How can a company investing in robotics and automation can get into the United States construction market, proliferate, and gain a long term competitive advantage?

How can a company investing in robotics and automation can get into the United States construction market, proliferate, and gain a long term competitive advantage?

The United States construction market is very competitive for entrants because of the already well-established companies and very creative startups that give fierce competitions. Unless the entrants show a higher level of creativity and efficiency in their product development and customer satisfaction, it will hardly survive these stiff competitions in the United States construction market. The United States currently experiences low unemployment, and a shortage of skilled labor has stricken the country for some time (Veanne, 2019). It seems not to end soon, particularly in the construction industry, where manual labor is very crucial to ensure task completion. Similarly, mistakes made in the construction worksite are costly and do not only impact the industry but also the public because they are the beneficiaries of the construction products. Construction is expensive, and companies incur substantial operational costs to realize the best for customers and the public. This leaves automation as the only key savior of the construction industry in the United States to meet demands, warrant continued economic growth, and develop solutions to curb the errors in the worksites (Kapliński, 2018).

How can a company investing in robotics and automation can get into the United States construction market, proliferate, and gain a long term competitive advantage? Construction robotics does a lot of specific tasks such as bulldozing, and many are expected soon with companies flooding in such manufacturing areas to take these opportunities. However, while many companies have specialized in robots doing bricklaying, painting, loading, and unloading, there is still a need for solutions that rely more on artificial intelligence as well machine learning to give the most accurate and ensure safety in the construction sites. One of the best ways is by developing autonomous devices that can navigate the worksite, providing oversight to identify mistakes, and the proper corrective measure is taken before it is late (Devin, 2019). No company has been able to develop a tool that is more efficient like the one developed by the Scaled Robotics with the capability of navigating and, in like five minutes, detects any defect through its 3D progress map (Erin, 2019). The more efficient and consumer-based a company is, the more its ability to overcome the entry barriers into the United States market increases. With all these capabilities and competitiveness, Scaled Robotics is likely to survive the construction industry in the United States.

Entry into the United States construction market might be easy; the big task is maintaining your stay. Scaled Robotics needs to aim higher continually, work hard, invest in artificial intelligence, machine learning, partnership, and, most importantly, remain customer focused on surviving the US market and stiff competition (Jennifer, 2019). The construction market is evolving each day, and in a few years, some robotics may not fully satisfy clients’ needs. Thus it is necessary to invest and remain alert in the market continuously. The competitions in the market necessitate endless alertness and work to be successful and stay at the top.

Privacy is crucial for Scaled Robotics. The company should not disclose its ideas to the United States firm or rivals because this can expose its weakness and competitors may exploit these rare opportunities. United States construction market is competitive and availing secrets, such as innovative ideas, maybe the first stage to downfall in the market. A competitor must not directly attack a company through the provision of the same products or services. Some opponents are using the same raw material as Scaled Robotics and may exploit any open opportunity they identify if the company becomes too open. Also, there are allies in the industry; thus, it may not know who it is sharing its ideas with. Scaled Robotics may be servicing a firm that is a friend to a rival and may share such sensitive information to its rivals.

Construction firms in the United States currently consider more than just product efficiency in making decisions regarding which product to buy. Often other factors such as cost-effectiveness, the safety of the worksite and employees, scalability, flexibility, simplicity, reliability, quality, among other factors, will influence the firms’ decision on the product to buy (Erin, 2019). Scaled Robotics’ innovation is efficient in its product development, and this may increase its powers to thrive in the United States construction market. It produces tools that can work without the need of computer scientists and few workers in the worksite to ensure accuracy and effective construction, which are all the United States Market needs. It is well placed and has very creative employees who are ready to go the extra mile to see the company take the United States market. Employees are the fuel of achieving the mission. These are some of the reasons to trust that Scaled Robotics will thrive in the United States construction market. Still, it needs a plan, a strategy to follow and guide them towards getting into the United States market, proliferating and attain competitive advantage as well as accomplishing its goals, mission, and visions.

The CARE strategy (detailed later in the strategy part) explains how Scaled Robotics may overcome all the factors that make construction firms to buy from its rivals. When it remains customer-focused both in its robot development, service delivery and all other phases of product and service chain continuously stays alert and studies the market while investing in keeping up-to-date with technology and customers’ needs; it will win almost all customers and overcome all the factors that make United firms choose rivals (Lu et al., 2020). Also, Scaled Robotics should employ vertical marketing coupled with horizontal marketing to attract more customers and make its products and services known in the market.

Strategy to get into, proliferate, stay advantaged and competitive well in the United States market

The Scaled Robotics Company aims to modernize construction using its advanced and automated robotics and artificial intelligence through the creation and maintenance of a lean, efficient, and cost-effective manufacturing process (Erin, 2019). It thinks of the entire construction process, unlike other rivals who prioritize on an aspect of the industry, and this puts it in an excellent position to get into and take over the industry and market worldwide, including the United States. The company can effectively manage this through relevant continued partnership with AF Gruppen, Dura Vermeer, Kier, Autodesk ADN, and the principal investor PERI (Moud et al., 2018).

