"Hamlin Harkins.Ltd. informed our strategic planning process using their Cascade® research method, and the resulting insights guided our team away from potential problems and pitfalls. They told us what we needed to hear, which often times was very different from what we wanted to hear. An invaluable characteristic.”

-Bruce Wood, General Manager, FMC Harvester

The Challenge
Assist senior management in the development of a strategic plan to successfully integrate four globally disparate units of FMC Harvester — two in the United States, one in Great Britain and one in France — into a cohesive, centralized organization. Concomitantly streamline duplicate product offerings into overlapping target markets worldwide.

The Hamlin Harkins, Ltd. Solution
Strategic implementation of the Cascade^® research method to survey diverse target audiences across disparate geographic locations and cultures to successfully identify target markets where product design could be successfully integrated and streamlined, and those markets where product customization was essential.

The Results

• Successful product integration resulting in a 33% reduction in the number of discrete production models, resulting in significant manufacturing cost savings.
  
  
• Dramatic reduction in divisional marketing expenditures due to product line streamlining.
  
  
• Integrated product design and positioning resulted in dominant market share — 90% penetration — exceeding the most optimistic sales forecasts.