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Case studies

Companies we have worked with over the years: what they faced, what we did together and what happened next. Where a company’s name is withheld, the case says so. Open any case to read it in full.

Competence mapping

Before CBIT, Xiao Ma and Jay Bal ran WMCCM, later CCM, a competence-mapping platform that described manufacturers by what they can do rather than what they make, then matched those skills to live tenders. These six cases come from that platform.

  • Competence mapping

    A car-seat maker lost its market to offshoring, then became the UK’s leading exporter of body-piercing jewellery

    Who: A UK car-seat manufacturer that supplied major carmakers (name withheld).

    Read the full case

    The challenge
    When car-seat production moved to lower-cost countries around 2000, the company’s main product lost its market. Its first idea, chairs and sofas, would have put it in a price war with every other displaced supplier.
    The approach
    Through the WMCCM competence-mapping platform, the company was described by what it could do: metal cutting, bending, polishing, wiring and CNC machining. Matching those skills to live tenders found a market that needed almost the same work, body-piercing jewellery, with only small-scale machinery to add.
    What happened
    Within five years it became the UK’s leading exporter of body-piercing jewellery. When that market filled with cheaper rivals, it repeated the exercise and became a supplier of wound clamps for emergency use to the Ministry of Defence and the NHS.

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  • Competence mapping

    A decorative metal spinner lost its main customer, then won a £120,000 order in aerospace testing within six weeks

    Who: A UK metal-spinning manufacturer (name withheld).

    Read the full case

    The challenge
    The company was the main supplier of decorative metalwork to a high-street retailer. When the retailer moved its production overseas, the company’s main income shrank fast.
    The approach
    Its value was read as metal spinning, polishing and precision machining, not decorations. Matching those skills to tenders through the competence-mapping platform found a market in small-scale testing equipment for the automotive, rail and aerospace industries, including rigs that simulate bird strikes. The company partnered with a firm that knew those sectors.
    What happened
    Within six weeks, enquiries rose from none to three or four a week, and its first order in the new market was worth £120,000.

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  • Competence mapping

    No UK company made train toilets, so a cluster of Midlands firms built them together and won a Network Rail tender

    Who: A West Midlands consulting and project-management firm and a cluster of local manufacturers (names withheld).

    Read the full case

    The challenge
    Train toilets had always been imported. A Network Rail tender of about £100 million for new carriages needed a locally sourced toilet module, and the industry view was that no UK company could make one.
    The approach
    Instead of looking for a train-toilet maker, the firm broke the product into the skills needed to build it: laser cutting of plastics, complex bending, wiring, injection moulding, design and service. The competence-mapping platform found companies within 25 miles of Birmingham that held every one of them.
    What happened
    The firm, with no factory of its own, led the cluster as project manager, won the tender and then further tenders for more carriages, creating a lasting local supply chain for a product never made in the UK before.

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  • Competence mapping

    From car-stereo fitter to autonomous-vehicle supplier: a four-stage competence journey

    Who: A small Midlands automotive-electronics company (name withheld).

    Read the full case

    The challenge
    The company fitted in-car entertainment systems for a major electronics brand. When carmakers began fitting these systems themselves, demand for its service fell away.
    The approach
    On the competence-mapping platform it was described by its real skills: electronic integration, communication ports, and mobile control and monitoring. Over several years those skills were matched to one new market after another: vehicle monitoring for public services, an anti-theft system later made compulsory for new cars in an overseas market, cargo monitoring for insurers, and finally a product for electric and autonomous vehicles.
    What happened
    It grew from a niche installer into a diversified automotive-technology company, became a supplier to the UK’s autonomous-vehicle industry, and later listed on the stock market.

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  • Competence mapping

    An injection moulder facing a price war at home won orders in South Africa with a local partner

    Who: A long-established UK injection-moulding company (name withheld).

