![]() When he came to present the findings to a meeting of the client’s Board of Directors in 1991, he emphasized that the likely rise of a new insulator technology represented not just a looming threat for them but also an opportunity. Marvin Zimmerman, who had founded the consultancy in 1979, was leader of the team of researchers. From the start, it had become clear to the researchers that composite insulator technology was already ‘percolating’ and might eventually represent a real threat to this industry and its established internal order. ![]() ![]() But unfortunately not what came up as one of the most important findings. The three entrepreneurs who commissioned the market study had expected to learn many things. Protectionism was rampant and producers from far away places were disparaged or denied market access. Further supporting this structure was the fact that power supply companies at the time were publicly owned and there was strong interest to support and protect local producers, no matter what their quality and price. ![]() There was also little incentive to invest in cost-reduction, modernized production or new technologies since market shares and factory volumes were more or less assured.Īmong the key elements allowing such an unusual type of marketplace to survive were the close, often personal relationships between producers and customers. This was a comfortable world dominated by stability and predictability. Moreover, tenders, no matter who won, were often shared among the several ‘competing’ suppliers. Rather, large producers – most belonging to an exclusive industry association – decided which of them would be ‘permitted’ to dominate which markets. There were ‘gentlemanly’ rules about competition, which seldom revolved around price. At substations, it was virtually all porcelain.īy all accounts, the insulator industry of the day was in fact a cartel with only a few manufacturers dominating all markets in developed countries and beyond. About two thirds of the business was held by porcelain and one third by toughened glass. To begin with, only two technologies battled for market share on overhead lines. It should be noted at this point that the ‘insulator world’ of the 1980s was a far different industry than what one sees today. The three wanted to quantify world market size and growth as well as to get a better understanding of this business. The interest behind such a project lay in the recent management buyout of several European porcelain insulator factories by three Swedish entrepreneurs: Anders Bohm (a ‘sales guy’), Lennart Rundcrantz (a ‘financial guy’) and Peter Larsson (a ‘production guy’). The origins of INMR go back to the late 1980s, when a large European-based producer contracted a Canadian consulting firm to carry out research on the global market for electrical insulators. Reviewing the origins of INMR can be helpful in two respects: firstly, it will establish the truth of how this journal began and evolved into what it has become equally important, it is a way to thank some of the unique people who made INMR possible and without whose participation and support this journal may never have survived. Until now, I have resisted going into much detail when replying, thinking no one really cared or would bother to read a recounting of events. Recently, more and more people have begun to ask about the origins of INMR, its name, its mission and how it began.
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