Building the category before scaling the sales

When I returned to Europe after living in Beijing, Ingram Micro offered me a newly created European role with a greenfield budget to develop its Digital Signage business. The opportunity was attractive precisely because there was no mature category waiting to be optimised. The market was still taking shape, product concepts were evolving quickly, vendors were approaching the opportunity from different directions, and resellers still needed convincing that the category deserved attention. Ingram Micro therefore had to decide not only what to sell, but also which manufacturers to back, which technologies to prioritise and where it could build a credible position.

The assignment was fundamentally different from managing an established business with known products, predictable demand and an existing route to market. Before sales could scale, enough of the surrounding commercial system had to be created for the category to function properly. I reactivated relationships from the components industry and began working directly with Intel on how the opportunity could be developed. Intel supported a reseller loyalty programme, while its wider partner ecosystem gave us access to audiences that were already exploring emerging computing applications and adjacent use cases.

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Turning an emerging technology into a credible market proposition

One of the more visible expressions of that work came at an Intel Developer event in Dublin, where I represented the category with a working 4x4 Digital Signage installation demonstrating audience analytics technology. The system could analyse characteristics of the people standing in front of the display and adapt the experience accordingly. The demonstration helped make an emerging proposition more tangible for the market, but it was only one part of a much broader effort. The category would succeed only if the technology could be translated into something that manufacturers, resellers and customers could understand and act on.

That required much more than promotional activity. We needed to make the category credible enough for partners to invest time and attention in it, while also creating enough commercial structure for Ingram Micro to support that interest properly. The challenge was to connect an emerging technology trend with the practical realities of product availability, channel economics, reseller capability and customer demand. Without those elements reinforcing one another, the category would remain interesting but commercially immature.

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Building the operating system behind the category

Across several European markets, I worked with Ingram Micro teams and manufacturers to understand which technologies were gaining traction, where the portfolio remained incomplete and which products deserved early commitment. Customer behaviour, product availability and market response all influenced decisions about what to stock, how to position the category and where promotional investment could accelerate adoption. I also worked to identify gaps in the line-up and develop relationships with manufacturers that could strengthen our position as the market evolved.

The objective was not simply to add another product line to an already broad catalogue. A viable category depended on technology vendors, distribution capability, reseller engagement, market education and end-customer demand beginning to reinforce one another. That meant treating the business as a connected commercial system rather than as a series of individual vendor or product decisions. The stronger those connections became, the more credible the category became for both the channel and the manufacturers behind it.

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When market understanding becomes external validation

Samsung Electronics was one of the manufacturers we wanted to develop more deeply, and that relationship eventually produced an unexpected form of external validation. Samsung invited me to present how I believed its Digital Signage business should grow in Belgium, so I analysed its portfolio and pricing position and presented my conclusions to both local and Korean management. During the presentation, the discussion shifted from the content of the proposal to whether I would consider joining the company.

What mattered most was not the job offer itself, but what it demonstrated about the work that had preceded it. Building a category from a greenfield starting point had required a sufficiently detailed understanding of the market, portfolio, pricing, channel dynamics and route to market that one of the major manufacturers wanted that commercial perspective inside its own organisation. The assignment had therefore become more than a category-development role. It had become an exercise in understanding how an emerging market could be turned into a functioning commercial system.

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