Challenge

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Following a prolonged downturn, the mining industry began to rebound with fundamentally different dynamics than prior cycles. Geopolitical shifts and accelerating demand for renewable energy and electric vehicles changed which markets were growing and what customers valued. Over five years, a global mining products company had launched new products with uneven market reception and lost nearly 20% of its customers while competitors strengthened their brands and won share.

The company faced growing uncertainty about where and how to focus as growth and competitive dynamics diverged across regions. This made it difficult to decide which parts of the business to prioritize and where to invest to maximize near-term performance while preparing for the next cycle. Lacking a unified view of market forces and internal performance, the leadership team enlisted our help to strategize where to place its bets.

 

Discovery

We partnered with the company to comprehensively evaluate where to play and how to win. Our market research assessed regional shifts in growth and competitive dynamics, revealing that demand patterns were diverging more sharply across geographies than in previous cycles. Nearly 40 customer and expert interviews provided insight into evolving expectations, including performance requirements, supply chain reliability, and perceived service gaps.

To translate those signals into concrete implications, we:

  • Benchmarked competitors across product portfolios, pricing, capacity, and geographic footprint, highlighting where peers had gained advantages.
  • Analyzed customer and SKU-level data to understand where share was moving and how those shifts aligned with broader industry trends.
  • Visited manufacturing sites to surface quality and cost opportunities rooted in day-to-day operations.
  • Interviewed sales, marketing, and operations leaders to identify misalignment and inefficiencies eroding the customer experience.

Together, these insights created a clear, fact-based picture of where growth was emerging and what capabilities the company needed to outperform competitors.

 

Impact

We provided a unified go-to-market strategy tailored to distinct regional conditions and competitive dynamics, identifying markets to exit and pursue to accelerate growth. Commercial actions were paired with redesigned product offerings and pricing. A revamped manufacturing and supply chain strategy created a cost structure capable of supporting growth while improving delivery performance. This included updated make-versus-buy decisions, optimized inventory levels, automation opportunities, and supplier shifts.

These integrated strategies unlocked more than $32 million in revenue growth, representing over 50% topline expansion, and enabled $21 million in EBIT improvement—more than doubling profitability over five years and supporting an 18% EBIT CAGR. The company is now positioned with a resilient, market-aligned foundation to outperform competitors through the next cycle and beyond.

 

 

Contact Our Experts

Stephen Wilson is a Managing Director at Innosight, based in Dallas. stwilson@innosight.com

 

 

Andrei Perumal is a Managing Director at Innosight, based in Dallas. aperumal@innosight.com

 

 

Ernie Spence is a Managing Director at Innosight, based in the Washington, DC area. espence@innosight.com