Jump-starting innovation for a telecom solutions provider

With its major product line nearing maturity, a mid-sized telecommunications solutions provider needed innovative new products to turbocharge growth. Bain helped refocus NetworkCo around surging demand for mobile Internet networking products, putting the company back on track as a market leader.

In the rapidly changing telecommunications marketplace, NetworkCo found itself without a new profit engine. NetworkCo had curtailed investment in its innovation pipeline, and was left without a new line of products to fuel sustained growth.

The combination of low-cost competitors and a consolidating customer base intensified NetworkCo’s need for a clearly focused growth strategy.

Next Approach

We helped NetworkCo reprioritize its R&D investments, weeding out low-margin product lines and focusing investment in high-growth areas like mobile Internet solutions.

Next Recommendations

We developed an adjacency strategy, resulting in the acquisition of a promising new product line. Finally, we strengthened cost management to ensure that growth products hit cost targets.

Next Results

NetworkCo has revitalized growth with the product strategy that we helped craft.

The company’s focus on mobile Internet solutions for telecom service providers has delivered rapid returns: new high growth products accounted for a 10 percent increase in revenues and gross profit margins shot up almost 20 percent. The stock market also responded, with NetworkCo’s share price surging 30 percent over the course of a year.