US facilities-based communication provider faced significant competitive challenges from larger players with broader product portfolios, lower costs of capital, and higher brand awareness.
A US facilities-based communications provider faced competitive pressure from larger players with broader product portfolios, lower costs of capital, and stronger brand recognition. High debt servicing obligations and fiber-to-the-home infrastructure commitments meant traditional growth approaches—acquisitions, new product investment, heavy R&D—were off the table.
The portfolio gap was already showing up in the numbers. Customer churn was accelerating as clients migrated to competitors with more comprehensive offerings, and ARPU (Average Revenue Per User) had stagnated. The strategic constraint was clear: capital limitations prevented the very investments needed to close the competitive gap.
We designed a lightweight Portfolio Innovation function to enable rapid portfolio expansion without capital-intensive acquisitions. The core insight: partner with companies that had already built the products the client needed, then white-label or co-brand them to fill portfolio gaps quickly.
The 8-week engagement developed five integrated components. Market segmentation analysis across consumer, business, and wholesale identified white-space opportunities. An innovation portfolio framework categorized initiatives into three tiers—Optimize (core offerings), Enhance (incremental improvements), and Expand (new markets/products)—with investment allocation models for each. Organizational design specified roles, responsibilities, and cross-functional coordination for the new Portfolio Innovation team. A partner evaluation framework established objective criteria (strategic fit, technical capability, market access, financial stability) with scoring methodology for consistent decision-making. Finally, an agile product innovation process enabled rapid prototyping, stage-gate evaluation, and go/no-go decisions at each milestone.
The framework was designed for speed: evaluate, co-develop, and onboard 5-7 commercial partners annually.
The engagement positioned the client for a $1.5B revenue trajectory by 2028—all without the capital requirements that had previously blocked growth. The Portfolio Innovation function identified 5-7 strategic partnerships for the initial onboarding pipeline, with B2B expansion validated as the highest-potential segment based on addressable market analysis and competitive positioning.
Beyond the revenue opportunity, the client gained operational capabilities it previously lacked. The Portfolio Innovation function launched with defined roles, budget approval, and an 18-month implementation roadmap. Clear evaluation criteria and agile innovation processes enabled systematic partnership assessment, replacing ad-hoc decisions with data-driven frameworks. Competitively, the partnership strategy turned a capital disadvantage into an advantage—the client could expand its portfolio faster than competitors tied to traditional build-or-buy approaches.
The engagement succeeded because it reframed the constraint as an opportunity. Rather than competing on capital, the client competed on partnership speed and execution. The lightweight organizational model—purpose-built for partnership evaluation rather than product development—reduced overhead while accelerating decision velocity. Most critically, the framework was designed for repeatability: the same process could be applied to each new partnership opportunity, creating a sustainable competitive advantage.