Business Positioning
ASTA will help your business leverage its unique capabilities and achieve your growth objectives.
ASTA offers comprehensive consultation services to help businesses identify high-value, low-risk opportunities for companies targeting new markets. Our team of highly motivated senior strategic planners, business development specialists and project managers supports the definition, design, and implementation of transformational initiatives for commercial, private, and government sectors. ASTA can support your business’ alignment to existing and emerging opportunities.
Strategic Visioning and Planning
ASTA is experienced in facilitating and refining corporate strategic visioning and planning. We collectively work with each client to assess their capabilities and systematically identify long-term prospects based on future industry and market trends. ASTA will help your organization focus on principles and ways which will allow realization of your corporate mission and to eliminate all doubts concerning long-term prospects of company growth.
Your distinctly devised strategic vision, when coupled with documented growth opportunities, form the general track for the allocation of company resources and considerably reduces risk of casual decisions. It also ensures that there is consistency of company views and coordination of effort all directed towards the final growth objectives. ASTA uses our established planning process to develop one, three, and five-year action plans, as required, to support each client’s growth objectives.
Market Analysis and Marketing Strategy
ASTA has a comprehensive understanding about how to help clients’ better position themselves in the competitive marketplace. We work with each client to help them gain more knowledge about the particular industry they are in by collecting extensive market research data and analyzing that data to formulate specific findings and conclusions. This information about outlook, timing, trends and characteristics, and evaluation of competition serves as the basis for shaping your market strategy.
Identification of the target market and opportunities requires a concerted effort to determine critical needs of potential customers, the degree that those needs are not being met, and who the major decision makers are in the organization – all necessary information required to develop a comprehensive strategy to grow your business. This strategy will allow your organization to concentrate its limited resources on the greatest opportunities to increase sales and achieve a sustainable competitive advantage.
ASTA provides an independent perspective of the global marketplace. We will work with you to develop a comprehensive strategic business plan to grow your business. Within that strategic business plan, ASTA can support the development of a top-level market penetration plan that aligns company core capabilities with emerging market requirements.
Business Capture and Win Analysis
ASTA offers sound business capture management services to each client to increase their win rate and optimize their return on investment (ROI). The ROI is directly related to the quality of the capture team and ASTA will work with you to ensure that you have the proper resources to execute a successful win. ASTA uses a variety of sources to gather information about the competition and will work with you to assess your competitive position by identifying and analyzing the critical factors that lead to a competitive advantage. ASTA can provide objective assessment of your core capabilities, strengths, and weaknesses and recommend ways of turning any disadvantage into a more favorable position.
ASTA can help identify, develop, and articulate win strategies and discriminators, all essential for proper execution of the business capture process, and ensure that they form and support the response to the customer’s need. If there are perceived capabilities shortfalls, ASTA can help to strengthen your technical and management solution by identifying teaming partners that will bring strong credentials to the team and reduce risk. ASTA can provide independent assessment of any performance risk and risk-mitigation strategies from your company’s and the customer’s viewpoint.
One central key to a winning new business is proper pricing. ASTA can help you establish price-to-win (PTW) strategies and target pricing for the bid and team members. Raising your competitiveness is one of ASTA’s central goals in working with clients – ASTA will help you improve your specific pursuit capture management performance by facilitating the process and providing continual assessment of progress towards your stated goals.
Experience
ASTA has considerable experience providing business positioning services for small and large businesses. Each effort has resulted in a strategic win for the organization or has considerably improved operational capabilities – these results were aligned with each organizations aim of accomplishing their growth objectives.
- ASTA provided strategic positioning and planning support. For a national professional association representing companies in the modeling, simulation, and training industry, ASTA provided this support to help the association achieve its growth initiatives. The organization sponsors conference events, publications, and technology demonstrations to facilitate interaction between legislative policy making acquisition and regulatory functions of government, including Congress, Department of Defense, and other federal agencies and industry. ASTA provided strategic positioning and planning support for: 1) an Annual Modeling and Simulation Leadership Summit focused on non-military applications of modeling, simulation, and training technologies, 2) an annual Capitol Hill technology demonstration sponsored by the Modeling and Simulation Congressional Caucus, and 3) an annual Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference (I/ITSEC).
- An established small business with experience in guidance and surveillance solutions for Small Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (SUAVs) sought to expand its footprint within the Department of Defense, Department of Homeland Security, and law enforcement agencies. This small business was transitioning from technology development to full-scale production and sales. As part of a “Jump Start” strategic planning initiative, ASTA conducted a market analysis to review government and security technology needs and requirements to establish a match between government and civil needs and client capabilities. ASTA developed a Contact/Action Plan identifying the best penetration strategy and market plan for each of three key prospects within the target markets. As part of a public relations campaign to promote corporate participation in the Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International (AUVSI) conference, ASTA developed a contact plan to support an e-mail distribution to target agencies, conference exhibitors, and the media. ASTA also prepared press releases highlighting the company’s technology capabilities and recent technological advancements. We also developed conference marketing material, including: invitations, a conference directory advertisement, a media kit, and exhibit booth display panels. During the conference, ASTA coordinated on-site interviews with more than twenty national and international industry contacts.
- ASTA has facilitated new market penetration for products. A government-owned contractor, operating a national research and development laboratory sought new market penetration ideas for technology integration initiatives that support our national security. The organization’s mission areas include nuclear weapons, energy and infrastructure assurance, nonproliferation, defense systems and assessments, and homeland security. ASTA facilitated introductions of senior leadership at national conference events. We scheduled and supported capabilities briefings and technical interchange discussions between client organizations and key personnel within the Special Operations community. This client offered ASTA a follow-on contract for continued business positioning support services and to serve as the primary liaison between the client and the Special Operations community.
- An established business with experience in real – time simulation of the effects of biological, chemical, and other environmental hazards wanted to increase their business with the Department of Defense and other government agencies. ASTA facilitated introductions of the company’s senior leadership to the senior leadership at targeted federal agencies. We assessed the client’s innovations and performance records and developed a series of white papers and capability presentations that described the applicability of the client’s work to the needs of the target organizations and agencies.
- An international large business, developer of ground-based systems and provider of simulation and training, sought ASTA’s business positioning support. Within the first month of our consulting agreement, ASTA facilitated introductions and coordinated a technology demonstration at an international training conference for senior leadership at the Pentagon and with several military service organizations. Additionally, ASTA facilitated the company’s participation in a Capitol Hill technology demonstration sponsored by the Modeling and Simulation Congressional Caucus. ASTA further was instrumental in arranging a teaming relationship for the company as part of the business capture strategy, conducted capture and win analysis, and supported the proposal development – all of which resulted in the company wining a contract for designing and developing a USMC vehicle training system.
- ASTA regularly develops contact plans and provides conference exhibit support during the annual I/ITSEC for an international simulation and training system developer. I/ITSEC is the premier U.S. modeling, simulation and training conference which attracts over 18,000 attendees and features more than 150 peer-reviewed paper presentations in its 800,000 square feet of exhibit space.
