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Megatron Sensors

Project Description

Revenues soar as tech manufacturer reaches global audience

Founded in 1992, Megatron is a family-owned company based in Italy. It wanted to expand to reach markets across Europe, the Middle East, Russia and Brazil. Eggcelerate helped the company to restructure itself for expansion and introduced ‘best practice’ in product management. Since then, international revenues have grown by over 40%.

Background
Founded in 1992, Megatron Sensors (Megatron Srl) is a family-owned business located in Villaricca (Napoli), Italy. The company designs and manufactures all types of temperature sensors for industrial and professional applications, including coffee, vending and slush machines; boilers, HVAC, refrigeration and temperature control systems; food and medical equipment.

Megatron’s purpose is to introduce innovation and flexibility in the industry, while delivering high-quality, compelling solutions for temperature measurement and control, on time – at a reasonable cost.

At the time of its first contact with Eggcelerate, Megatron was turning over around €1.5M per year in Italy only and employing 10 people.

Challenge
The company appointed Luca Grimaldi as its new CEO. He was determined to follow the footsteps of his father, who founded the company and made it one of the most established producers of temperature sensors in Italy. However, although he inherited a healthy company, revenues had been substantially flat due to stagnant demand in Italy.

Eggcelerate services
We provided Business Coaching, Strategy and Business Development, Product Management and Organisational Development.

The solution

Megatron turned to Eggcelerate for advice and practical help.

Luca Grimaldi says: “Eggcelerate’s credentials and range of capabilities really impressed me, including Strategy, Business Development, Product Management and Marketing. However, I am very cost conscious and I didn’t really need a traditional form of consulting, with lots of strategic thinking and a high bill to pay afterwards. The free consultation I had with Eggcelerate gave me the confidence that the credentials were real and not just on paper, and that I could get help on the execution. I needed someone who could deliver and go beyond the strategy formulation.”

The discussion started with a deep dive into Megatron’s portfolio. However, Eggelerate’s founder Stefano Maifreni started asking perceptive questions about Luca’s opinions and knowledge of the completeness of the portfolio and its applications. Stefano also asked about: the competitors and Megatron’s differentiators; who were the customers and the decision makers in their organisations; and about the ‘customer experience’, from pre-sales to the delivery of goods.

Luca decided to hire Stefano as a Business Coach, and weekly sessions were held for the following sixth months. In those sessions, Stefano started exploring other areas of Megatron: revenue and cost tracking, portfolio marginal contribution, people’s skills, internal communication and culture. These all proved to be very important.

Luca recalls: “Stefano let me talk about my products – something I love! However, while I was describing the portfolio and its technical features, he started asking questions about the applications of my portfolio, the type of clients I had, and the people in my clients’ organisation I used to speak with. He gave me a different, business-oriented and client-centric perspective, and made me also understand I had neglected some important aspects. How was I tracking and managing cost? What was the marginal contribution of each product? How much time was I dedicating to manage my team and communicate with them? I didn’t have all the answers, and that was revealing – there was a lot to do beyond products!”

It was during those six months that Megatron’s development strategy was defined: Megatron had to change in order to grow internationally.

Eggcelerate defined the new strategy as revolving around key areas, including Business Development, Marketing, Organisational Development and Product Management.

Luca says: “Through these conversations, I started seeing the bigger picture. The desire to expand the company, and to grow it internationally, gradually became something almost obvious – what was I waiting for? All the issues I saw to achieve this looked more manageable, and I gained confidence to go after an idea that was unthinkable a few months earlier. Eggcelerate unlocked new possibilities.”

Once the coaching period come to an end, Luca found himself with clear ideas, but no time or people who could execute upon them without impacting Megatron’s day-by-day operations. He then proposed that Stefano could help to articulate and oversee the new strategy.

Business benefits and outcome

With help from Eggcelerate, Megatron has been able to:

  • Re-brand itself, including a new website in six languages and a company presentation to pitch to international clients
  • Introduce a new Product Management function and a restructured Marketing & Sales capability
  • Achieve sales pipeline of €350,000 within two months
  • Gain a 40% growth of revenues from international clients
  • Achieve a 10% gross margin increase on international sales

Megatron now has a new strategy, plus new skills and capabilities to support a fast-paced yet sustainable international growth.

Luca says: “We knew where we wanted to go, and what we wanted to achieve. This gave us all a new mindset, and eased the discussions with international prospects – many of which are much bigger than Megatron. Most of them are now our best clients.

” Not only did Eggcelerate unlock new opportunities, but they also helped in capturing the value. We are keen to expand, keeping a constant eye on the bottom line. We recorded high double-digit growth internationally, coupled with increased margins.”

It’s an exciting time at Megatron, with new product launches, highly satisfied customers and ambitious international expansion plans.

You can visit Megatron at the company’s website here.

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