Isolde, the lead of Siliquent, targets hospitals and big diagnostic labs. Siliquent achieves sustainable profits from consumables like test kits to remain affordable for their highly regulated target market whose budgets are bounded by insurers and the national health service. Emmanuel, the director of Teomik, on the other hand, sells to research labs and universities. They profit off of their fancy, patented machines since big funders of genetic research don’t mind the high prices. They refrain from selling compounds (the “stuff”) since that business is more saturated due to less regulation for labs and universities.
The pro of imposing a single revenue model is that the business can more efficiently navigate the increasingly fuzzy area between Teomik and Siliquent’s target markets. For instance, the businesses could combine their resources to put target all of them towards one market. This means instead of having user experience researchers and marketing staff for separate markets that overlap one another, they could more efficiently put forth their energy toward a single market. This process would also lead to more consistent messaging for Scherr regarding its mission, vision, and who it aims to serve.
It is also important to consider the potential negatives of a single revenue model. Consolidating their respective revenue models into one solution could mean that employees with differentiated expertise lose their jobs. Re-strategizing could also require a lot of unlearning on the part of many employees as well as time to re-train them. Also, a lack of flexibility in the revenue model could make the company move at a slower pace when responding to market changes.
If I were a PM in a position similar to Peter’s, I would ask each department head to state their case. I would request that they define their mission, vision, and why they value their current revenue model. Afterward, I would like to work with them to identify the pros and cons of them having separate vs unified revenue models. Based on criteria such as severity and impact, we would prioritize certain pros and cons over others. Once we can come up with a balance of the most important pros and cons, we can ideate solutions that align with both companies’ missions and visions.
