For more than half a century, Hamilton based Pacific Aerospace achieved an enviable international reputation as a manufacturer of light utility aircraft suitable for aerial top-dressing, sky diving and air force training.

But the company hit a turbulent patch in 2006. New shareholders, including CEO Damian Camp, were brought in to get the company's order books, supplier relationships and finances back into shape. That took 12 months and by then Camp knew the company needed a stronger strategy if it was going to survive and thrive in an internationally competitive market.

Design Integration Programme

He was advised, through a contact at New Zealand Trade and Enterprise, to have a closer look at Better by Design's Design Integration Programme.

"Rather than just me banging on, I wanted to have some external support and endorsement while we developed our new business strategy. Some of our people had been working here for many years and had never been involved in planning the company's strategy," said Camp.

Because it had just been through a major development and certification programme, the Design 360 assessment showed the company had a bias to view everything from a technical perspective. It needed to approach design more from a consumer point of view and focus its market strategy towards larger more sustainable markets.

Focusing on customer benefits

Even the company's 11 strong design team tended to focus more on the technical excellence of aircraft, rather than the customer benefits.

The company's latest product, described in glowing terms by an Australian aviation magazine as "the thoroughbred Kiwi workhorse," is the P-750 XSTOL (the STOL stands for short take-off and landing capability, and the X, introduced by Pacific Aerospace to denote its superiority to other STOL aircraft types, stands for extreme). Flying above the competition, the P-750 is the only fixed wing aircraft in the world that qualifies as XSTOL and is the only of its type that can take off and land in less than 800 feet carrying a load greater than its own weight.

Pacific Aerospace initially designed and had the aircraft certified for the North American and European skydiving market and, while they had intentions of broadening the use of the aircraft into freight and passenger (utility) operations later, as is often the case with new products that a company is desperate to bring to market, its sales strategy was scattergun.

Researching new markets

Better by Design helped build a consensus amongst the management team of where it should be focusing its efforts, reinforcing there was more sales potential in the utility area and emphasising that the company should research other market territories such as the Equatorial Band, which was less mature than the North American and European markets with good growth potential and a niche that Pacific Aerospace could 'own'.

The P-750 had excellent utility qualties that particularly suited this market. "It is hotter around the Equator and the air is thinner, and we can perform in high and hot conditions without compromising payloads."

As Pacific Aerospace began selling its P-750 XSTOLs into places like Africa and Papua New Guinea, they started receiving stories from operators highlighting the aircraft's exceptional performance in these hot and rugged environments.

One such story came from the United Nations World Food Program operations in Africa, which set a benchmark in short field performance.

Defining strengths

These stories helped reinforce Better by Design's suggestion that the Equatorial Band was the ideal market for its products, with the majority of new sales of the P-750 in Equatorial countries. The company is now concentrating on Central and South America, Southeast Asia and India as new markets to enter. Learning to articulate and emphasise the strengths of its products in a way that is relevant to customers has been another key outcome of the programme.

"We were doing things better than everyone else, but weren't conveying that. Better by Design helped us define who we are and what we're good at, which is now reflected in everything we do."

The Better by Design programme has also led to organisational changes within the company.

Organisational change

"To ensure we continue to get stories back from our customers about our products, we have established two new positions - Fleet Manager and Technical Support Representative. We don't charge our customers for any time spent with these roles and regard them as our ears and eyes in the market - through which we can anticipate future needs."

Better by Design has also been helpful in terms of design and future research and development activities. Before developing product modifications, Pacific Aerospace now checks for market fit and the XSTOL focus. "If it doesn't fit, we don't do it. This has cut down on a lot of unnecessary work."

The most valuable lesson learned from Better by Design:

"Clearly understanding what you're good at and continuing to reinforce that with everything you do."