Publications / Reports

Why invest in China now?

The path to success in the fast growing market.

In the last decade, China has become an essential player in the world’s economic landscape and has been the favored investment target for countless companies located in the mature markets. Although China has been a driver of economic success for most of these companies, in the last few years the world economy has changed fundamentally and has been drastically reshaped by several crises. In its recent study, Arthur D. Little conducted a survey in order to answer the question “Why invest in China now?” and identified and analyzed the key trends and success factors in terms of investments in China.

Released: November 2012

Download File S_O_2012_Invest_China.pdf (.PDF, 456 Kb)

Catching the Smart Home Opportunity

Room for Growth for Telecom Operators

Smart Home services are poised for strong growth and represent an attractive opportunity for telecom operators to expand their services and revenue streams. Telcos have several competitive advantages, including their internet gateways, strong customer relationships, and sales and support networks. However, partnerships are essential and timing is critical.

Released: November 2012

Download File ADL_TIME_2012_Smart_Home_Opportunity.pdf (.PDF, 595 Kb)

Innovating for Increased Public Transport

Why system innovation is needed to double the market share of public transport

Doubling the market share of public transport by 2025 is an ambitious objective. It is however a must for many cities worldwide to avoid urban mobility chaos. We argue that the objective is realistic, but will not happen overnight and not by a single stakeholder. It will require joint and coordinated efforts by multiple parties in the public transport ecosystem – What we call “System innovation”. The players who understand and find their roles in this will thrive, they will be winners in a growing and changing value chain.

Released: November 2012

Download File Innovating_for_increased_public_transport_v2.pdf (.PDF, 1.9 MB)

The Business Benefits of 4G LTE

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As Information and Communications Technology (ICT) continues to develop, the business world is applying it ever more broadly – and across increasingly diverse applications. Critical to this is the development of mobile communications technology. The latest such technology, 4G LTE (‘Fourth Generation – Long Term Evolution’), provides substantial performance improvements over previous mobile technologies, and offers the promise that connectivity will no longer be a barrier to realising the benefits of enterprise mobility.

Released: November 2012

Download File ADL_UK_Business_Benefits.pdf (.PDF, 3.4 MB)

“Make IT Faster, Better, Cheaper”

IT Industrialization as a Performance Booster

IT units have always been under pressure, but in recent years the bar has been raised even higher. The business imperative to reduce costs, expedite time to market and increase service quality at the same time are particularly a challenge for IT organizations with heterogeneously grown environments and a resulting variety of operated infrastructure. Against this background Arthur D. Little has developed an IT Industrialization Model that shows how levers such as standardization and automation can help achieve first class IT operations. With cost saving potentials of up to 30%, zero touch operations is the name of the game, referring to fully automated IT operations without any manual - and error-prone - intervention.

Released: October 2012

Download File ADL_IM_2012_IT_Industrialization.pdf (.PDF, 978 Kb)

Telco and Utility: Friend or Foe?

How telecommunication companies and utilities fight to capture a share in smart energy

The energy market is undergoing a tremendous transformation. All parts of the electricity value chain are on their way to becoming “smart”. This creates new market opportunities – and players are evolving to take advantage of them.

Telecommunications companies (telcos) consider this an excellent opportunity to diversify their own product and service portfolio into “smart” energy. This poses a potential threat to utilities companies, who need to reconsider their traditional business models and defend their established position against these new market entrants, and avoid becoming mere electricity producers in a market with higher value opportunities.

How can utilities respond? Should they protect their electricity value chain against telcos, or should they pursue a certain degree of cooperation and collaboration, or should they ignore? In order to stay competitive on the future energy market, utilities need to carefully assess their strategic options and decide which path to follow.

Released: October 2012

Download File ADL_ENRUTL_2012_TelcoUtility_Friend-or-Foe_01.pdf (.PDF, 626 Kb)

Offshore Wind Meets Nuclear

Most of the challenges in the development and procurement of offshore wind energy have been faced before- why not take a chance and have a look at lessons learned from the nuclear field?

Offshore wind projects often embrace expertise from the Oil & Gas industry. Facing increasing delays and other challenges it might be the right time to also have a look at an industry which is often considered an antagonist of wind power: nuclear energy.

The nuclear new build projects’ challenges may sound familiar to offshore owners and developers: Weak planning, advancing technology maturity, misjudgment of capabilities, dependency on external issues, and unsuitable organization design.

Arthur D. Little's expertise in large capital investment projects in both industry segments and beyond can help to make your project a success.

Released: September 2012

Download File ENRUTL_2012_OffshoreWindMeetsNuclear.pdf (.PDF, 26 Kb)

The Growth Accelerator - Benefit

Best in class companies implement targeted, impactful and replicable Growth Accelerator ini-tiatives to realize double digit growth in promising opportunity spaces

Implementing a targeted and impactful Growth Accelerator initiative typically yields an average return of 13 percentage points incremental CAGR (compound annual growth rate). While organizations concentrate on serving existing business to fulfill annual targets and shareholders' expectations, they often have limited or no strategies to address the tremendous potential outside their core business in the mid- and long-term.

Arthur D. Little can help you to identify and realize growth opportunities. Our Growth Accelerator is targeted, impactful and replicable: It is end-to-end, from ambition to realization and from Strategy and Marketing to R&D and Operations. The Growth Accelerator is about helping companies on their continuous growth journey.

Released: September 2012

Download File ADL_S_O_2012_TheGrowthAccelerator_Benefit.pdf (.PDF, 74 Kb)

How to overcome the IT innovation dilemma…

…with incremental steps towards increased business value generation

IT innovation is often perceived as the invention of the next Google, Facebook, or Kindle. We argue that CIOs can significantly transform business models through much smaller endeavors that can be highly effective for the company. Innovation Management can help to reposition IT from a cost driver to a value creator, and therefore boost operational efficiency, grow the business, and establish transformational opportunities.

Released: September 2012

Download File ADL_How_to_overcome_the_IT_innovation_dilemma.pdf (.PDF, 41 Kb)

Online Sales in the Automotive Industry

How can the internet become a successful sales channel for the automotive industry?

The role of online sales channels is gaining increasing importance for the automotive industry. The OEMs need to integrate this channel in their sales concepts as a full-fledged option – meaning that the limitation as an information instrument needs to be overcome: the OEMs need to decide for each product if, and which part, of the sales process should be covered by the online channel.

We have recently completed a comprehensive customer survey analyzing the internet as a sales channel in automotive business. To validate demand and identify critical success factors and requirements for online customers, approx. 1,000 survey results were collected from customers from Germany, China and the USA.

To successfully develop the online sales channel six actions should be considered by the OEMs:

1. Align product portfolio to online and offline sales channels
2. Establish a digital sales ecosystem for true multichannel retail
3. Gain support of the dealer network
4. Offer a clear benefit
5. Educate the customer
6. Reduce commercial risk

Released: August 2012

Download File ADL_AMG_Online_Sales.pdf (.PDF, 535 Kb)