Which markets do Isolde and Emanuel target respectievely?
Isolde is in the DNA-sequencing, as head of Siiquent, a DNA-sequencing start-up. They focuse on selling to hospitals and big diagnostic labs.
Emanuel targets the research equipment market with, Teomik. They focus on selling to university research labs.
How do their respective business/revenue models align with their markets?
Siiquent initially sold test instruments, but then shifted to chemical compounds, test kits, and more. These are more frequently used in the market they are selling to. because they are smaller priced items, this aligns with the hospital’s tight budgeting for example, the German hospital.
Teomik’s business model focused on providing patented tools to research funders who need cutting-edge tools for their research. This means that Teomik is in a position of a premium supplier with low competition.
What are the pros and perils of “imposing the structure of a single revenue model” vs. “letting [the company] continue on its flexible way”?
One pro is that when you have a structure of a single revenue model, you can know how to act when something goes wrong. Your revenue is more predictable and easier to scale back or up. Another pro is having more clearity on how to move forward because everyone know exactly how the business is making money. A pro of continuing on with flexible way is that the company can quickly pivot in response to market changes. Additionally, this makes the revenue model diverse, making the company less reliant on just one model.
One peril of imposing structure is missing potential opportunities for the sake of sticking to one model. A peril of being flexible is that there is difficulty in planning for the long term because it is unpredictable what the model will look like later on.
Pretend that the CEO has decided the department heads must merge their divisions together. As a star PM assigned to mediate this interaction between department heads, how would you scaffold the discussion to ensure a fair merging process?
If I were a star PM assigned to mediate this interaction, I would begin scaffolding the discussion with a compilation of the advantages and disadvantages each side sees with their proposed “model” or “strategy”. I would also like to discuss the goals of each side and see if there is any alignment that I can use to facilitate a fair merging process, ensuring that each side views the other as members of their same team.
