• Home
• About RCBS
  • Services
  • Customers
• Case Studies
  • Investment
  • Route to Market
  • Startup
  • Expansion
• Contact

A plumbing company had developed two products that that were unique and would dominate their market sector. The MD, also the product inventor, had diverted most of his company's profits in to the R&D. He had the opportunity to recoup his investment in the products from a company he had worked with in South Africa. He returned from South Africa with another product and not the funds that would enable him to prevent the company from going in to administration and develop the products to a point where they could be successfully marketed.

The plumber had invented a number of products that were potential market leaders. The products had unique selling points but this was lost in the reluctance to market them effectively. The client was too close to the products and could not separate his inventions from the business process.

This was complicated by the fact that he had no business strategy to manage his day to day business and his R&D department had depleted his financial resources to the point where he was verging on bankruptcy. Additionally, he was reluctant to focus the business' efforts on developing the 2 products and "shelving" the remainder until he had established a market for the critical 2 products.

In short, this client was a serial inventor. He chose to design products that he believed were commercially successful. He was not an entrepreneur and this was underpinned by a trip to recover outstanding payments for work completed, only to return with more ideas for products.

Shortly after the client was declared bankrupt.

The client refused to allow intervention in the product set he believed would win business. This was complicated by his inability to move away from the position of inventor and adopt a commercially motivated strategy that would result in him becoming very successful with a small product portfolio.

More Case Studies

• Route to Market: A university research department had developed approximately 200 products. The volumes of new products were such that the departmental marketing manager was unable to evaluation and identify the successful ones (more...)
• Startup: The photographer had obtained funding from a charitable trust to start his business up but had made very little progress in identifying a sector where he could operate effectively (more...)
• Expansion: The client was an established landscaping company in the social economy. They had the opportunity to expand by entering into a partnership with another participant in that sector. However, to do this, they required capital to support the expansion (more...)