Ideal Customer Identification as BMI : In a Hardware Centric Industrial Firm
Wadatkar, Aditya (2026)
2026
Tuotantotalouden DI-ohjelma - Master's Programme in Industrial Engineering and Management
Johtamisen ja talouden tiedekunta - Faculty of Management and Business
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Hyväksymispäivämäärä
2026-07-31
Julkaisun pysyvä osoite on
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202607308648
https://urn.fi/URN:NBN:fi:tuni-202607308648
Tiivistelmä
Hardware-centric industrial firms face growing pressure to transition the product-based sales models to an integrated hardware to software service offerings. A key yet under-theorised challenge in this shift is how firms identify and prioritise their Ideal customer profile (ICP) in a way that extends beyond traditional market segmentation and becomes a repeatable organisational capability for business model innovation (BMI). This thesis addresses this challenge through an interventionist case study of a manufacturing firm operating across five cooling-related application domains: HVAC, chillers, rooftop units, industrial refrigeration, and data centres.
Grounded in value-in-use theory, dynamic capabilities (Teece, 2007), the desirable–feasible–viable (DFV) framework, and enabling management control systems (MCS), the study develops a four-dimensional conceptual framework that positions ICP identification as a strategic design problem. Empirical data was collected by conducting fifteen semi structured interviews with stakeholder and management by workshop outputs, internal documents, and observational data from an embedded intervention.
The findings generate four key insights. First, customer value is highly application-specific: identical product capabilities yield different benefit–sacrifice trade-offs depending on context. For example, uptime and risk mitigation dominate in data centre liquid cooling, whereas cost-performance and ease of commissioning are more critical in rooftop applications. Second, ICP identification is not solely a market-facing activity but an internal organisational process requiring alignment across functions such as sales, R&D, product management, operations, finance, and quality, each with distinct evaluative criteria. Third, ICP prioritisation becomes actionable only when linked to business model configuration through DFV logic, translating value drivers into assessments of desirability, feasibility (e.g., technological readiness, roadmap alignment), and viability (e.g., revenue potential, cost-to-serve). Fourth, sustained ICP imple-mentation depends on enabling MCS characterised by transparency, flexibility, repairability, and co-creation, rather than rigid and opaque control systems.
Overall, the thesis reconceptualises ICP identification as a dynamic organisational capability embedded in sensing, seizing, and transforming processes. It contributes practical artefacts, including a value-in-use matrix, DFV-based evaluation tools, and a structured decision-support workflow, enabling firms to systematically prioritise segments where superior value can be created and captured.
Grounded in value-in-use theory, dynamic capabilities (Teece, 2007), the desirable–feasible–viable (DFV) framework, and enabling management control systems (MCS), the study develops a four-dimensional conceptual framework that positions ICP identification as a strategic design problem. Empirical data was collected by conducting fifteen semi structured interviews with stakeholder and management by workshop outputs, internal documents, and observational data from an embedded intervention.
The findings generate four key insights. First, customer value is highly application-specific: identical product capabilities yield different benefit–sacrifice trade-offs depending on context. For example, uptime and risk mitigation dominate in data centre liquid cooling, whereas cost-performance and ease of commissioning are more critical in rooftop applications. Second, ICP identification is not solely a market-facing activity but an internal organisational process requiring alignment across functions such as sales, R&D, product management, operations, finance, and quality, each with distinct evaluative criteria. Third, ICP prioritisation becomes actionable only when linked to business model configuration through DFV logic, translating value drivers into assessments of desirability, feasibility (e.g., technological readiness, roadmap alignment), and viability (e.g., revenue potential, cost-to-serve). Fourth, sustained ICP imple-mentation depends on enabling MCS characterised by transparency, flexibility, repairability, and co-creation, rather than rigid and opaque control systems.
Overall, the thesis reconceptualises ICP identification as a dynamic organisational capability embedded in sensing, seizing, and transforming processes. It contributes practical artefacts, including a value-in-use matrix, DFV-based evaluation tools, and a structured decision-support workflow, enabling firms to systematically prioritise segments where superior value can be created and captured.