Who am I

My responsibilities include leading Parker Pneumatic Division into emerging markets that complement Parker’s core competency in motion and control technologies. As Market Development Manager at PDN, I champion the Winmap (the front-end) stage of Parker’s overarching business development process (WinStrategy). In this activity, I lead the division’s organic growth efforts in an effort to identify new markets and application areas.

How I learned about The SearchLite

I read a post from The SearchLite many years ago. I had a challenging project to find a home in the market for some new piezo actuator technology IP which we had acquired. I needed to validate whether there was a market for it or not. After exhausing traditional market research methods, I engage The SearchLite to interview Subject Matter Experts across a wide group of industries.

How we have worked with The SearchLite

We have completed many projects with The SearchLite over the past four or five years. The focus and scope of these projects spanned many topics and industries. We have found that we can engage The SearchLite on any project where we are short-handed internally and they will consistently deliver high quality results.

What I like about The SearchLite

What I like the most is their flexibility and ability to adapt to their clients culture. We have an internal Innovation Process known as Winmap. We also have used New Product Blueprinting (Dan Adams) as our corporate wide approach to support Winmap. The SearchLite was able to dovetail their Customer Discovery and Market Validation methods and outputs into our existing processes. This was very effective when it was time to present key findings to our senior management.

My advice to others

Take a broad look at third party research and consulting firms before you engage them in front end market innovation research. There are many different tools and approaches to conducting primary and secondary research as compared to 5 or 10 years ago.

Rich McDonnell
Market Development Manager
Parker Hannifin

Who am I

I manage the day-to-day operations for NPR of America, Inc.. NPR was established as a wholly owned subsidiary of Nippon Piston Ring Co.,Ltd. (NPR) in 1973 and provides original equipment manufacturers and the automotive after-market with internal combustion engine parts. We utilize extensive product testing techniques to deliver a consistently higher level of performance and lasting quality.

How I learned about The SearchLite

I was introduced to The SearchLite by Automation Alley, an industry association which we belong to. We needed to research new market opportunities in North America based on NPR technologies and solutions already available in other international markets.

How we have worked with The SearchLite

We have completed several projects with The SearchLite.  The focus and scope of these projects is usually driven by a desire from our corporate parent to leverage pre-existing capabilities from other regions for new product introductions into the North American market.

What I like about The SearchLite

What I like the most is their creativity. They type of competitive information that we needed to understand could not be ascertained through traditional research or even through product tear-down and reverse engineering. The SearchLite utilized competitive intelligence techniques and established industry connections to provide insights that would have taken much longer to learn with other researchers and consultants.

My advice to others

If you are leading the North American office of an international company, seeking out someone with local knowledge is very important. The SearchLite had an established network of subject matter experts in the transportation sector based on five plus years of market discovery projects in that domain. We did not have those connections given our circumstances. This accelerated the speed of decision making significantly with our Japanese parent organization.

Mark Davis
General Manager
NPR

Who am I

I am the day-to-day manager of the Michigan Angel Fund (MAF). MAF focuses on providing funding to capital efficient, early stage companies located in Michigan. We work closely with other stakeholders in the Michigan entrepreneurial ecosystem to ensure that we invest in the most promising companies and to promote the future success of these companies and our investments.

How I learned about The SearchLite

I met Scott Phillips through the local entrepreneurial network several years before he started The SearchLite. The SearchLite initially focused on start-ups, providing customer discovery research and assistance. We agreed to a pilot to test the application of the SearchLite’s tool set for investor due diligence. We soon discovered that these are just two sides of the same coin and the outputs worked well for our needs to assess the investment risk associated with a portfolio company.

How we have worked with The SearchLite

The SearchLite has performed several due diligence studies for us over the years. In some cases, we were the specific client and in other cases the due diligence was shared across a syndicate of investors. The outputs have helped us both in cases where we did choose to invest, and in cases where we did not move forward.

What I like about The SearchLite

They have been able to adapt the breadth and depth of their normal scope of work to meet our unique needs which include a short turn-around time, very specific hypothesis validation and budget constraints. Most importantly, their process will confirm that the “baby is ugly” based on the evidence, as they are not biased on the positive side to tell us what they think we want to hear.

My advice to others

Angel groups can at times be resource limited with diligence assessments. A common practice is to rotate the due diligence amongst the members on a “do it yourself basis”. The SearchLite offers quick and comprehensive turn-around, with both secondary and primary research, including direct phone engagements with subject matter experts to validate critical hypotheses and assumptions regarding portfolio investments.

Skip Simms
Managing Member
Michigan Angel Fund