The coaching services will be tailored to the needs of SME beneficiaries.
SMEs can benefit from one or more of the following assistance packages for up to a total of 15 days of coaching:
• Review and discuss self-assessment
• Company pre-check together with coach
• Feedback on existing strategic plan, sales strategy, product/pricing, management & team, financials, organisation, culture and compliance
• Fine tune and priorisation of the identified needs
• Revision of the required services
• Define concrete next steps for remaining service delivery
• Product/service review and validation
• Market research and analysis, including insights into market opportunities, demand, and competition (e.g., civilian and defence market opportunities)
• Estimation of total addressable market
• Discovery and refinement of product market fit for defence (e.g., military, border control, civil protection, disaster management…)
• User involvement/stakeholder analysis
• Understanding of defence procurement processes, portals, and key actors involved
• Identification of defence procurement opportunities and tenders
• Development of strategic partnerships for procurement with public and private entities (e.g., MoDs, government agencies, prime contractors, and large system integrators)
• Review of government defence plans to secure continuous funding
• Definition of company vision and mission
• Definition of company strategy for the defence market
• Business model review and validation
• Alignment of strategy with defence/civilian market needs and government regulations
• Exploration of strategic opportunities for commercialisation of solutions from civilian to defence or across different defence domains.
• Goals & KPIs
• Action planning
• Calculation of the business case
• Financial model development or evaluation, including estimation of key financial indicators such as CAPEX, OPEX, revenues, ROI, NPV, etc.
• Cost-benefit analysis
• Economic and financial risk assessment
• Investment concept development
• Definition of fundraising strategy (grants, equity, debt)
• Preparation of project for compliance with investor requirements
• Identification and liaison with suitable investors
• Documentation overview & preparation
• Investor pitch and negotiation preparation
• Analysis of risks, challenges, and weaknesses of investment proposals
• Identification of relevant private investors to diversify revenue streams and scale operations (e.g., securing commercial contracts and/or preparing a funding round)
1. Internal Dimension
• Project management
• Operational excellence (e.g., leveraging AI tools to enhance operational efficiency)
• Organisational design and workforce
• Risk management
• Refine company's procurement processes
2. External Dimension
• Enhance supply chain and logistics for defence
• Outsourcing as a strategic asset
• Roadmap for scaling product, service, or technology
• Internationalisation readiness
• Preparation of internationalisation plan and/or market expansion approach
• Assessment and prioritisation of target markets and business opportunities
• Analysis of export regulations and policies (e.g., export controls for dual-use products, accreditation and IP requirements)
• Identification of relevant clients and partners in target markets – building relationships with prime contractors and governments
• Analysis of defence regulatory frameworks and compliance requirements
• Understanding of dual-use technology regulations
• Analysis of applicable standards and regimes, including examples of good practice
• Contract review and general legal advice ( (e.g., partnerships’ rights and liabilities))
• IP advice: patent, copyrights, design registrations, trademarks, logos, domain names
• Analysis and understanding of the IP landscape and definition of relevant IP strategies for defence
• Marketing and communications strategy and action planning (e.g., market segmentation, business partner/investor personas, communication channels…)
• Product/service definition, refinement of value proposition and unique selling point
• Preparation of project presentation & sales pitch for business partners and/or investors in defence
• Analysis and understanding of the buyer's journey/profile/sales cycle
• Engagement and outreach strategy