Venetia Hardy

Venetia Hardy is an experienced research and market intelligence professional, having worked on many ‘routes to market’ projects for Rowan over the past few years. With a strong background in engineering she brings a methodical approach to all of the projects she undertakes. This rigorous approach is backed up by her experience in setting up and running her own business, as well as helping other SMEs take the first steps to growth.

Prior to working with Rowan, Venetia worked in production engineering for 5 years and then as a test engineer in the auto industry. When she left engineering Venetia worked for the MOD in Cyprus.

Recent projects for Venetia have included:

• Newbow Aerospace - With a world leading reputation for developing high specification products for the aerospace industry, the new management team at Newbow needed a urgent review of a legacy product development project to determine whether investment should continue, or the project shelved. Venetia quickly established the market potential, barriers to entry, dynamics & culture of the sector and produced “..the most comprehensive report in the shortest amount of time I’ve ever seen” – Marc Green, Newbow Aerospace. Such was the quality of work, we have now been engaged to assess routes to market and market potential for their portfolio of new product projects.

• Kelowna Equestrian o The owner of the business had invested a lot of money in marketing his new product during the 18 months prior to speaking with Rowan. Our initial brief was to make the marketing work better – however we quickly convinced the owner that investing in market intelligence first could reduce wastage and improve results. Within a short amount of time, Venetia’s findings revealed a fundamental flaw in the business model which, left unaddressed, could have lost a lot money. Because our approach to market research work is focused on commercial outcomes, Venetia was not only able to quickly redefine the routes to market and business model, but along with the Rowan team was able to help secure a world-wide license agreement. This freed up the business owner to concentrate on his other innovations and ultimately provided a regular income stream.

• Bac-Haul Trolley o On behalf of the Carbon Trust Venetia conducted a typical Routes to Market piece of work for the Bac-Haul Trolley, a device that is set to revolutionise the way cars are transported in the UK and across Europe. The innovators had a great product but needed assistance identifying the routes to market and getting potential customers on board to be involved with the development during the latter stages of product testing.