    Read the full case

    The challenge
    Its home market was saturated and competitors were cutting prices. Competing on price alone was a fight it could not win.
    The approach
    The competence-mapping platform matched its injection-moulding skills to live South African tenders, then introduced it to a South African intermediary who knew the local market and its rules but had no manufacturing of his own.
    What happened
    Together they won new orders in South Africa. Both partners gained, and the partnership opened a lasting route for more UK manufacturing into the South African market.

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  • Competence mapping

    A security consultancy with no factory led a cluster of manufacturers and created nearly 100 jobs in nine months

    Who: A UK police and security consultancy (name withheld), with a cluster of local manufacturers.

    Read the full case

    The challenge
    The consultancy knew the police and security market well and could see opportunities, such as a tyre deflator for law enforcement, but it had no product and no manufacturing.
    The approach
    It turned the platform round: starting from the market opportunity, it used competence mapping to find manufacturers able to build the product, then led the cluster as its orchestrator and won the bid on the cluster’s behalf.
    What happened
    The collaboration created nearly 100 jobs across the local supply chain within nine months. The consultancy grew to the point where it no longer bid for tenders below about £2 million.

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Platforms and methods

Platforms, methods and intellectual property that CBIT’s team has built and tested, and what they showed about reaching a market.

  • Platforms and methods

    A granted patent with no route to market, and a platform licence that found one

    Who: Professor Xiao Ma’s own ride-pooling patent and his CCM competence-mapping platform, from before CBIT.

    Read the full case

    The challenge
    The patent priced shared taxi rides fairly: a rooftop unit showed whether a taxi could pool and where it was heading, and each passenger’s fare reflected the sharing they accepted. It was granted in 2016, runs to 2033 and was ready to deploy.
    The approach
    The only route to passengers was an online ride-hailing company. The licensing talks failed on price, because one platform held the passengers and the patent gave no other way to reach them.
    What happened
    The patent is still in force and still unused. CCM, software protected only by copyright and a licence, went the other way: it was licensed to the UK’s High Value Manufacturing Catapult and to an overseas government agency, registered more than 400 companies and carried over £65 million a year in contract wins. A licence bought access to a market; the patent did not.

    More about CBIT’s digital platforms

  • Platforms and methods

    Forecasting which companies will survive, without asking for their accounts

    Who: A due-diligence method from the International Business Benchmarking System, tested on construction firms in Taiwan.

    Read the full case

    The challenge
    Appraising a company usually means asking for its financial data, and companies are often unwilling to share it.
    The approach
    The method avoids financial questions. It triangulates what a company does in innovation, customer-relationship management and new product development, and was tested on 60 to 70 organisations in Taiwan’s construction sector.
    What happened
    Over a five-year horizon it forecast survival or failure more accurately than traditional financial studies, and drew interest from investors looking beyond financial reports.

    More about CBIT’s digital platforms

  • Platforms and methods

    Valuing property where data is scarce

    Who: A machine-learning valuation method for new or undeveloped property markets.

    Read the full case

    The challenge
    Traditional valuation models struggle in new or changing locations, where scarce data leaves developers, councils, agents and buyers unsure what a property is worth.
    The approach
    The method reverse-engineers what drives a valuation, from location and size to layout and nearby amenities, and builds a full model of how value is formed.
    What happened
    Councils gain insight for zoning and development, developers plan new schemes with more confidence, agents can market earlier, and off-plan buyers make better-informed decisions.

    More about CBIT’s digital platforms

Business-model design

Companies that kept their capabilities and changed who they serve, what they offer or how they reach customers.

  • Business-model design

    A chemical supplier to mining stopped selling chemicals and started selling clean gold

    Who: One of the world’s large chemical manufacturers, supplying the mining industry (name withheld).

    Read the full case

    The challenge
    Deep in a long value chain, the company saw each intermediary squeeze its margin, and making the same commodity products pointed to a shrinking future.
    The approach
    CBIT’s analysis showed that mining clients did not want chemicals; they wanted clean gold. The company already had the laboratories, technical skills and logistics to deliver that, so it repositioned as a one-stop service, covering on-site consultancy, chemical specification, scheduling and shipping, and bought local suppliers of the washing equipment.
    What happened
    Three years on, it had become a major global service provider to mining, expanding into the Middle East and the United States, where sales alone passed $1 billion.

