Competitive Intelligence - Essay Example

Competitive intelligence Introduction Competitor intelligence is a process to analyze the contemporary business conditions prevailing at a defined region. The business entities existing in a business region or sectors are analyzed according to various parameters. The competitor intelligence would provide a broad idea about the existing opportunities, the current industry standards, the recent developments which drive the ongoing business growth and the profitability factors which differentiate between organizations in contention (Diane White, 1998, p249). The competitor analysis can be perceived between two companies, two provinces, two states or two different countries. The competitor intelligence was initially perceived as trivial act in most of the business in most of the regions except in counties like Japan and US. Business challenges: a concern The evolutions of new challenges like technological advancements and out sourcing have posed new challenges for the business operations. Understanding these challenges and acting according to the implications required an acute sense of understanding the situations and the analyzing to the best. The competitor analysis has diversified into more specific issues of planning, collection of more influential data, analysis and communication, which were undeniable influencers of success. The research is conducted by taking individual tasks and integrating it to the organizational concerns making the analysis more robust and to derive more refined facts. Country competitor Intelligence and its significance: The country analysis gives a broad idea about the investment atmosphere prevailing in the country under consideration. The current position of the industrial sector under consideration, the amount of market capitalization existing in the country for the sector, the number of existing players competing and their presence in the market., the government approach for the development of the sector, the entry norms for the investors, the resources availability, the supportive industry presence for companies like the smaller parts manufacturers for automobile industries etc, The volume of the business to be explored, the number of years for turnaround to gain the considerable market reach, and the socio-economic factors of the country that may influence the business potential. The above factors may differ from one country to the other. For example a Canadian company is planning to enter new market in Ontario. The company has to know the feasibility of the business in the Ontario. The company has taken help of a consulting company to know the market environment in the region. The consulting company has given details of components related to the competitors, recent trends fallowed by the competitors, the financial status. Comparison between New Zealand & Canada: New Zealand, competitor intelligence is a pioneering issue under consideration that has been given preference only after 90's (Craig S. Fleisher, 2004). The business elite group is not known of using the competitor intelligence tools as much. The study perceived by Procter revealed some interesting facts that the business environment was more inclined towards domestic markets rather than concentrating on the growing need to globalize (Craig S. Fleisher, 2004, P 43). The New Zealand business sectors are optimistic that competitor intelligence has more important role to play in the due of time. The New Zealand business sectors sensed the constraints they need to overcome to sustain in their respective business but they are yet to open to the implementation of competitor intelligence strategies to raise their business levels to globally acceptable level. The business sectors are not ready to face the realities like the constraints they need to know about their external environment they are into. To address these new business requirements the business entities need more resources like internet, product patent information etc (Patents and competitive intelligence). The modes of business education were only though word of mouth, the other resources were not used to a considerable extent. The new means of scanning the external business excellence is still to be explored. The companies were not having any in depth systems which can provide them a clear picture of the market existence and future. The New Zealand companies were not having adequate collection which allows them to calculate their growth rate. The business information was not properly integrated to draw the best results by analyzing the perfect data. The external business excellence is not captured in the way it needs to be captured. Thus, the best practices implemented by the competitor would remain as an unexplored puzzle. Canada: The Canadians has initiated much into the roots of CI. The study on the technology sector revealed that some facts related to the way the business entities using the CI for the enhancement of the business (Sheila Wright, 2006, P 456). The facts revealed that the businessmen were not educated enough to know about the CI. Most of the businessmen have taken the CI as a mere marketing support tool. They did not know to perfectly use the CI, they does not know the methodologies, the uses, the sources that could be used to get the information. The New Zealand competitor intelligence when compared to Canada differs by various other influential factors: The important constraints are The Canadian business organizational culture was having more information sharing from the various levels of hierarchy which enables to upgrade for more knowledge and enhance the productivity. When compared to New Zealand, Canada is having more resource planning for competitor intelligence as they have initiated CI cells in their functional departments. The CI cells were confined to a few departments with negligible research been carried for the prosperity of the business. The resource planning was made by the use of the internal resources manually with no advanced techniques under consideration. The new data hubs like the internet were not used to capture the status of the business operations. The information on competitor intelligence was collected from the scientists and others decision makers. The knowledge base of the few internal employees was the actual source to conduct CI. The external research information was not taken into consideration which may have created an additional input to the existing analysis. The employees were not encouraged to take an active part in the competitor intelligence which may had resulted in knowing some crucial work flow inputs from employees point of view. The open public sources are not adequately equipped to refine the data from the company sources (Data collection, Kapowtech). The companies' press releases and executives' word of month announcements may create distinct impact in estimating the competitor strategies and the root causes which lead to perceive the strategy. These data are to be segregated according to the various concerns of business and are to be preserved for the companies which look for an instant knowledge of the business environments. The comparison exposes the fact that in both the countries the senior management know the significance of the CI, but they were confined to a define set of constraints beyond which they were not exploring the causes hidden in their operations. . Conclusion of Country comparison: The above comparison in both the countries demands more coercive data accumulation with wide arrays of parameters which directly or indirectly influence the business operations. Both of the countries were not having robust competitor intelligence systems, the companies were slowly learning the process of competitor intelligence. The process of the implementation is a long term process and thus as the gains are achieved the more organization may concentrate on the CI. Reference: Daine White, Competitor intelligence, Sheila Wright, Jonathan L. Calof, The quest for competitive, marketing and business intelligence, A country comparison of current practices Dr Daniel Rouach, Professor at ESCP-EAP, Patrice Santi, Research Associate at ESCP-EAP, The Added Value of Competitive Intelligence Five types of intelligence attitudes https://www.escp-eap.net/gtilab/new/materials/ci_2_article_added_value_of_ci_2)columns.doc Special issue country specific competitive intelligence, Journal of competitive intelligence and management, 2004, available at, http://vtech.canalblog.com/docs/jcim.v2i4.new.zealand1.pdf Math H. Evans, Excellence in financial management, Competitive intelligence, http://www.exinfm.com/training/pdfiles/course12-2.pdf Gina Imperato, March 1998, Issue14, page 269, Competitive intelligence-get smart, http://www.fastcompany.com/online/14/intelligence.html Data collection, http://www.kapowtech.com/solutions_data.htmgoogle&keyword=competitiveintelligence&gclid=CMK_xIL5_4oCFQmZbgodC1kNJw Avinash Koushik, Occam's razar, Aug 2006, http://www.kaushik.net/avinash/2006/08/competitive-intelligence-analysis-why-what-how-to-choose.html Patents and competitive intelligence, Business insight, http://www.creativeinsightuk.com/CINOTES/Competitive.htm David benezur, October 2005, Environmental scanning: how developed is information acquisition in Western European companies, http://informationr.net/ir/11-1/paper241.html Read More