Shelley Bausch, global executive director of Xiameter, a business of the Dow Corning Corporation, shares her insights on business challenges and how a bold change in strategy transformed the company.

What challenges did the company face that precipitated the change in corporate strategy?

External pressures in the late 1990s and early this decade were significant. Competition in the global marketplace, rising costs, commoditization of products, and downward pressures on pricing converged to create a complex business environment for the industry. At the same time, we found we needed new ways to address changing customer demands and to meet the needs of different customer segments.

To better understand the market and customer needs, we conducted a global segmentation study which revealed some unexpected results. We discovered an unmet need in the marketplace among “price-seeker” customers who didn’t require, and didn’t want to pay for, the added services that traditionally came with our products. We knew that in order to stay competitive, we needed to come up with new ways to serve them.

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