When a professional educator's association decided to share the benefits of their research and learn from the experience of educators around the world, Market Solutions was called in to develop market entry strategies. First in the United Kingdom and later in the Netherlands, Spain and South Africa we quantified the markets for professional services and interviewed key governmental, professional and academic decision makers and opinion leaders. Then we conducted focus groups to craft the offering, prepared pro-forma operational budgets, published comprehensive profiles of the educational systems in the target countries for membership reference and test marketed memberships.

The result was an influx of educational experience from widely differing educational environments, academic exchange programs, promotions for all of the clients involved and tens of thousands of new members in target countries.

�Most of our Board are educators. They have never viewed membership and knowledge exchange in the context of marketing. These projects have vastly improved our business like approach to education.� Project leader for International Expansion�

Better to lend to those you know�planning for success.

An integrator of robotics systems for manufacturing complained to MSI that his local bank talked a lot about investing in the community but would not give him a loan to expand his 6-person business. Upon further investigation we discovered he had not written a business plan or formal financial reports on his company that could be used to attract capital.

After working together for several days we evolved a business plan that incorporated the entrepreneur�s vision of his company and a marketing plan that would enable him to capture a significant portion of the regional market for his services. We also put him together with an accountant who structured a solid set of financial reports on the company�s past three years of operation. We took the individual to a major robotics exhibition to meet with several robotics systems manufacturers.

Three of the manufacturers liked his ideas so much they offered to work with him. After negotiations one far eastern manufacturer provided a $4 million cash injection into the business and supplied a further credit line for their systems. The integrator doubled his employment and trebled his profits in one year. The local banker now complains that he was not given a chance to finance the business.

�I know everything there is to know about building robotic systems. They expect me to be a business genius as well. I just needed some help to present my business in a way other business people could understand it�    President, Robotics Systems Manufacturer

Banking the un-bankable� the People�s Bank

A European government decided that paying state benefits in cash was expensive and resulted in unacceptable levels of fraud. They determined that all individuals receiving benefits would need to have a bank account into which payment could be made electronically.

Private banks, while wanting to open accounts for people who might some day want to borrow money, did not want to service accounts for long term benefit recipients, the so-called �un-bankable,� who had no need for commercial banking services. In addition, some people without bank accounts did not want the added responsibility of operating a bank account, even though they would be prevented from sinking into debt by not having credit facilities on their accounts.

MSI worked with the bank and the postal system of the country to create a marketing plan that would voluntarily attract a critical mass of the un-bankable to make a �People�s Bank� viable. According to the planned phased introduction of the system, the plan has been running since April 2003 with a 40% uptake by eligible recipients and a government savings of over $100 million in operational expenses.

�This is the biggest change ever attempted in the payment of benefits. We now have the strategies in place to make it work.�    The Prime Minister, European Country