Commercialization of technology, and accompanying overseas M&A support

Background

A major manufacturer, as growth of its existing businesses slowed year by year against a backdrop of a dwindling market, established a cross-divisional organization in charge of exploring new business opportunities with the goal of creating a new business. The manufacturer set the visions for the new organization as “consolidation and commercialization of technologies scattered across the group” and “business creation not bounded by the frameworks of existing businesses,” and asked for DI’s support and partnership in achieving these visions. DI and the manufacturer (the client) collaborated in a range of areas to this end, from creating an inventory list of technologies and categorizing them by business theme to business model and strategy formulation and execution.

Support overview

DI divided the project largely into three phases: Creating an inventory list of technologies and categorizing them by business theme; strategy and business model formulation; and partnership formation with an eye toward execution (total project duration of nine months).

Phase 1: Creating an inventory list of technologies and categorizing them by business theme (duration: approx. three months)

DI began working on the project by sorting through the inventory of nearly 100 technologies scattered across the client’s internal R&D organizations. DI redefined value-added for each technology, taking into consideration information obtained from interviews with key persons involved in the R&D of each technology as well as social trends, and categorized the technologies into several business themes. Then, DI evaluated each business theme in terms of the distinctiveness of representing technologies, extent of customer needs, and related market size, and after discussions with the client, ranked the themes in the order of priority for commercialization review. Healthcare, of all business themes evaluated, was given the highest priority, and DI and the client began considering creating a new business in this field.

Phase 2: Strategy and business model formulation (duration: approx. three months)

DI interviewed dozens of experts, potential customers, and related government agencies to understand the market environment and related government policies. Through a repeated process of drafting strategies and business models and having them be challenged or refuted during these interviews, DI was able to enhance the feasibility of its business strategy and model. Further, taking advantage of the network built through conducting these interviews, DI pushed forward with forming partnerships, searching for partner candidates and customer candidates for conducting a PoC.

Phase 3: Partnership formation with an eye toward execution (duration: approx. three months)

In the final phase of the project, DI approached partner candidates and drafted and reviewed a detailed collaboration scheme. DI made a long list of potential partner companies, established a policy for approaching these companies, and interviewed partner candidates before arranging a negotiation meeting between the candidates and the client. Then, DI conducted due diligence on the top candidate, which was an overseas company, formulated a detailed collaboration scheme, and supported the client in fine-tuning the resulting M&A deal.
Even after the project was completed after nine months, DI accompanied the client in launching the new business and continued providing support until the business took off, refining strategies along the way.

After completion of the project

• The client successfully launched a new business in healthcare, a new domain for the client.
• The client steadily expanded the new business even after its launch, and now the business has grown to the scale of several tens of billions of yen.
• The new business has grown into a business capable of driving future growth for the client.