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September 2010 | Vol. 3 Issue 9 |
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CONNECT |
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ENVIRONMENTAL & BUILDING TECHNOLOGIES
Effective Solutions for
Challenging Times
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By Konkana Khaund
Director, Industry Analyst,
Environmental & Building Technologies
Frost & Sullivan
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As the economy pulls out of the plunge, industry players are starting initiatives to keep thriving competitively, while still struggling with cost efficiencies. Industry thought leaders in the Environment & Building Technology industries brainstormed on these challenges and discussed their individual ways of addressing them during their presentations and think-tank discussions. Issues such as customer education, aligning value propositions and leveraging energy efficiency as a cost-effective means to reduce operating expenses for themselves and their customer base echoed as effective solutions helping them to maintain competitiveness.
Leading the discussion were key representatives of prominent industry participants such as Honeywell Inc, Ingersoll Rand-Trane, Intel Corporation, Schneider Electric and Tridium. There was a clear need to focus on saving energy and personalizing energy issues for their consumers, which in turn will benefit their businesses, customers and ultimately, entire value chain.
Advocating Best Practices and Innovation
The interactions and feedback emphasized the “redefining initiative” being advocated to enhance revenue streams. Building efficiency participants maintained that because energy is the largest controllable operating expense for a home or building, reducing energy costs has a significant positive impact on the bottom line (not only for solution providers, but most importantly the customers). Positioning products and solutions to end-users with visibility and long-term savings is increasingly replacing conventional ways of catering to the market place, as pointed out by participants from Schneider, Intel and Trane. In addition, understanding where the incentives are, and therefore what technologies to position for maximum customer appeal is key to succeeding in an otherwise slow market.
Diversifying into parallel markets and product segments was also a key area of discussion. Fiona Sim, Director of Intel’s Open Energy Initiative, discussed Intel’s venture into the energy efficiency area, with personalized energy monitoring solutions that could help home and building owners impact their overall energy dependency, reduce wasteful consumption and help lower operational costs in the long term. Realizing the potential in the energy-efficiency business, Intel has devoted research, development and innovation to productize plug-and-play gadgetry that could appeal to consumers, much like the iPhone. Sim emphasized the need to include the consumer in energy discussions and expressed concern over the fact that most industry level dialogue still visibly left the consumer out, thus leading to backlash and delays in implementing energy reduction programs.
Repositioning and Branding
With mergers and acquisitions marking the industry timeline during the last decade, a number of major organizations are finding themselves with the pressures of amalgamation and restructuring. While it has, no doubt, enhanced the market positioning of the major players, it’s clear that there has been a struggle to reorganize corporate culture to create a unified vision among group companies. Participants threw light on their individual activities during the past year that primarily focused on creating a unique corporate identity among their organizations, and leveraging the capabilities of their group companies. Janey Kaster, Vice President of Integrated Building Systems Practice at Schneider, gave her perspective on the branding issues and subsequent repositioning initiatives her company faced in regards to these challenges.
Capitalizing on Niches to Address Emerging Trends
Whatever the value proposition, it is critical to find something that makes it unique and different from the mass market. This view was endorsed by the entire panel as well as the audience, and panelists shared specific instances of how they are putting this notion into practice for maximizing returns in new areas. One of the popular emerging areas is the integration of intelligent buildings with the Smart Grid. Each participant described his or her approach and concept positioning to address consumer needs in a smart grid-ready environment. Although questions about balance of power, grid security, readiness of the industry and the building environment’s ability to connect to the grid remained debatable and partially answered at best, it was clear that all participants saw this as the next big trend to revolutionize the industry.
Parting Messages
While the economic challenges continue to keep growth in check in the short term, companies will need to concentrate on both tangible and the intangible issues of doing business to maintain their competitive edge. As the panel wrapped up with parting thoughts, participants walked away with more ideas about what it takes to get energy efficiency and greening initiatives to appeal to the end market, and keep their positioning attractive, despite the challenging times.
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GIL 2010: Middle East
The Global Community of
Growth, Innovation and Leadership
Rotana Yas, Yas Island Abu Dhabi
October 6, 2010
GIL 2010: Asia Pacific
The Global Community of
Growth, Innovation and Leadership
Singapore
October 18-19, 2010
GIL 2010: China
The Global Community of
Growth, Innovation and Leadership
Shanghai
November 9, 2010
12th Annual
MARKETING WORLD, 2011:
A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange Series
February 8-10, 2011 |
New Orleans, LA
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