NEWS RELEASE January 2024
Forecasting the AWE Industry is Made Difficult by Politics
The Mcilvaine Company has been making predictions about all the air, water, energy (AWE) markets for decades. The political winds have been of minor importance. The big variables have been in economics. The new reality is that political forces will shape the AWE market in the coming years in an unprecedented way. If the winds are favorable there will be 2 billion more people in 2050 and global GDP will be twice that of today. But here is what the political winds may blow in.
Industry
Region
Vendors of AWE equipment and systems will be leveraging automation and AI to efficiently supply and help operate plants around the world. Ore will be mined, processed and transported without the need of operating personnel.
With wind, solar, hydrogen, and BECCS greenhouse gas concentration will peak while pharmaceutical miracles end cancer and other sicknesses with techniques of cell and gene therapy. Thanks to AWE technologies much of the food will be grown in enclosed greenhouses or ponds.
If the political winds are unfavorable, we could be entering a period of regression. Mcilvaine believes that the wind conditions are an aggregate of the individual life choices and the degree to which there is freedom of choice.
The individual makes life quality choices as part of a tribal hierarchy progressing from the family to the city, country and the world.
Mcilvaine has created a metric to measure these life quality choices and is using it to predict the AWE markets. An example is the life quality choices of Ukrainians. Their prioritization of free choice was not anticipated by Russia. The use of the system might have avoided the situation which exists today.
A detailed analysis of the Mcilvaine metric and what it tell us about the AWE market is found at
https://home.mcilvainecompany.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=1777
This analytical technique is utilized in the Most Profitable Market program. Details on this can be found at www.mcilvainecompany.com
Stacy Hall, VP of Marketing, can answer any questions. Contact her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
NEWS RELEASE January 2024
Facts and Factors on 20,000 Prospects Needed to Generate EBITDA of $120 million
The most profitable market is an aggregation of $10 million niches. There are 10 - $1 million sub niches each with up to 10 sub-2 niches which provide the targets for the local salesmen. Each sub niche is shaped by a value proposition which will achieve a 40% market share and 30% EBITDA. The proposition explains why a specific plant will want to pay the premium price for a product which provides the lowest total cost of ownership. This superiority is based on the relevant specific facts and factors. For a company to achieve highly profitable revenues of $400 million it needs to pursue 100 niches and 1000 sub niches.
If the average annual purchases by an individual plant are $50,000 then 3\20,000 prospects need to be pursued. It is necessary to take an organized approach to assess 1 million facts and factors. The Most Profitable Market (MPM) program uses the Industrial Internet of Wisdom (IIOW) to cost effectively provide easy access to all this information.
To achieve EBITDA of $120 million and 40% market share in a billion-dollar market, millions of facts and factors on plants, processes, direct competitors and indirect competition such as packages have to be gathered, disseminated and revised. The MPM program uses the Industrial Internet of Wisdom (IIOW) to provide all this data cost effectively.
The average EBITDA in the Air, Water, Energy (AWE) market is less than 15%. But those who are focusing on the best prospects are achieving EBITDA of 30%. Examples are ITW and IDEX.
The best prospects are those who will benefit most from a unique value proposition.
The Mcilvaine Company Most Profitable Market (MPM) Program is structured to help suppliers match unique value propositions and the customers who will most benefit.
There are 50,000 large plants and over 1 million smaller plants. In general success at the larger plants will not only be most profitable but also lead to sales at smaller plants.
The program provides the clarity which becomes not only the foundation of strategy for the local salesman but for every level of sales, purchasing, production and management. The Most Profitable Market Program is explained at www.mcilvainecompany.com
Stacy Hall, VP of Marketing, can answer any questions. Contact her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
NEWS RELEASE October 2023
Integrating the MPM and CRM Systems
Major tools for business strategy and tactics are consultants and CRM systems. Top management, with periodic guidance from consulting companies, forecasts the markets and plans accordingly. These forecasts are not granular but assumed to be accurate. Granular forecasts are made continually by the sales force who has to decide day by day where to spend its time.
The imperfections in the system result from the reality that top-down forecasts are just guesstimates. So are the estimates of each salesman.
There is the assumption that AI and CRM systems will resolve these imperfections. The reality is when you aggregate and iterate guesstimates the output is more guesstimates.
These imperfections can be eliminated with the Most Profitable Market (MPM) Program which not only provides reliable niche forecasts but the details the salesman needs. It can be incorporated as a major feature of your CRM system.
A prevailing school of thought is that with diligent communications by your salespeople plus sales lead services opportunities will arise, which could otherwise not be predicted. The CRM system which gathers and analyzes these gems of knowledge is considered the most viable option for identifying opportunities.
In the air, water, energy markets there is another option. Factors can be leveraged which make reliable prediction economic.
- Less than 1% of air, water, energy product sales are to companies which do not have similar products in operation.
- It is most likely that the product will replace an existing product.
