Jennifer Woofter, President of SSC, recently wrote an article for Environmental Leader. Environmental Leader is the leading daily trade publication keeping corporate executives fully informed about energy, environmental, and sustainability news. Jennifer's article, posted on November 8th, asks if the sustainability consulting marketing is reaching maturity.
Here's what Jennifer had to say:
For the last decade, the sustainability consulting industry has been like the Wild West -- hundreds of people jumping in and making their own rules, standards, and best practices. They created a thousand different services, promised all kinds of results, and made all kinds of claims.
For the last eighteen months or so, however, things seem to be shifting a little bit. So when I came across the Inc. Magazine article, “6 Signs Your Market Is Maturing” by Karl Stark and Bill Stewart, I read it with an eye to my market: the sustainability consulting industry. According to the article, here are six signs that your market may be maturing as well as my comments on how each apply within sustainability consulting.
The article dives into several thought-provoking points for sustainability consulting, including:
- Customer needs/desires do not appear to be evolving rapidly.
- Consolidation by leading competitors is reducing competitive intensity.
- Disruptive innovations and new entrants are gaining share only gradually and top out at relatively low levels.
- Market shares of leading competitors have solidified and are changing gradually, if at all.
- Price, brand and/or channel strategy has supplanted product innovation as key value drivers.
- Cash flows are increasingly turning positive and being returned to investors rather than invested into the market.
To read the full article, click here.