Circular and Sharing Economy
Though some Apps have recently emerged, for example for sharing construction or other equipment, the industrial B2B space is quite open for service providers with innovative ideas and good technology. The economics of the industry mean that first mover advantage with a powerful value proposition is crucial. We help companies active in this space research markets, understand customer buying behavior, define business models and develop strategy. We further help them design the customer journey, gain access to anchor customers and implement and optimize a service delivery system.
Powerful Economics driving “Sharing” Apps
The sharing economy is about using technology to improve utilization and productive use of services, products or asssets through sharing among multiple users, concurrently or sequentially. It’s modern origins probably go back to the founding of Ebay and Craigslist in the mid ’90s and the start of recirculation of goods. Since then numerous applications (Apps) have emerged, ranging from services provided by people, to hospitality, vehicles or industrial equipment. The power of the sharing economy can be seen in the valuations of companies like Uber or Airbnb, which in very few years have exceeded those of their more traditional brethren.
Sharing Apps have powerful economics, as the increase in utilization reduces deadweight costs and unit prices and expands markets. Furthermore, as native digital businesses, they display “network effects”: the value of the network increases with each additional connection or node, both for the new user and the already existing users, while the (marginal) cost of adding another customer or providing another unit of service is minimal. This fuels rapid growth and “winner takes all markets”: the top players have supersized market shares and small differences in skills can mean large differences in returns. They exist because technology has increased the size of the market that can be served by a single company. This implies that there will be few winners, therefore investment risk for industry incumbents in digital transformation increases. The result is binary: Companies either win or lose and there is nothing much in the middle.
Insights and Success Stories
Why I Keep Coming Back to the Si2 Service Leaders Network Summit
Why does Martina Krengel from Georg Sahm keep coming back to the Si2 Summit? She says that Si2 has created a trusted environment for open, honest discussions with peers facing similar challenges. I gained practical, immediately applicable insights, valuable connections, and fresh perspectives from real-world experiences. The strong sense of community, shared learning, and collaborative problem-solving help’s me as a leader to improve faster and create greater value.
Implementing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): A SMART Strategy for Service Growth
For many industrial OEMs and technology providers, the greatest growth opportunity is often hidden in plain sight.
Most manufacturers can tell you exactly what it costs to build their equipment. They know their material costs, production overheads, warranty reserves, and sales margins. Yet when asked a much more important question — what does it actually cost your customer to own and operate your equipment over its lifetime? — the answers are often surprisingly vague, incomplete, or entirely absent.
This gap in understanding matters enormously.
At Si2-Group, we have observed this repeatedly across industrial sectors ranging from Equipment Manufacturers to components, to heavy vehicles, aerospace, energy systems, as well as larger assets such as building infrastructure. The businesses that consistently outperform their competitors are not necessarily those with the best products. They are the businesses that deeply understand their customers’ Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and use that understanding to shape their service strategy, innovation roadmap, commercial model, and operational priorities.
The most successful industrial organisations do not simply sell products. They help customers improve profitability!
They understand where the real cost drivers sit inside the customer’s operation and identify the hidden risks and inefficiencies that damage profitability. They develop services that reduce those costs and risks and crucially, they communicate this value in a way that resonates commercially and emotionally with decision makers.
This is where TCO becomes strategically powerful.
Unfortunately, many organisations still treat TCO as a narrow procurement calculation focused on acquisition cost, maintenance expense, and lifecycle accounting. While these elements are important, this approach alone misses the broader strategic value of TCO thinking.
Used correctly, TCO is not simply a finance tool, it is a TOOL FOR GROWTH!
Why I Keep Coming Back to the Si2 Service Leaders Network Summit
Why does Martina Krengel from Georg Sahm keep coming back to the Si2 Summit? She says that Si2 has created a trusted environment for open, honest discussions with peers facing similar challenges. I gained practical, immediately applicable insights, valuable connections, and fresh perspectives from real-world experiences. The strong sense of community, shared learning, and collaborative problem-solving help’s me as a leader to improve faster and create greater value.
Implementing Total Cost of Ownership (TCO): A SMART Strategy for Service Growth
For many industrial OEMs and technology providers, the greatest growth opportunity is often hidden in plain sight.
Most manufacturers can tell you exactly what it costs to build their equipment. They know their material costs, production overheads, warranty reserves, and sales margins. Yet when asked a much more important question — what does it actually cost your customer to own and operate your equipment over its lifetime? — the answers are often surprisingly vague, incomplete, or entirely absent.
This gap in understanding matters enormously.
At Si2-Group, we have observed this repeatedly across industrial sectors ranging from Equipment Manufacturers to components, to heavy vehicles, aerospace, energy systems, as well as larger assets such as building infrastructure. The businesses that consistently outperform their competitors are not necessarily those with the best products. They are the businesses that deeply understand their customers’ Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) and use that understanding to shape their service strategy, innovation roadmap, commercial model, and operational priorities.
The most successful industrial organisations do not simply sell products. They help customers improve profitability!
They understand where the real cost drivers sit inside the customer’s operation and identify the hidden risks and inefficiencies that damage profitability. They develop services that reduce those costs and risks and crucially, they communicate this value in a way that resonates commercially and emotionally with decision makers.
This is where TCO becomes strategically powerful.
Unfortunately, many organisations still treat TCO as a narrow procurement calculation focused on acquisition cost, maintenance expense, and lifecycle accounting. While these elements are important, this approach alone misses the broader strategic value of TCO thinking.
Used correctly, TCO is not simply a finance tool, it is a TOOL FOR GROWTH!
