MBA: WeDo Technologies Strategy Study

WEDO is a EBA software/platform company
WeDo Consulting started in 2001
Spinoff from Portuguese Optimus which was a telecom company
In 2004 WeDo had grown to 5 countries with annual revenues of Eur20 million and 270 employees
Products included RAID for telecoms – monitored billing and invoicing for abnormalities and triggered alerts and warnings when something did not look right. This allowed the company to react verus wait until the month end reporting was done
Company made various acquisitions to protect its market share and reduce competition
In 2010 the company made a strategic decision to innovate their product using internal funds
- To protect market share
- Expand their market to retail, fi, etc.
- Develop new capabilities
Challenges:
- They knew the telecoms business very well but struggled to penetrate the other vertical industries due to the fact they did not have the specific knowledge
- They decided to use outsourcing
The company addressed some of the these challenges by:
- Implementing a certification program for consultants and partners
- They incentivized integrators and external companies for selling their products
- Provided a platform which allowed external companies to build vertical business rules for their product for which they received revenue-sharing in return

Customer Segments

Different groups of people or orgs an enterprise aims to reach and serve
Grouping customers with common needs, behavior or other attributes
- Different prices
- Needs they have, distinct offer for each
Types
- Mass
  - One large group of customers with broadly similar needs
  - E.g. consumer electronics
- Niche
  - VP, dis channel and customer relationships are tailored to specific requirements of a niche market
  - Often found in supplier-buyer relationships
  - E.g. Biotech
- Segmented
  - Various segments with small differences in terms of needs and problems are exploited simultaneously
  - E.g. Retail Banking
- Diversified
  - Various segments with big differences in terms of needs and problems are exploited simultaneously
  - e.g. Amazon AWS (same infra for different needs)
- Multi-sided
  - When 2 or more unrelated customers with different needs and problems are exploited simultaneously
  - e.g. Credit card holders + merchants
  - E.g. eBay

Value Prop

Channels

Customer Relations

The type of relationships a company establishes with specific customer segments
Relationships can range from personal to automation
Customer relationships may be driven by the following motivations: customer acquisitions, retention, and boosting sales (upselling)
Categories
- Personal Assistant
  - Human interaction, call centers, email etc.
- Dedicated PA
  - Individual dedicated to client, B2B “Key account manager”, Large $
- Self service
  - No direct relationship with customers
  - Automatic hotel, no employees
- Automated services communities
  - Mixes self service with automated processes. Personal online profile give customers access to services and offers
  - Could possibly simulate a personal relationship
- Communities
  - Many maintain online communities that allow users to exchange knowledge and solve each others problems (MS, SCN)
- Co-creation
  - Amazon book reviews, invite to review
  - Best case
  - YouTube all content created by users

Revenue Streams

Cash company generates from each revenue stream
May have different pricing mechanisms, fixed, bargaining, auctioning, market, volume, etc.
Transaction revenues from one time payments; recurring revenues from ongoing payments
Ways to generate revenue
- Asset sales
- Subscription
- Usage Fee
- Lending/leasing/Renting
- Licensing
- Brokerage Fee
- Advertising
- Commission
- Etc.

Key resources – difficult to get

SW Devs
Market and industry specialists
Technology
Most important assets required to make a business work
- Assets, factories, machines, POS etc.
- Intellectual resources
- Human resources
- Financial resources

Key Activities

Key Partnerships

Make use of partners, suppliers to perform certain actions to focus on what you are good at
4 types of partnerships
3 motivations for creating partnerships

Optimization and economy of scale

Reduction of risk and uncertainty

Partnerships can help reduce risk in a competitive environment characterized by uncertainty.

Cost Structures

The most important costs incurred to operate a business
Some models are value driven and some are cost driven
Cost driven: low price value prop, LEAN, extensive outsourcing, max automation
Value Driven: Less concerned with cost, instead focus of value creation. Premium value prop and a high degree of personalized service usually characterize value driven business models
Value Driven -> Need to increase fixed costs
Cost Driven -> Need to increase variable costs

Published by paschmann