Gain the Confidence to Deliver Embedded Products with Excellence
Using the trusted Reliance Framework, we make product creation simpler and better aligned with customer needs.
“Immediately grasp difficult situations and quickly find the right solutions.”
—Marelli Automotive Lighting Reutlingen GmbH
“Achieve significant accelerations and overcome outdated habits.”
—SMA Solar Technology AG
“Introduced new ideas and concepts.”
—Eeins Embedded Experts GmbH
What Sets Embedded Solutions Apart When It Comes to Delighting Consumers?
A one-pager by the Embedded Business Innovation Center - 2025
Success isn't just about transforming ideas into market-ready solutions
Developing solutions on-site in our Creative Room
Imagine waking up one day and looking at your company: your team operates like a finely tuned machine, there is a seamless integration between your processes, and you have gained the unwavering confidence to make decisions.
This is the result of consistent resilience.
Your embedded device has transcended mere product status—it has emerged as a market leader, celebrated by everyone for its unmatched quality and reliability. Customers believe in your brand while competitors scramble to keep pace.
How do you cultivate such reliance?
Turn ambition into a powerhouse system where success feels inevitable!
The risk of getting stuck
First, consider the difference between uniformed and informed optimism when making strategic decisions.
Uniformed optimism leads to decisions driven by hope and assumptions, often overlooking critical challenges and risks.
Informed optimism, on the other hand, is grounded in data and realistic planning, ensuring strategic progress with resilience.
Ask yourself: What is the most critical decision to make, and when is the right time to make it?
To be on the upward curve of strategic efficiency, decisions must be made with informed optimism—at the right time and with the right resources. Miss the chance to adapt or innovate and your competitors will capture the opportunity.
Balance enthusiasm with realistic expectations and back it with a solid action plan.
Life-cycle of strategic efficiency: The inflection point marks the transition from decision-making ambiguity to either continuous growth or growing opportunity costs, as well as the moment when investment turns into cash-positive returns.
The Challenge of Building
To know what to do and when, it's essential to bring together a team of experts who can handle the risks and strategic decisions you need to make for success.
Setting up a Competence Center can save you time and money by making it easier to form specialized teams in your organization. But we also know that getting this center off the ground can take a lot of time and resources, which might feel overwhelming. Some of the constraints are:
High Costs: Building an expert team costs an estimated 500,000 Euro annually.
Time Investment: Setting up the necessary infrastructure takes 3 to 7 years.
Competitive Pressure: Competitors may reach the market faster, putting your product at risk of losing relevance.
Without this center, teams struggle with inconsistent methods, leading to inefficiencies, misaligned practices, and unchecked bureaucracy. These challenges disconnect technical methods from market objectives, transforming progress into a resource-draining race with uncertain outcomes.
What if there were a more straightforward way?
Uniting Expertise for Strategic Product Success
Every department within the company plays a crucial role in this interconnected product creation process. To ensure success, unlock the valuable potential within your organization—your people.
Each department plays a vital role in your product journey.
By forming a unified team with targeted expertise, we align management's strategic goals with the operational excellence of your product creators.
We call those people stepping up your Hero Team.
What the Hero Team Does
Streamlines the product creation process.
Aligns cost accounting, pricing strategies, and customer engagement with device features.They streamline the product creation process, ensuring success when cost accounting, pricing, and customer engagement align with device features.
The Hero Team will be your key strategic alliance, making and executing essential tactical decisions.
Product & Business Life-Cycle: Five Dilemmas, mark the crucial points where strategic decisions make or break the business in their journey to place a product. They are accompanied by symptoms such as sluggish daily work or usual organizational behaviors breaking down, followed by increased inefficiency.
Outpace Failure in Three Steps with the Reliance Framework
Check-In
Unpacking My Product Story
Start with a Self-Assessment
I identify the one critical dilemma that is blocking day-to-day progress. I reflect on my team, the current product stage and the impact of our product development cycle.
45-Minute Live Strategy Session
In the live group sessions, I tackle product development challenges through expert facilitation. I align my product strategy with market trends and global conditions. I collaborate with others on the Assessment-Dilemma and outline my Business Model and Value Proposition Canvas for rapid progress.
30-Day Access to Your Interactive Miro Board
I gain full access to a dynamic, shareable roadmap for 30 days. This roadmap empowers me to align my team effectively and drive significant momentum for the next phase. I use it as a visual hub to direct my team and business, enabling us to make confident, informed decisions.
1
Integrate my Pilot Competence Center in 30 days
Over the next 30 days, I will continue to work on my product. And OrganisationsDiplomaten will use the Reliance Framework to integrate the Project Office and the Technology & Method Office into my team’s daily workflow.
Supported by a shared visual Miro Board that everyone can contribute to, we will co-create the product function identified through our common ground.
This transparent approach aligns with our culture and delivers results without disrupting development, needing extra staff, or causing friction in existing processes.
2
Launching of my Competence Center.
Risk-Free in 90 Days
My customers want effective products, which is why I use the Reliance Framework.