- Unless you have a monopoly, it is likely it is a competitor’s product which will be replaced.
- Product life is predictable.
- Most products are purchased by large companies.
- The number and size of components can be determined for any process.
- Due to government regulations, details on each process in each plant routinely appear in permits to operate.
The Most Profitable Market (MPM) program is structured around niche superiority. Each niche is pursued separately. While an analysis to determine the location of each valve or pump in the food industry is not practical, it is possible to determine their locations for chocolate manufacture or beet sugar.
The market is shaped more by product life than by industry expansion. Since the sales approach differs between the two it is very important to determine the mix. The following ratios are the percentage of the installed base which will be purchased next year.
RATIOS AS A PERCENT OF INSTALLED BASE
On average the replacement of competitor products is 2.5 times bigger than products for industry expansion. The MPM program is well suited to predicting specific competitor replacements.
NEW VS REPLACEMENT
Regardless of whether the expansion is onsite the MPM program is valuable. This is because only a small percentage of onsite expansions are where the supplier has installations. Since most of the replacements involve competitor’s products the opportunities will not be in the CRM.
Here is the specific comparison between the CRM and MPM Contributions.
MPM CONTRIBUTION
When the average factors are considered the MPM system is more than 3x more useful at predicting opportunities.
VALUE IN PREDICTING OPPORTUNITIES
CRM systems have been very valuable in tactical pursuits. But certain aspects of the MPM program are also helpful in tactics and can be integrated. One is Value Propositions appearing in the Productivity Hub. Another involves articles appearing in magazines and linked from the Hub.
When the MPM and CRM program are integrated there is a flow of wisdom which improves both the MPM and CRM reliability and results in granular market forecasts being a foundation for business strategy.
For more information on the Most Profitable Market click on www.mcilvainecompany.com
Bob Mcilvaine can answer your questions at 847 226 2391 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
NEWS RELEASE December 2023
Niche Focus Plus IIOW is the Most Profitable Option for AWE Companies
In Air, Water, Energy (AWE) there are 1 million sub-niches with distinct value propositions and at least $1 million in annual sales. The most successful AWE companies are identifying each sub-niche where they can achieve 40% market share and 30% EBITDA. These sub niches guide the local salesman. 10 of these sub niches can be combined and successfully pursued with the help of product, OEM and regional managers. These niches average $10 million in annual market opportunity, $4 million in annual revenues and $ 1.2 million in EBITA. With the right selection of 100 niches a company can achieve EBITDA of $120 million/yr.,
To put this in perspective AWE companies average less than 10% EBITDA and the flow control sector less than 14%. So the example company with revenues of $400 million will generate EBITDA greater than most billion dollar companies worldwide.
How can a company sort through all these sub niches, pick the right ones, and then pursue them? It is a daunting task.
The answer is the Industrial Internet of Wisdom (IIOW). IIOT with niche expert support provides cost effective guidance.
There are hundreds of facts and factors determining the value propositions in each of the sub-niches. Furthermore, these facts and factors keep changing with new technology developments, regulations, and competitors.
The successful use of IIOW results from the following:
- Organize common facts and factors:
- Regions, countries, States
- Industries and sub segments
- Applications from process to utility
- Products from systems down to components and consumables
- Analysis of the multi product companies including acquisitions
- Exhibition and association activities
- AWE Productivity Hub with individual value propositions
- Continuing analysis of market and product developments
- Continuous insights for all divisions and levels of the corporation:
- Forecasts detailed and reliable enough to become the foundation of business strategy for the local salesman and the CEO.
- Quick conversion of technical and political developments into forecast changes
- Routes for collaboration
- Options for pro-active changes to the AWE industry
- Proceed methodically:
- Identify the macro-niches most likely to contain the most profitable niches and sub niches.
- Use the low hanging fruit to generate enough increased EBITDA to fund the full program.
- Involve all divisions of the company and all personnel who can benefit.
- Provide continuous dialog and feedback to continue making improvements.
The niche focus and IIOW is the basis of the Mcilvaine Most Profitable Market Program.
Details are found at www.mcilvainecompany.com
Stacy Hall, VP of Marketing can answer any questions. Contact her at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.
NEWS RELEASE October 2023
Predict Customer Purchases in Each Niche
The Most Profitable Market program provides you with a game plan to pursue each tiny niche. It provides the revenue opportunity for a specific high-performance product. It identifies the customers and the facts and factors needed to have a superior value proposition. It predicts the purchases over the next two years for any larger company in any state or country. The key is selecting the most profitable market niches which include identifiable customers with the same need in the same geographical region or affiliation.
Here are some examples.
Programs are available for all the products in fast growing markets such as hydrogen and fast-growing territories such as the semiconductor industry in Ohio.
For more information on the Most Profitable Market click on www.mcilvainecompany.com
Bob Mcilvaine can answer your questions at 847 226 2391 or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.