Identifying Lead Indicator for Strategy Development: A Case Study in Utility Equipment Manufacturer

Utility equipment industry is regarded as a foundation that plays an important role in people livelihood as well as economic development, Therefore, growth of Utility equipment industry is consistent with electricity demand in each year is depends on main factors that consists of population growth, industry growth and economic growth. In the past, electricity generation, electricity demand and the country GDP have been in the same direction. The electrical usage data for the period of 10 years from 2002 to 2012 was gathered in this study in order to forecasting the trends of usage level segregated by the user types; industry, agriculture, business, government and households. The lead indicators which can predict electrical demand are identified. It turns out that demand in industrial customer group leads overall demand and other demand of others customer group. In addition, detail about product characteristics which impact customer decisions in the utility equipment industry are price, quality, product variety, promotion, easy to find, on-time delivery, payment, technical supporting, innovation etc. The questionnaire was applied with 4P technique and Benchmarking to distributed to industry users. As a results, the proper strategy is formulated based on lead indicator in such that the market distribution at the first priority, and then follow by quality of product, on time delivery and after sales service in order to gain the higher sale performance and market share in the future in Thailand utility equipment industry.