Innovation Strategy for HILTI Netherlands to increase loyalty with consumable customers by virtue of dust regulations and sales force networking effectiveness.

Innovation Strategy for HILTI Netherlands to increase loyalty with consumable customers by virtue of dust regulations and sales force networking effectiveness.

Ay, O.

Buijs, J.A. (mentor)
van Heur, R. (mentor)

Industrial Design Engineering

Industrial Design

Master of Science Strategic Product Design

2015-02-20

Executive Summary “Talking is ordinary and anyone can do it, yet strategic conversations are as priceless as diamonds when running a business” This statement is essentially summarizing the solution and the problem of Hilti’s loyalty problem with consumable customers in one sentence. Hilti’s biggest resource to gain momentum, trust and loyalty with customers is its sales force. Yet achieving strategic conversations is different than small talk and needs to be beneficial for both parties. This thesis explores the problem and provides solutions towards the loyalty problem with consumable customers by delivering solutions focused on the short and long term. As it is Hilti’s ambition to be the worldwide leader in fastening technology, Hilti’s will need to provide customers with continuous innovative products to engage consumable customers in the long term. In the short term Hilti will need to provide the construction application market with innovative dust- free products. This thesis provides prototypes to show Hilti, ideas that are promising. However, launching these new products on the market will only create short term competitive advantage and not the desired sustainable competitive advantage in the long run. For that an stronger relationship between Hilti’s sales force and consumable customers is needed and within this thesis referred to as long term solution as it will take time to develop to its full potential. To understand the current position of Hilti MO NL in the Netherlands, an internal analysis has been performed to understand Hilti and an external analysis to analyze the market, industry and trends [PESTEL] for Hilti’s environment. Furthermore customer research has provided valuable insights by observing and interviewing customers. All these insights have been carefully analyzed and transformed into strategic factors as input for the SWOT analysis. The resulting SWOT confrontation matrix has provided three strategic directions which have been used in an creative session with students from the TU Delft to converge the project into two main directions. The first strategic direction focuses on delivering solutions for the dust-free anchoring market by tackling the bore hole cleaning procedure before anchor installation. Two prototypes have been developed which focus on dust-free bore hole cleaning. The first prototype is called the hollow brush bits [page54]. The hollow brush bit can be connected to Hilti drilling tools and simultaneously suck away and brush dust particles (necessary step for chemical anchoring applications). The hollow brush bits can be marketed as an family extension line of the Hilti TE-CD /TE-YD Hollow drill bits. The TE-CD / TE-YD are marketed by Hilti as automatic cleaning drill bits which can drill holes from 12 mm till 32 mm without the need to clean holes afterwards. The hollow brush bits can be marketed as semi-automatic cleaning bits as it cannot drill holes rather make hole cleaning more convenient and faster. The second prototype is an manual hand pump and has been designed as a result of construction workers complaining about dust particles in their face during anchor hole cleaning procedures. Manual hand pumps are still the most common method for cleaning anchor holes. They are cheap, fast and easy to transport. The prototype is called automatic cleaning hand pump and it sucks away the dust particles at the source. If desired, the prototype is designed in such a way to be usable with or without connecting to vacuum cleaners. The hollow brush bits and automatic cleaning hand pump prototypes presented are good ideas to further strengthen Hilti’s brand image as a company which strives for continuous innovative dust free solutions. The other two strategic directions have led to an strategic networking tool which can be used as an supporting tool for the master TS [experienced Territory Salesperson] to increase the networking effectiveness with consumable customers. This tool can be used to create truly meaningful relationships between customers and Hilti’s sales force. This networking tool incorporates an app which is part of the amplified community [page73]. In this community the master TS can further developing his/her skills towards becoming the strategic networker for Hilti and for customers. The customer receives three benefits by joining this community. First benefit is the geo tracking notifications intended on informing the customer that the master TS is nearby and the possibility to request a meeting. Second benefit is offering trade specific discounts only collectible within the app and in person with the master TS. The third benefit is networking within the amplified community app, finding easily specific industry experts within their trade, meeting other amplified community members in their area and possibly even meeting potential business partners to grow their professional network in the future. To conclude this thesis, an implementation plan consisting of financial estimations, strategic roadmap for development of the proposed solutions and a project evaluation of the entire project has been given.

Strategy
Amplified community
Customer journey map
External analysis
Internal analysis
Hilti
App

http://resolver.tudelft.nl/uuid:d454ccf2-010d-43d7-977d-ebfc975f9ff1

Campus only

Student theses

master thesis

(c) 2015 Ay, O.