Business model innovation: Michelin Fleet Solutions - from selling tires to selling kilometers
Michelin, a worldwide leader in the tyre industry, launched in 2000 a comprehensive tyre-management solution offer for large European transportation companies, called Michelin Fleet Solutions (MFS). With this new business model, the company ventured into selling kilometers – instead of selling tyres. This decision moves the strongly product-driven firm into the new world of services and solutions. The shift is intuitively appealing, and it provides Michelin with an opportunity to differentiate itself in the tyre business. After 3 years, however, expansion is far below expectations and profitability is terrible – despite the outside help of a strategy consulting firm. The case presents the decision point in 2003, whereby MFS’s future has to be decided. Should Michelin seek to further develop this solution offer, and try to repackage the offer yet another time? Or was it just a passing fad that should be abandoned?
This case investigates the difficulties that industrial groups face when they transition from selling products to providing service. It enables participants to reflect on the following issues: What’s industrial groups’ rationale for moving towards solutions? What kind of business model reconfiguration does it imply? How does moving to solutions raise multiple challenges throughout the organization (eg in terms of sales force management, risk management, channel relationships etc)?
Michelin, Automotive
2003
Cranfield University
Wharley End Beds MK43 0JR, UK
Tel +44 (0)1234 750903
Email [email protected]
Harvard Business School Publishing
60 Harvard Way, Boston MA 02163, USA
Tel (800) 545-7685 Tel (617)-783-7600
Fax (617) 783-7666
Email [email protected]
NUCB Business School
1-3-1 Nishiki Naka
Nagoya Aichi, Japan 460-0003
Tel +81 52 20 38 111
Email [email protected]
IMD retains all proprietary interests in its case studies and notes. Without prior written permission, IMD cases and notes may not be reproduced, used, translated, included in books or other publications, distributed in any form or by any means, stored in a database or in other retrieval systems. For additional copyright information related to case studies, please contact Case Services.
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Nespresso, the global leading brand in portioned coffee, is facing an existential threat. The company’s current market base, which consists primari...
The case describes the strategic evolution of FUCHS China under the leadership of Zhu Qingping as the company transformed into a vital contributor ...
In a world where agility and global foresight are crucial for business survival and growth, the FUCHS case presents a compelling narrative of trans...
Many companies overestimate customers’ appetite for sustainable products, flooding the market with offerings that don’t sell. The reality is, socia...
The case explores the efforts of Hamilton Mann, Group VP, Global Digital Marketing & Digital Transformation at Thales, to build a sales enablement ...
The case documents the early struggles, the growth phase and the success of Solutech, a start-up company developing software for salesforce automat...
The collaboration between ZENITH and Nona Source – the LVMH group’s resale platform for deadstock – resulted in a 2021 product launch that saw ZENI...
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
in Harvard Business Review March-April 2024, vol. 102, issue 2, pp. 80-87
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
Research Information & Knowledge Hub for additional information on IMD publications
By 2023, the global online resale marketplace Vestiaire Collective – founded in 2009 – had attracted more than 23 million members across 50 countri...
Although Patagonia is not a player in the luxury segment per se, its track record in achieving circularity speaks volumes to luxury brands in terms...
Jewelry manufacturer and retailer Pandora is one of the largest jewelry players in the world. One of the key programs in Pandora’s circularity effo...