Template scenario/Listed CRM vendor · AI disruption
Halyard · The Second EngineAn innovation simulation for leaders facing AI disruption
AI-native rivals and customers who build their own are eating the per-seat model. As the company's first Chief Innovation Officer, build a second engine before the first one stalls.
What you inherit
ARR
€1.06B
Operating margin
4.0%
Was mid-teens
Net retention
97%
Agents ARR
€18M
1.7% of revenue
Market signals
Competitor
Tandem launches a tool to switch from Halyard in a weekend
Market
Four in ten European sales leaders expect smaller teams within two years
Boardrooms
“The CRM is just a database” is becoming a boardroom argument
- Your seat
- Chief Innovation Officer, a new role
- Industry
- CRM software
- Rounds
- 5 half-years, over two and a half years
- Stakeholders
- 18, inside and outside the company
The situation
Where you start.
Halyard is an Amsterdam CRM vendor with about 14,000 customers and €1.06B of recurring revenue, most of it per-seat licences. Three years ago it grew at 25%. Now growth is in single digits and the margin is about 4%.
Three forces hit the core at once. AI-native rivals sell agents that do the work a seat used to do. Customers who deploy agents renew on fewer seats. And operations teams are building their own CRM on their data warehouse.
You are Halyard's first Chief Innovation Officer, a seat created three months ago. You do not own the roadmap or the sales force. Your power is the CEO's sponsorship, the money, and what you can show for it.
Your mandate
- Build a credible second engine in Halyard Agents
- Without letting the core, its retention and its margin collapse
- And keep the backing that lets you do it
Pressing on you
- An AI-native rival founded by a former Halyard engineer
- A flagship customer modelling its own build against your renewal
- An activist investor with a seat on the board
- A CFO who promised the market a margin recovery
The people
Who you will deal with.
Each has a background, a way of speaking, and an agenda of their own. Select a portrait to meet them.
And many more.
How it works
Your first round in the business simulation.
- 01
Get to know the situation
Read the briefing on Halyard, its numbers and the forces on the core, and the first messages from the CEO, the executive team and the market.
- 02
Work with your team and key stakeholders
Read the CFO, the product chief and the revenue chief before you commit a euro. Visit customers, design partners and the AI Lab.
- 03
Make your decisions
Write your innovation thesis for the board, choose up to three first bets, set targets and a budget, and decide what you will not do.
- 04
Get support along the way
Your insights team, design partners and outside advisors you can bring in help you test the thesis before it reaches the board.
Deliverables
What you deliver.
Round 1
An innovation thesis for the board
Two pages, at most.
Round 3
The pricing decision
In writing, with the bridge from today's numbers.
Round 4
A recommendation on the rival
Partner, acquire, or leave it alone.
Round 5
The capital markets day story
Then a final memo to the board.
Skills
Skills it builds.
- 01
Innovation strategy under disruption
Deciding where a second engine comes from while the core is under pressure.
- 02
Influence without authority
Moving a company through people who own the roadmap, the field and the money.
- 03
Pricing and business model change
Weighing a new pricing model against the revenue it puts at risk.
Built for
Run Halyard with your team.
As a workshop, async or a programme.