Customer Case Study · Leadership · GenAI for Business Planning
The distributor distributes lighting solutions and electrical products across the UAE. HMC ran a GenAI programme for its leaders built around their own business planning: from first prompts to a working planning cockpit, with two customer-facing prototypes built by the teams along the way.
Figures indicative; validated metrics available on request.
A lighting and electrical distributor plans across many categories, brands and project pipelines. Leaders wanted to use GenAI, but needed it grounded in their own planning work, not generic demos.
Category plans built bottom-up in workbooks, with scenarios slow to run and harder to explain.
Leaders had tried chat tools, but not on planning, pricing or customer proposals.
Energy savings sell lighting, but quantifying them for each customer took specialist time.
Matching consultant BOQs to the catalogue line by line delayed responses to tenders.
Every session used the distributor's planning questions and data patterns, so leaders practised on the work they do.
Select a step to see what happened.
Started with the people.
Deliverable: Readiness baseline and use-case long list.
Built the curriculum backwards from the annual plan.
Deliverable: Programme design and session packs.
Leaders did the work in the room.
Deliverable: Prompts, workflows and prototypes.
Teams presented working prototypes.
Deliverable: Prototype showcase and asset library.
From prototypes to practice.
Deliverable: Adoption roadmap.
The programme journey first, then what leaders built: a GenAI planning cockpit, an LED retrofit savings studio and a BOQ-to-quotation engine. Prototypes are shown as illustrative replicas with synthetic data.
Click through the journey, or press play. Each step shows what leaders did and what they left with.
Set growth, price and share assumptions by category, or pick a scenario. The bridge updates live; then generate the leadership memo from the numbers, and ask follow-up questions.
Categories and figures synthetic (AED million); narrative generated from the numbers on screen.
Built by the sales team in the hackathon. Pick a space, switch from legacy lighting to LED, add sensors, and watch light levels, energy, AED savings, CO₂ and payback update. Drag to orbit; move the clock to bring in daylight.
Lumen-method estimate with a point-source pattern; fittings, prices, tariff and grid factor are illustrative assumptions.
Built by the projects team. Each BOQ line is read, matched to catalogue items on specification, and scored. Pick alternatives, set the margin, and generate the cover note.
Sample BOQ and catalogue; item codes, specifications and prices are illustrative.
Leaders moved from trying GenAI to using it on the plan, and the best prototypes entered the roadmap.
Leaders reaching each stage, of 24 enrolled
Weeks per planning step
Figures indicative; validated metrics available on request.
Leaders adopt GenAI faster when the first prompt is about their own plan, not a generic example.
Let the model write from the scenario, and keep the assumptions in the leader's hands.
A working prototype turns enthusiasm into a roadmap item with an owner.