It aligns our development practices, sharpens our execution, and keeps our roadmap competitive. My team, supported by the Competence Center, handles planning, compliance, and progress tracking without slowing down.
This lets us focus on the product and the customer. Our engineers spend less time in meetings and chasing updates, allowing them to focus on building, learning, and delivering.
What makes this even better? OrganisationsDiplomaten Transparent pricing, proven methods, and measurable results.
I remain in control, and if we fail to meet our agreed targets in 120 days? I can walk away without any further obligations while still retaining everything we’ve built. That’s real value
3
There is only one thing left I need to do now. I will enable my organization to embrace creativity while we stay aligned with product market goals.
Are You Ready to Choose the Service Partner?
“Entrepreneurial success accelerates the entire ecosystem. Each win feeds a positive loop: founders, employees, and investors gain hard-earned know-how and the capital to build the next generation of high-impact companies.”
— The Startup Community Way (2020)
Developing new embedded products is always challenging. Especially for small and medium-sized enterprises, where every investment can stretch resources and put cash flow at risk. Innovating in a dynamic environment involves several challenges, such as collaboration complexity, adaptability, resource management, and, most notably, uncertainty.
entrepreneurial ecosystem
Selection of a Service Provider
Your selection of a service provider directly influences your product's market success and roadmap execution. Therefore, the service provider should:
Demonstrate a comprehensive understanding of your product architecture, scalability, and the specific challenges of your industry.
Align closely with your product vision and deliver consistently, even in demanding conditions.
Bring proven expertise in safety, compliance, and quality standards relevant to your sector.
Operate with transparent and state-of-the-art processes for documentation, compliance, and intellectual property protection.
Foster open communication, close collaboration, and a culture of continuous improvement.
Provide scalable resources and support knowledge transfer to enhance your internal capabilities.
Proactively mitigate risks without hindering your team
Losing Hidden Champions
According to Rewired: The McKinsey Guide (2023), "How companies navigate the digital world to achieve sustainable competitive advantage is the defining business challenge of our time." For embedded manufacturers, seeking outside expertise goes beyond just adding extra hands; it is vital for refining the business model. Without a clear revenue strategy, even the best hardware can turn into a commodity. Collaborating with a robust entrepreneurial ecosystem provides the resources necessary to secure the future of your business.
At OrganisationsDiplomaten, we enhance your product development by providing a competence center. We utilize the Reliance Framework to ensure clarity and control throughout your product's journey.
entrepreneurial ecosystem
Driving Innovation Through Ecosystem Collaboration
By connecting with the entrepreneurial ecosystem, you gain immediate access to essential resources—people, capital, and expertise—that can help turn your ideas into market-ready products. This allows your team to concentrate on what it does best: building that product.
We operate along the Danube River in leading entrepreneurial ecosystems across 30 cities Central and Eastern Europe. Partnering with accelerators, business hubs, angel investors, and specialized consulting agencies.
What Our Customers Experience Every Day
As a KPO, we often see clients struggle when they choose the wrong type service provider. While there are many partners available in today’s entrepreneurial ecosystem, it's vital to base your decision on clear criteria rather than reputation. A KPO can deliver strategic value and quality assurance, but it may not always be the best option. Depending on your specific needs, other providers might be more effective.
Focus on the key point:
Opt for a Service Provider that matches your strategic priorities and development needs, instead of simply following the most popular option. Thats why we start with a common ground audit to understand your critical path to success.
entrepreneurial ecosystem
| Embedded Business Innovation Center (EBIC) | Service Provider | Service Provider | |
|---|---|---|---|
|
OrganisationsDiplomaten operates as the Embedded Business Innovation Center (EBIC), a full-spectrum KPO partner dedicated to turning complex embedded ideas into market-ready products. By leveraging state-of-the-art standards and fixed-price work-and-materials contracts, we keep costs predictable while maintaining rigorous quality and compliance. We embed a fully functional Competence Center inside your product creation function, aligning Marketing, Sales, Controlling, and Product Development around one goal: shipping innovative products that delight customers. Based near Stuttgart, our team blends more than a decade of research with twenty years of combined hands-on experience. |
Joining an accelerator program can significantly enhance the success of your embedded product by providing a structured environment to transition quickly from concept to market. They function like an intensive school for product development, guiding startups through a defined track, providing mentorship, and granting access to a network that speeds up growth and market entry. A notable advantage is the pitch event, where you can connect with investors and potential partners. To maximize the benefits, your product idea should still be flexible, and your team should be open to guidance. |
A consulting agency provides crucial expertise and support for embedded product development. To maximize benefits, engage proactively, monitor progress, and define clear goals. These agencies quickly access specialized knowledge and skilled professionals for coordination and supplier management, keeping projects on track. Many agencies charge by the hour, which can affect cost efficiency if expectations shift. When used correctly, a consulting agency can enhance project momentum while you maintain control. |
Set your personal and buissness criteria, evaluate your options carefully, and select a partner who fits your objectives and culture. In the ecosystem, your choice matters. Make it a deliberate one. It impacts your results.