CARE strategy is significant for the company to enter and maintain its growth in the United States market despite the massive competition from well-established companies. CARE is an abbreviated form of Customer-focused, Artificial intelligence-driven, Robot-as a service, and Ecosystem-enabling.

Firstly, what does customer-focused mean in this strategy? Scaled Robotics must understand customers’ needs and aim to strengthen the industry knowledge to consolidate its market leadership (Lu et al., 2020). American market does not only need an efficient machine or robot but that which is reliable, simple, and easy to use, safe, cost-effective while ensuring quality. Scaled Robotics has the more considerable technological know-how, and this can increase its likelihood of fame in the United States construction market (Perez et al., 2018). It needs to strengthen its industry know-how further through leveraging the currently excellent technological advantages that have seen it win startup competition and develop a robot that has never been seen in the industry.

United States construction market is rapidly developing, and a company must remain alert and learn from everything in the market, including the changing market needs. Stuart, Scaled Robotics CEO, in an interview, was keen to realize that some numerous robots and tools were efficient some years back and currently do not effectively meets the customer’s needs rendering them obsolete in one way or the other (Erin, 2019). Therefore, while in the American market, the Scaled Robotics must continue to accumulate the operational knowledge and experience and build a global service capability that will see it develop an authentic, comprehensive, and social value for its customers. This first aspect of the strategy significantly rhymes with the Scaled Robotics mission. The company looks at construction as a whole and sees how it can develop a robot that can improve the aspect which will impact the whole construction. Customers’ needs predict the idea on what to develop and what to improve. Paying closer attention and remaining customer-focused will not only earn the company an easy entry to the United States market. Still, it will also make it stay the talk in the industry.

Secondly, what does artificial intelligence-driven means for the Scaled Robotics and its thirst for the United States market? The company wants to provide solutions to the current shortage of skilled labor in the United States while still ensuring greater autonomy in the construction industry using safe, efficient, and cost-effective tools. The company should focus on the following main aspects of its artificial intelligence. Firstly, it should concentrate on robotics artificial intelligence. The Scaled’s robot that has lasers and cameras which exploit SLAM technology to create a 3D point map is one of the most excellent autonomous robots in the industry (Erin, 2019). It stays in the ground on four-wheels and still gets brings the whole picture of what is happening in the construction sites to analyze the worksite and determine mistakes. This is one of the ways of ensuring autonomy in the worksite while remaining cheap and straightforward at the same time, which is what the United States market needs.

When Scaled Robotics can produce or improved its robots to the extent of changing the perception and autonomy of robot navigation like in the case of its 3D point map robot, then getting, staying, and quickly growing in the American market will be easy. This is because it will be producing and improving its robots to listen, think and see a broader aspect of the worksite in a better way, which enhances analysis and oversight of the whole processes in the site, which is what every customer in the American construction industry aspires (Perez et al., 2018). Scaled Robotics should not work entirely with the construction companies alone but should work and share with specific application scenarios in other industries outside construction to collect relevant data and experience. Staying healthily and growing in the United States market requires the company to be open to learning from other companies and not necessarily only those in the construction industry but other companies making robots for other purposes since the company can borrow a lot from them (Perez et al., 2018).

Scaled Robotics has shown significant steps towards investing in robotics and artificial intelligence, which is excellent (Agarwal, Chandrasekaran & Sridhar, 2016). Its current talk-of-the-industry robot has made the data collection, analysis, and recognition of mistakes in the construction site easier and quick, which will improve construction accuracy, safety, and quality while reducing companies’ operational costs. However, it still stumbles with the route to display the data and experiment with standardizing design models, which is ineffective. If Scaled Robotics invests in artificial intelligence and robots more and more, it will easily overcome this shortcoming, and its step of asking and exploring other viewers’ options is significant (Du et al., 2017).

Thirdly, Scale Robotics should adopt the innovative robot-as-a-service business model. It needs to build a shared-network of its robots and makes it easily compatible with other robots in the construction. The robot-sharing service model will help its customers incur a lower initial cost in investing or installing its robots as well as lower market entry barriers while ensuring greater efficiency and reducing its overall operating cost (Bernard, 2019). CEO Stuart once said that the company is not aiming to make a profit but to provide products that its customers will love because of their efficiency and other positive attributes. The RaaS business model is the best that Scaled Robotics can ensure that its products are customer-focused in its every aspect, including but not limited to cost, services, installing cost, efficiency, and simplicity as well as operating cost.

The United States market has different sizes of companies, including small-sized, middle-sized, well-established that may need to use robots and cannot because of the cost of developing them, acquiring them, and other costs associated with the company’s current B2B SaaS model. B2B SaaS model often favors big and well-established businesses and leaves out small and middle-sized enterprises (Greg, 2016). With the RaaS model, Scaled Robotics will attract as many businesses as possible compared to the current B2B SaaS model as it is attainable and affordable to almost all firms (Seethu, 2018). They will not have to purchase the equipment outright, just like in the case of the B2B SaaS model, and will access cloud-based subscription services (Greg, 2016).