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  • Business-model design

    A travel agency losing customers to booking sites turned its tour guides into influencers

    Who: A listed traditional travel agency (name withheld).

    Read the full case

    The challenge
    Booking sites had turned flights and hotels into cheap, comparable deals. Price competition drew customers away and pushed the agency towards cutting costs and staff.
    The approach
    Working with CBIT, the agency saw that travellers had lost a trusted single point of contact. It rebuilt its offer around trust and experience delivered by its tour guides, who now build and keep their own following of customers before, during and after trips, while the head office handles insurance, logistics and risk behind each guide.
    What happened
    The guides own the customer relationship and have every reason to care for it. The agency held its market share and gained ground against online platforms by competing on experience rather than price.

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  • Business-model design

    A cosmetics manufacturer moved from thin-margin contract work to a network of influencer brands it backs

    Who: A small, family-owned cosmetics manufacturer, led by the founder’s successor (name withheld).

    Read the full case

    The challenge
    As a contract manufacturer for other brands, the company earned under ten cents a unit and had to keep investing just to keep its clients. Launching its own consumer brand in a crowded market would have cost millions before earning anything.
    The approach
    It learned first: sampling at recruitment fairs where tech workers gather, focus groups, feedback from users and their partners, and about ten small trials. It then sold men’s skincare to technology firms as staff benefits and corporate gifts, with one client ordering 100,000 units. Next it made products for social-media influencers under their own labels, and later built its own network of a few dozen influencers on accounts it owns.
    What happened
    Margin rose to about 15% in the corporate channel, fell to just over 10% with partner influencers, and rose again once its own influencers let it price to what customers value. It now runs high-value contract work, some corporate clients and a few dozen influencer labels, and is becoming an influencer network backed by its own factories.

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  • Business-model design

    Powered shoes for virtual reality found their market in defence training, after gaming and healthcare

    Who: NorthStep (a pseudonym), a small company that makes powered shoes for walking in virtual reality.

    Read the full case

    The challenge
    The founders built shoes that let a person walk naturally through virtual reality on a small square of floor, and expected gamers to buy them. Consumers found the product hard to learn, and a small firm could not teach its buyers one at a time.
    The approach
    The company tried healthcare next, helping older and recovering people to rehabilitate, but long approval and trial processes slowed it down. It then asked where space is confined and many people must train for a new reality, and found defence: rescue, dangerous zones and submarine simulation, where instructors handle the learning and training programmes do the buying.
    What happened
    The company has moved into the defence industry with the same product. Across the three markets its resources and costs stayed the same; the customer, the offer and the channel changed, and the channel decided each market.

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  • Business-model design

    A smart sensor system for care homes, and a simpler rival built on two door sensors

    Who: SmartCare Homes, an IoT service provider that began as a device maker.

    Read the full case

    The challenge
    Care homes must give older residents the best care while using resources efficiently. SmartCare Homes set out to show them how residents live and which services they need.
    The approach
    It built a sophisticated system of infrared and camera sensors that tracked movement without recognising faces, and even sensed toilet use. A rival took a far simpler route: one sensor on the toilet door and one on the fridge door, linked to a cloud service that alerts care staff after missed toilet visits or missed meals.
    What happened
    SmartCare Homes came close to a trial, with no result reported. The simpler rival has done well: two door sensors alone pick out the residents who need attention with a high chance of success.

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KTPs and research collaborations

Companies that worked with CBIT through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership or a funded research collaboration.

  • KTPs and research collaborations

    A hair-extensions maker became a design-led brand owner, and now uses AI through a Knowledge Transfer Partnership

    Who: BarberBoss, a UK hair-extensions and grooming business, led by its founder, Ray.