Having understood the benefits of an entrepreneurial ecosystem and decided to partner with a KPO, I have only one step left: I will empower my organization to embrace creativity, drive innovation, and unlock its full potential.
Valuable Research into real-world applications
Now that I've watched the intro video and explored the key in-depth analyses, there’s only one thing left for me to do: I will empower my organization to embrace creativity.
In-Depth Performance Comparison of Service Provider
entrepreneurial ecosystem
| Embedded Business Innovation Center (EBIC) | Service Provider | Service Provider | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Capabilities |
Delivers comprehensive operational support throughout the entire product lifecycle. - End-to-end EPLP coverage - Embedded operational guidance - Ensures strategic and technical alignment |
Drives rapid product acceleration through network-driven approaches. - Focuses on achieving Product-Market Fit - Leverages predefined program tracks - Delivers focused support for early-stage innovation |
Provides targeted expertise for specific operational challenges. - Deploys specialists to address capability gaps - Offers flexible, on-demand support - Adapts to immediate project needs |
|
| Advisory Scope |
Designed for sustained, structured engagement. - Supports from ideation to market launch - Aligns with the full Product Creation Journey - Well-suited for organizations focused on scaling |
Specializes in early-stage market entry. - Accelerates time-to-market - Focuses on pre-launch phases - Complements organizations seeking fast validation |
Engages when specific expertise is required. - Supports post-Product-Market Fit initiatives - Delivers tactical, project-based interventions - Adapts to evolving business needs |
|
| Technical Expertise and Industry Experience |
Brings deep expertise and a proven track record in complex environments. - Operational leadership - Advanced embedded systems knowledge - Strong industry references |
Offers entrepreneurial experience and startup insights. - Founder-driven expertise - Focused on specific industry niches - Encourages innovative thinking |
Delivers specialized knowledge from experienced consultants. - Deep expertise in selected areas - Flexible application across projects - Customized support for unique challenges |
|
| Methodology and Tools |
Applies robust, industry-proven frameworks. - Integrates Reliance, Agile, Lean - Establishes Competence Centers - High maturity in tooling and processes |
Utilizes structured program methodologies. - Predefined tools and processes - Supports organizations at growth inflection points - Encourages team self-assessment |
Adapts methodologies based on consultant expertise. - Flexible approach to tool selection - Aligns with corporate standards - Customizes methods for client needs |
|
| Innovation Capability |
Embeds innovation cycles within ongoing operations. - Continuous feedback and experimentation - Scales innovation maturity - Supports iterative improvement |
Focuses on fostering product creativity. - Encourages out-of-the-box thinking - Drives rapid prototyping - Inspires entrepreneurial mindset |
Leverages proven best practices. - Relies on established methods - Ensures reliable, tested approaches - Minimizes innovation risk |
|
| Process Orientation and Efficiency |
Achieves measurable efficiency gains. - Reduces waste (Muda) - Aligns with ISO and QM standards - Maintains structured process ownership |
Emphasizes speed and agility. - Fast iteration cycles - Encourages quick decision-making - Supports rapid experimentation |
Customizes process improvements. - Adapts to local implementation needs - Encourages strong internal coordination - Delivers tailored efficiency solutions |
|
| Quality and Performance |
Ensures reliable, high-quality outcomes. - Structured escalation paths - Consistent delivery accuracy - Integrated performance monitoring |
Depends on founder initiative and execution. - Founder-led progress - Encourages hands-on engagement - Adapts to resource constraints |
Relies on consultant expertise for results. - Flexible support for varying challenges - Adapts to project-specific requirements - Delivers targeted quality improvements |
|
| Cost and Pricing Structure |
Transparent, outcome-based pricing. - Value-driven investment model - Clear ROI visibility - Predictable cost structure |
Low initial barrier with equity-based models. - Attractive entry costs - Aligns incentives with success - Encourages shared ownership |
Flexible, project-based pricing. - Adapts to budget and scope - Supports short-term engagements - Offers customized solutions |
|
| Communication and Collaboration |
Seamlessly integrates with client teams. - Co-creation approach - Clear reporting and accountability - Embedded workflows |
Program-driven communication. - Structured program guidance - Encourages external networking - Supports focused team interactions |
Adapts communication to project needs. - Flexible formats and styles - Encourages direct consultant engagement - Responds to evolving requirements |
|
| Sustainability and Risk Management |
Incorporates structured governance and compliance. - Risk Hub for proactive management - Adapts to market uncertainty - Built-in compliance mechanisms |
Focuses on strategic innovation and growth. - Encourages entrepreneurial risk-taking - Supports early-stage exploration - Adapts to dynamic environments |
Provides essential compliance support. - Ensures basic regulatory adherence - Adapts to project-specific needs - Supports risk-aware decision-making |
|
| Summary | Delivers comprehensive support across the entire embedded product lifecycle, from ideation to scaling. Enhances Product Creation through structured Operational Alignment, advanced Planning, and reliable Steering Systems. | Creates a focused environment to accelerate product ideas and drive early market validation, leveraging networks and entrepreneurial energy. | Offers specialized external expertise and flexible support, tailored to address specific operational challenges and project needs. |