SOLUTION BUSINESS IN MARINE EQUIPMENT MARKETS, Case Taurus

Abstract

Solutions business is today considered as an advanced way to generate more business. Typically this will require certain specific competences and generally a different approach towards the customer than the more traditional business models. Earlier studies have indicated that typically companies start from the product provider profile and then begin providing services on the top of their products. Then later on they start to add more and components to their offering which can also include external products. A good model for solution business framework is presented in the study.

The interesting study question was if the solution approach is suitable for reasonably conservative markets, such as marine equipment market. The investment goods have different dynamics than consumer products. Also, another topic was to find out which kind of set-up would be optimal for this market. These were reviewed in case study. The selected case company “Taurus” is a good example of a typical and traditional marine equipment company. They started as a pure product company and extended later to offering services and solutions. The data for the empirical analysis was gained through two rounds of extensive semi-structured interviews with key people responsible of the solution business within Taurus.

The results of the study indicate that the solution approach does fit to marine equipment markets, but there are substantial differences on the acceptance of the solution approach by different customer types. Therefore it is very much advisable to distinguish well which customers to target with the solution approach. It was also found out that the preferred internal set-up for offering solutions is similar than the one presented in the theoretical framework.

This research is based on the solution business theory, reasonable experience and understanding on marine equipment markets as well as on the case company gained through years of challenging international business.