Client Story: Pitney Bowes

Pitney Bowes has more than 1.5 million clients in approximately 100 countries around the world that rely on their products, solutions and services. Traditionally a leading provider of mailing services for organizations, Pitney Bowes has felt pressure in recent years from the significant increase in the use of electronic mail (and other tools) in replacement of traditional mailing services. The need for a strategic review of their business services created the opportunity for a Collaboratory with NC State.

Pitney Bowes partnered with NC State Executive Education to help the Fortune 100 company drive disruptive innovation in their organizational structure and business model. In addition to developing new innovative offerings, the organization needed to create new product development and product management systems internally to support the change. As a company with a strong technology presence, Pitney Bowes also saw the opportunity to leverage their unique capabilities to serve a globally-dispersed clientele.

Through the partnership, NC State Executive Education designed a two tiered development series. The first level was a series of strategy workshops working with the senior leadership team on the development of a new product management structure and a process that improved the development of customer-oriented solutions. The second tier focused on project-based sessions with product management executives evaluating market opportunities and linking potential opportunities to their portfolio management structure.

The outcome included several new service models, the removal of a couple failing lines and new offerings that would not align with the new model, and a company aligned from top-to-bottom in driving disruptive innovation. For NC State, the experience was an effective pilot of the Collaboratory model.