Inline monitoring of complex liquids is a critically important application in many industries, from pharmaceuticals to hydrocarbons. A newcomer to the market, our client made a big bet on upstream oil and gas with a state-of-the-art measurement device. They undertook this project following guidance from several people in positions of authority at one of the large national producers in their home country. By 2015, the client had produced a device nothing short of revolutionary in its combination of technical capability, reliability and cost. Unfortunately, despite much verbal support throughout the development phase, the highly anticipated orders from their first prospective customer did not materialize. Much to the client’s surprise, despite succeeding with occasional small orders, not a single major national producer committed to a large-scale adoption of their product.
From Incupoint’s point of view, this was a good example of individual guidance mistaken for organizational thinking. At an individual level, many managers and engineers working for national producers did indeed recognize the need for the kind of product offered by our client. However, organizations are notoriously conservative creatures and organizational thinking on a matter may not reflect that of individuals working in these organizations, no matter how powerful they may be. In the case of our client, it was evident that additional time was needed before national producers would recognize the need for the product at an organizational level and commit to its adoption as a company. Consequently, identifying a producer slightly ahead on the adoption curve became the central element of the solution Incupoint proposed to the client.
Following our research, Incupoint identified a large producer in the Middle East showing strong organizational need for the capability offered by our client. It is a testament to our client’s ambition and strong work ethics just how quickly they adapted their product to the realities of a foreign market. It is also a testament to the power of organizational need that the producer was willing to overlook small technical and organizational problems inevitable when technology and products developed for one geographic area are adapted for another. The project, which took 3 years to completion, has since survived several organizational changes within the producer, two oil price cycles and one pandemic. Yet such is the power of organizational need, that each successive technology manager made it their priority to see to it that the client’s product continued to be adopted by the organization.
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