The United States market is ever-evolving and demanding; thus, flexibility, scalability, and reduce entry costs may make a company thrive in the market. RaaS model is flexibility, scalability, and less costly, which makes small and medium-sized businesses enjoy the robotics without facing the cost-prohibitive initial investment barrier (Bernard, 2019). This makes RaaS appealing today and will make Scaled Robotics attract and retain most of its customers; thus will proliferate in the United States market.

Similarly, the RaaS model offers predictable costs and reduced upfront capital to initiate (Mark, 2019). Scaled Robotics is much interested in its customers and should have a model that accommodates all customers. Cobalt Robotics is among the companies that have adopted RaaS and realize huge returns and fame in the market currently. Besides, Niryo, the manufacturer of the 3D printer, adopted the RaaS model and doing great. Scaled Robotics new robots can gain and dominate the United States market if it adopts RaaS. With RaaS, Scaled Robotics will enjoy all the benefits of SaaS and still be able to accommodate all sizes of businesses (Seethu, 2018). Scaled Robotics should as well develop a cloud-based application platform as a service system to ensure and promote the accessibility of artificial intelligence and higher efficiency (Du et al., 2017). It will allow the customers to reconfigure their solutions and use them through the cloud quickly and free dispatching of robotics and other tools in the most flexible and intelligent system.

Fourthly, Scaled Robotics should ensure a more ecosystem-enabling. What does this mean? It means creating and maintaining a great circle of exceptional technology and robotics companies both within the construction industry and outside. This is a way to create a robust technological and industrial ecosystem that may help in forming jointly, intelligent, and agile construction robots that will not only meet customers’ needs and address future issues but also effectively meet the worksite concerns and timely (Linderoth & Elbanna, 2016).

Scaled Robotics should ensure the technology and robotic ecosystem. It should partner with global leaders such as AF Gruppen, Dura Vermeer, Kier, Autodesk ADN, and the principal investor PERI. Scaled Robotics can sell some of its shares to these companies to get them into its cycle but must be keen not to sell the majority of shares. When companies have shares in another company, they will try to contribute to see it succeed objectively. In this way, the company would attract some prominent leaders in those companies who may inform and strengthen the trusted relationship, which will see Scaled Robotics develop and thrive in the market. Also, it will get capital through equity financing to improve part of its operations, thus become more efficient and strategic. Most companies such as AF Gruppen, Dura Vermeer, Kier, Autodesk ADN, PERI, Intel, and Microsoft may want to buy Scaled Robotics shares because of its productivity and the impact both in and outside the construction industry. Companies such as Intel, Microsoft, and others in the field of cloud computing, Intern of thing, and robotics would want to support a startup that will likely improve the overall robotics or automation; thus will be willing to be part of the technological and robotic ecosystem. This will aid the company in providing its customers with total integrated robotics that will adequately address their needs (Chen et al., 2018). In maintaining this technology partnership, Scaled Robotics should support some its technology partners with its understanding and experience of the construction robotics, smart and efficient solutions design capacities as well as provide a global service while also gaining from the partners.

On the other hand, maintaining the industrial ecosystem is crucial to Scaled Robotics. It should partner with, for instance, 3D progress map developers, AF Gruppen, Dura Vermeer, Kier, Autodesk ADN, PERI, Intel, and Microsoft and other relevant companies and agencies to initiate both upstream and downstream, promote an ensure synergies, and speed up the overall transformation and digitization of the construction industry (Moud et al., 2018). No company can thrive alone and bring change comes with partnering with others both internally and externally. There are those companies that are better than Scaled Robotics in given aspects; thus, continuous learning and relevant collaboration and partnership are necessary to realize transformation in the industry.

With that strategy in place, Scaled Robotics must know its rivals are in the market. Currently, some of the Scaled Robotics competitors include the Monogram, Mighty Buildings, YITU Technology and Beehex. This is just a list of the few rivals in the market and knowing more, including the most intruding, their attributes, how they operate, prices, among other significant information. Scaled Robotics can identify its competitors through its loyal clients who may advise the company on how a rival company is tailoring its products and services (Devin, 2019). Customers are crucial means for Scaled Robotics to know its rivals because loyal customers will not only give it the names of the competitors but also observable strategies that the rival companies are using to attract new and retain customers. Such information may help Scaled Robotics plan its market strategy, product development, and service delivery to remain competent in the market. Similarly, Scaled Robotics may know its rivals through advertisement, trade fair, and exhibitions, research through the internet for companies that offer similar products, press reports, among other means.

Conclusion

Scaled Robotics, as earlier stated, has the capability of leading the intelligent construction industry and dominating market anywhere in the world, including the United States. It only needs to adopt this CARE strategy, which will see it develop and apply the most advanced construction robotics and artificial intelligence technologies in the most effective way to provide customers with the most flexible, reliable, cost-effective, and efficient solutions to their needs and transform the overall construction industry (David, 2019). Consequently, the strategy blends with its mission and objectives. It will warrant it a healthy and more significant competitive advantage in the United States construction market and see it grow if it adopts it appropriately.