption potential.
Business Impact
Using this methodology and powered by our needs-tailored process, the team delivered on the following high-impact areas for our client:
Circular Economy Landscape
Since our client wanted to diversify its interests while also serving the sustainability goals of its existing customers, our experts analysed and assessed the entire gamut of possibilities towards a better understanding of the circular economy potential available to the client.
Technology Deep-Dive
With a wide scope of innovations available, it was critical to get in the minute details of each potential solution for our client until the shortlist was thorough and solid enough to meet their and their customers’ goals.
Potential Partnerships
Being a global leader in its operating sectors, it was only natural that our client would receive the best possible partnerships, be it within its existing customer base or new potential partners to evaluate the best way forward.
Disruptive Solutions
The solutions shortlisted, arrived at after detailed evaluations and benchmarking, had to also be high on their disruptive potential so as to provide ample room to grow as well as provide our client with the best possible competitive edge.
