Making the Shift to a Solutions Business

Increased market share and profitability are often the rewards for companies that shift successfully from product-driven to solutions-focused business models. But the challenge of this shift is great because the rules of the game are so different. The focus on driving product line performance, so necessary to building a winning product company, can run directly counter to the integration and collaboration required to deliver customer-focused solutions across multiple product lines.

TruePoint helps product organizations develop the alignment and commitment to win in a solutions business. Success requires clarity around a shared strategic agenda and what TruePoint describes as a “strong-strong-strong” organizational design.

Assuming a strong product-based “back end” of the business, the business must create a customer-based “front end” focused on delivering solutions (rather than selling products). Finally, a strong senior management team bridges and coordinates the two ends of the business.

Building these new strengths requires new decision-making processes to manage the inherent trade-offs of a solutions business –balancing the needs of different divisions, and short- vs. long-term goals. Priority setting and resource allocation must be dynamic. Leaders at all levels must step up – the senior leadership team must integrate effectively across units and functions, and committed down-the-line leaders must “do the right thing” for the company rather than focusing on their own division’s interests.

In the shift from products to solutions, the definition of winning changes. TruePoint helps companies replace “silos” focused on driving individual product line performance with an integrated organization focused on increasing total profits by delivering greater value to customers. The shift can be uncomfortable, but the result is a more dynamic, more resilient and more profitable organization.

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