Innovation is key to staying ahead in a competitive market and achieving long-term success.
In the case study below, I was able to help the company move from a red ocean, where there was intense competition and low differentiation, to a blue ocean, where there was little competition and a unique value proposition.
A Tel-Aviv-based AI company was creating digital jewelry for their clients and wanted me to help improve the overall quality and the production processes of their operations.
However, after doing the initial assessment for improving the operations, I noticed a bigger problem that the company was not aware of:
1. The company was in a market with many competitors supplying the same products and solutions to an already mature market (A company I founded over 10 years ago was doing exactly this).
2. The company was not able to implement the unique AI tech they developed for this market, so were not using and leveraging it.
After examining the advantages of the technology they developed, I noticed that the reasons it couldn’t be applied for digital jewelry could be applied and become advantages if adjusted to a different market, such as footwear.
The solution I devised was to PIVOT the company from the highly competitive jewelry market (where they were continually losing money), and into the Footwear market.
The 2 main reasons for this opportunity:
1. No Competition caused by high entry barriers: Digital Footwear is one of the most complex 3D assets to produce, and is mostly done manually by 3D artists – These create a high market entry barrier – hence low competition.
2. Automating: If the company's proprietary AI technology would be able to automate labor-intensive work then it would be able to lower costs and scale dramatically.
We began with an initial POC project, to confirm that the unique tech could work with shoes.
After succeeding, I devised a plan for executing this for the new market, as it required creating new processes, and procedures and hiring different artists and team members.
The decision to pivot and innovate was not an easy one, as it involved significant changes to the company's operations and workforce. However, the resulting success and growth demonstrate the potential rewards of innovation and the importance of staying ahead of the curve in a rapidly changing market.
This pivot allowed the company to enter a new market with low competition (a blue ocean), where it was able to rapidly scale and become a market leader.