In
times of dwindling funds, an economical management of innovation has become an
absolutely crucial must-have, according to a recent survey.
Against
the background of the financial and car manufacturer crisis a survey by
management consulting firm Homburg & Partner asked 201 US companies in the
metal-forming and fabricating industry to give a 2009-2010 outlook on market
development and to specify key success factors of the industry.
Innovation
was pinpointed as the top key success factor for the next three years by more
than 25 percent of the surveyed companies. In times of dwindling funds, an economical
management of innovation has become an absolutely crucial must-have. For
prudential budgeting, innovation more than ever needs to be cost-oriented and driven
by the market rather than by intrinsic engineering.
Efficient automation is the imperative goal when dealing with production costs
and process management, which considered together form the most important key
factors for 30 percent of the participants.
Fueled by the opening of economies such as China, the globalization’s pressure
on US companies is more and more seen as a chance rather than a threat. Nearly
15 percent of the surveyed companies see expanding into global markets as the
key success factor.
Most
of the companies surveyed forecast growing markets: In the United States, the
industry’s growth is estimated as 7 percent in 2009 and 10 percent in 2010 and
worldwide as 12 percent in 2009 and 15 percent in 2010.
Yet
survey participants with upper-management titles generally hold back a bit with
the rate. About one third concur that the U.S. financial crisis will not render
into a cash-flow problem, yet it is commonly agreed that the financial crisis
has a negative effect on growth rates for the metal- forming and fabricating market.
While the crisis of the automotive producers is also seen as a threat,
management perceives it less critically.
However,
Homburg & Partner’s in-depth discussions have shown that top management of market
leaders predominantly disagree with the highly positive growth-rates of U.S.
markets and instead expect that they stay flat or perhaps increase just
slightly positive with up to 2 percent in 2009, depending on the regarded
segment. Energy is the only segment that is expected to be growing stronger.
The survey reflects the industry’s point of view at the beginning of October
and comes at a time where General Motors and Ford are having a very hard 2008,
global stock markets have lost value immensely and investment banks cease to
exist.
Homburg
& Partner Inc. is a Massachusetts-based international management-consulting
firm with a highly methodical and practical expertise in consulting, market research
and Implementation Support. Its consulting focus is on strategic sales and
marketing. While in the field of implementation-oriented market research, Homburg
& Partner offers the full range of customer, market and competitor analyses
using all established data collection and analysis methods on a worldwide
basis.
Innovation seen as key in survey
December 10, 2008
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