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Industry Competitor AnalysesView Template for: Industry Competitor Analyses The two analyses presented in this section include a competitor comparison table and a more in-depth analysis by competitor. Competitor Comparison TableThe competitor comparison table is an excellent method to compare your business with a few key competitors based on more than just revenue and market share data. Most of the criteria listed on the template page will apply to any business. A few criteria might not be applicable to your business and should be eliminated. On the other hand, there are likely to be additional criteria which are specific to your industry that should be added. For example, many items on the purchase criteria list (discussed earlier) should be added. For strategy development it is especially important to compare your business with not only traditional competitors but with different, non-traditional types of competitors. In practice, the sales and marketing department will often expand the competitor table to include all competitors and to lengthen the listing of evaluation criteria to include all factors which are relevant to winning the sale. This fairly simple table can become a powerful competitive weapon. A professional sales force will also be able to collect and update competitor information as well. In most companies, competitor intelligence gathering and analysis is not coordinated. Many U.S. companies still do not employ dedicated competitive intelligence professionals. Some U.S. companies are not even familiar with the field. According to Timothy Powell, author of Analyzing Your Competition, the ideal competitive intelligence professional has a combined degree in business and library science, with a minor in computer technology. Powell believes that U.S. business students are not well trained in how to gather and use business information, and that U.S. executives tend to delegate competitive intelligence functions to low-level staff more than Japanese executives. A quick way for companies and professionals to improve their method of building and using competitor information systems is through joining The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, SCIP, an international organization of over 1600 members based in Washington, DC. Industry Competitor Analysis, By CompetitorThe purpose of this section is to analyze key competitors. The amount of information that can be collected about a competitor can be quite extensive. This section attempts to highlight some key data only. Key competitors should include not only traditional industry competitors, but also non-traditional competitors with different skills and resources which often represent the greatest threat over the long-run. For example, include foreign competitors and new competitors from different industries. As additional information is collected on competitors, it is often appropriate to conduct an in-depth competitor analysis on one or more key competitors. In this case, a separate Competitor Analysis document should be developed. In practice, it is best to design at least two different formats for a competitor analysis. One competitor analysis format should be used to analyze a single business; the other format should be used to analyze a company (or a division of a company) which competes in two or more businesses. In practice, it is a good idea to have a short version of each of the above to use for competitors which are not significant enough to justify the time and effort necessary to complete a full analysis. Theoretically, a business unit should perform business unit competitor analyses, and the corporate planning department should perform corporate (multipoint) competitor analyses. For an excellent overview on how to develop a comprehensive competitor intelligence system, refer to Michael Porter's Competitive Strategy, 1980, The Free Press. |
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