The Challenge: A major Tier 1 supplier to the automotive industry had seen declining growth and intensified pricing pressures. The firm wanted to define the high-priority action items that would enable it to meet its medium-term growth and profit goals.

Assessment: With this firm already operating in North America, Europe, and Asia, initial assessments were made of existing OEM relationships in terms of several dimensions – the strength of the relationship, the key competencies which the firm brought to each relationship, and the potential for growth in this firm’s business in terms of adjacency products, relationships with global platform teams, and other such factors. In parallel, a detailed assessment was completed of the light vehicle market segments to identify the opportunities that existed for this firm to establish a position through which it could sell into growth markets.

Strategic Solution: Blue Canyon identified a number of specific barriers which were thwarting this firm’s ability to grow its business with existing OEM customers, and developed action plans to address each of them. In parallel, a set of growth targets were established, by OEM, platform, product line, and geography. These growth targets were tightly linked to strong “preferred supplier” relationships and to previously identified opportunities through which this supplier could create value for its OEM customers through its technology position and its ability to deliver certain key services globally. A specific roster of targets was identified for each year covered in the firm’s planning process, and resources were assigned based upon these strategy plans. These targets included existing and new OEM customers, and spanned opportunities across Europe, North America, Japan, Korea, and China.

Results: The firm won key positions on two targeted platforms in the third year after this plan was implemented, and has significantly improved its outlook for continued profitable growth.