What clients say
after the work is done
Feedback from organisations in Malaysia that have engaged Thornfeld for consulting work on innovation, R&D portfolio, and technology strategy.
Back to HomeFrom clients across Malaysia
We engaged Thornfeld for the Innovation Ecosystem Design service. What I valued most was the co-design process — the framework we ended up with felt like ours, not something handed down. Six months on, it is still being used in our quarterly planning sessions.
The R&D Portfolio Guidance was genuinely helpful at a moment when we had too many projects running and no clear sense of which ones actually mattered most. The sequencing recommendations were direct and backed by clear reasoning. A four-star rather than five only because the initial scoping call took longer than I expected — but the output was solid.
We used the Technology Landscape Review ahead of our annual planning cycle. The output — a visual map with a prioritised watch list — was exactly what we needed to have a grounded conversation with our board. Well-structured, relevant to our sector, and delivered on time.
What stood out for me was that Thornfeld did not try to convince us that our current innovation process was broken. They mapped what was working and what was not, and then worked with us to build on the parts that were actually functioning. That felt like a respectful and practical approach.
We needed an independent view of our R&D portfolio before making decisions about where to invest in the next financial year. The assessment was clear, specific, and did not try to soften things that needed to be said clearly. We ended up pausing two projects and concentrating resources on three others — and I think that was the right call.
The Technology Landscape Review was more targeted than what we had received from other consultants previously. Rather than giving us a comprehensive list of everything that is happening in AI and automation, they filtered it down to what was actually applicable given our situation. That selectivity made the output far more useful.
Selected client engagements
Mid-size manufacturing company, Selangor
A Selangor-based manufacturer with around 400 staff had been running innovation initiatives for three years without seeing ideas move through to implementation. Promising proposals would surface, generate initial enthusiasm, and then stall — often disappearing before anyone made a decision about them.
Over five weeks, the Thornfeld team mapped all existing idea pathways and conducted workshops with staff at three levels of the organisation. The bottleneck turned out to be structural: ideas were reaching middle management but there was no mechanism for middle managers to escalate or approve them. The resulting ecosystem framework redesigned that layer specifically.
Within two months of implementation, four previously stalled proposals had moved to a formal evaluation stage. The client reported that the framework had been adopted without requiring significant persuasion — primarily because the management team had helped design it.
Technology services company, Kuala Lumpur
A KL-based technology firm had a team of 12 working across seven active R&D tracks. Leadership recognised that resources were spread too thinly but lacked a structured way to evaluate which projects to continue, which to pause, and which to close. Internal politics were making it difficult to have objective conversations about the portfolio.
The Thornfeld team conducted independent interviews with project leads and reviewed available documentation on each track. A portfolio assessment matrix was developed based on market relevance, technical feasibility, and strategic alignment. The final report included a recommended sequencing for the next 12 months, with supporting rationale for each recommendation.
The client restructured from seven R&D tracks to four. The assessment report was used directly in the board conversation — the external framing helped depoliticise what had been a difficult internal discussion. One of the paused tracks was restarted six months later with clearer scope definition.
Financial services organisation, Klang Valley
A financial services firm was preparing for its annual technology investment cycle and needed a structured view of which emerging technologies in its sector warranted attention. The leadership team had received multiple vendor presentations over the preceding year but found that these were too promotional to be a reliable basis for decision-making.
Over three weeks, Thornfeld produced a technology landscape covering 22 technologies across four domains. Each was evaluated for maturity, applicability to the firm's situation, and readiness requirements. The final map categorised them into three tiers — monitor, experiment, and invest — with a short written commentary on each shortlisted item explaining the reasoning.
The client used the landscape map directly in their technology committee meeting. Two technologies from the invest tier were approved for proof-of-concept work in the following quarter. The committee chair noted that the independent framing was more useful than the vendor materials they had been relying on previously.
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