    Read the full case

    The challenge
    The market was dominated by American and Korean players, there was no easy way to read UK and European demand, and the business depended on the founder’s family firm as its supplier.
    The approach
    The founder researched demand directly through eBay and Amazon and moved the business from manufacturing to design-led products for the UK and Europe, launching the Reo brand and selling direct on Amazon. He then ended the supply tie with the family firm and set up a Knowledge Transfer Partnership to use AI to manage a growing product range.
    What happened
    BarberBoss became a brand owner rather than a subcontractor. Reo was taken up by high-end retailers, the range grew into men’s and women’s grooming, face masks and pet grooming, and AI automation through the KTP now manages the added complexity.

    More about funded AI projects

  • KTPs and research collaborations

    An ESG auditor turned compliance into a source of profit

    Who: Think ESG, an ESG auditing and consultancy firm in Hong Kong.

    Read the full case

    The challenge
    Think ESG held a large share of ESG auditing for companies listed in Hong Kong, but clients saw compliance purely as a cost, which capped what they would pay.
    The approach
    It let companies benchmark themselves against published sector standards, which grew its client base and showed that in some sectors customers already pay more for greener products. It named this More Sustainable, More Profitable (MOSMOP), added carbon trading, and with CBIT and Shanghai Jiao Tong University began building a British Council-funded method for finding what drives it in each sector.
    What happened
    Think ESG moved from compliance auditor to strategic adviser, running courses and consultancy aimed at profit as well as compliance, with construction-materials, smart-farming and energy firms taking up the approach.

    More about funded AI projects

  • KTPs and research collaborations

    A wealth manager cut meeting preparation by 70% with a behavioural AI built with CBIT

    Who: AIFinTech (a pseudonym), a listed boutique wealth manager in Hong Kong.

    Read the full case

    The challenge
    Its analytics suggested too many suitable products for each client, with no order of priority. Advisers spent more time reading data than talking to clients, and recommendations varied.
    The approach
    In a research collaboration, CBIT and the firm’s analytics team built a three-part system: a profile of each client’s attitude to risk and way of deciding, a ranking of products by how well they fit that behaviour, and a simple adviser screen showing only the top three suggestions, with guidance on how to frame them.
    What happened
    Product fit reached over 95%, checked through post-meeting satisfaction, and more than 90% of clients chose one of the top three suggestions. Preparation time per meeting fell by 70%, and revenue per member of staff roughly quadrupled.

    More about funded AI projects

CBIT Venture Builder

Founders and SMEs from the CBIT Venture Builder cohort, supported one to one.

  • CBIT Venture Builder

    A UK air-purifier maker grew with the Venture Builder, then joined a funded project in Thailand

    In a testimonial, Healthy Air says the support “enabled us to enter four new countries”.

    Who: Healthy Air Technology, a UK maker of air-purification products and a member of the CBIT Venture Builder cohort.

    Read the full case

    The challenge
    The company was developing smart air purifiers and wanted to grow beyond the UK.
    The approach
    CBIT supported it through the CBIT Venture Builder, CBIT’s programme of one-to-one support for founders and SMEs. In 2024 the company joined CBIT’s British Council bid with Chiang Mai University as an associated partner and “venture in residence”.
    What happened
    The bid won funding in 2025. Healthy Air is part of the project as a UK venture committed to exploring the Thai market with CBIT.

    More about the CBIT Venture Builder

  • CBIT Venture Builder

    A family photo-editing firm traded transactional work for its first long-term B2B contracts

    Who: Path, a photo-editing company founded in 2008, with roots in Bangladesh and a base in the UK.

    Read the full case

    The challenge
    Growth had plateaued, most clients were short-term, and AI editing tools threatened the quick, low-value work it relied on.
    The approach
    CBIT Venture Builder worked with Path as a sparring partner, in one-to-one sessions every week or fortnight for six months: mapping its story and vision, researching the market, grouping customers by the job they need done, and co-creating pricing bundles, tested with new B2B sales scripts.
    What happened
    Path is launching four new pricing tiers and an instant pricing tool, and has signed its first long-term B2B contracts, improving retention among its enterprise clients.

    More about the CBIT Venture Builder

Work with us on yours

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