WORKING TOGETHER TO ACHIEVE YOUR POTENTIAL FOR BUSINESS INNOVATION
In order to stay in business and grow in a constantly-changing economy, SMEs must deal with new challenges every day and regularly reinvent themselves. The Innovation service offers proactive support not only in consolidating your current position, but more particularly in developing potential areas of new business.
- Do you want to increase your sales?
- Do you want to diversify your offering?
- Would you like to optimise the performance of your business?
- Are you facing major change in your internal or external environment?
- Are you looking for funding to finance innovation business plans?
Or maybe you simply want
We offer fast, practical, targeted assistance. Together with our network of partners we provide you with a solution which is tailored to your needs.
Interested? Contact us now!
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To increase your sales, we offer:
- to assess your customer offering and your competitive environment
- to talk to your clients and survey their reasons for purchase
- to take a close look at your sales and distribution organisation
- to forecast, as far as possible, the development of the market’s needs and limitations
so that you can then:
- increase the value perceived by your clients
- identify and increase your competitive advantage
- extend your offering to new markets and new clients
- improve your customer relationship management
Diversifying your offering by developing a new product or service is the classic method.
We also invite you to consider diversifying by:
- creating derivative products or services
- tailoring your existing products or services to the client
- integrating the value chain
- offering related services
You can use our team to:
- validate your ideas with clients and in relation to the market
- search for any prior art and determine your freedom to operate
- support the definition and drafting of the specifications
- identify the right development skills which are appropriate to your need
- form a consortium and set up a project
- provide support in producing and launching your product
Before doing more with less, we can:
- gain a thorough understanding of your cost structures, turnover, and the breakdown of your margins
- analyse your business model
- identify, with you, the challenges in terms of organisation, processes and skills
- jointly define the potential areas for improvement and your optimisation objectives
in order to implement various optimisation measures, in conjunction with our network of partners:
- improving the use of human and technical resources
- adding to your management and financial management tools
- reducing costs by rethinking the supply chain
- increasing productivity by rationalising company processes
- increasing efficiency and effectiveness by redesigning key processes
- integrating logistics according to demand
- specifying the management of the intermediaries in the distribution network
- and more…
There are changes in your environment every day, but some have a profound impact and significance.
For example:
- loss or departure of a colleague and of key skills
- loss of one or more major clients
- change in the market paradigm (offering, competitor, business model)
- withdrawal of a line of credit and/or lack of liquidity
- risk analysis
- etc.
We work alongside you, providing rapid, practical, targeted assistance. Together with our network of partners, we can offer you a customised solution.
We can also work with you to perform an analysis of the risks to your company, in order to reduce unforeseen risks and plan the steps to be taken.
The Ark Foundation offers you financial support for your innovation projects, financing the provision of external services appropriate to your needs.
We suggest additional potential sources of finance, through partnership and cooperation with various bodies, such as:
- the economic development body for the Valais
- the CCF (Centre de Compétences Financières)
- the CTI (Commission for Technology and Innovation)
- the SECO (State Secretariat for Economic Affairs)
- PLATINN (western Switzerland innovation network)
- EURESEARCH (the Swiss agency for European research)
Taking stock of your company’s current position?
Ask for a business innovation audit and compare your position with the average of over 150 Swiss SMEs.
On the basis of a proven and tested method, which uses a structured interview, we spend 2-3 hours with you, going through all the aspects of business innovation in your company.
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