Advice to water management practitioners on competition, efficiency and new business opportunities

Abstract

The water sector faces several challenges, which may demand a rethink of several important aspects within historically grown, traditional business models. The need for cost-effectiveness and the lack of public funding goes along with the emergence of new business opportunities. Under consideration of customer preferences, the competitive environment and the disassembling of the value chain, new business and organisational models to exploit service and technology niches are reviewed and recommended (e.g. based on price or product differentiation). This advice for water management practitioners shall help to ensure an adequate handling since competitive environment is establishing in the water sector. Therefore, the identification of the current level of efficiency within a utility as well as concrete measures for efficiency improvement are becoming increasingly important. Within this report special focus is placed on the role of business niches as well as on the possibilities of implementing business innovations. In this context, the design of enterprise-specific business models and its chances will be discussed.