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COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE

A PROCESS THAT CREATES COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE NOT A REPORT THAT SITS ON A SHELF

Plan Integrate Collect Analyze Communicate

4200 Montrose, Suite 590 Houston, TX 77006 713/522-9656 Phone 713/522-9661 Fax

www.wjmurray-assoc.com

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Imagine a company that customers rave about. A company whose customers say “it’s so easy to do business with them”. A company where employees are excited about working and pitch in to help each other. R&D has a passion for product development and getting to revenue quickly, and the production department is obsessed with continually improving and reducing cost while increasing quality and reliability. Staff people understand that their job is to please the internal customer as well as the external customer, not to build empires. A company where information technology enables the company to achieve unparalleled speed of execution and the management team is constantly reinventing the company.

Imagine this company is your competitor.

Do you want to know how they got there? Do you want to know how your company compares?

Imagine…

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IF COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE IS NOT:

Impacting your resource allocation decisions

Creating competitive advantage

Creating singularity of purpose

Leading to Strategic Doing

IT’S NOT COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE

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COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE IS A PROCESS OF

Planning: Deciding what the organization wants to accomplish and then organizing to collect, analyze, communicate and integrate the

intelligence into strategic decisions and their execution.

Collecting: Gathering the information about customers, markets and competitors that will impact resource allocation decisions and build competitive advantage.

Analyzing: 1. Creating a succinct picture of the marketplace in 3 to 5 years:

Who is in it? What are they trying to do? How are they trying to do it? What is the differentiating strategy?

2. Extracting tactical information to help win the daily battles.

Communicating: Getting the tactical and strategic information to the managers who need it.

Integrating: Using competitive intelligence to create and execute a differentiating strategy.

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WJ Murray & Associates’ Competitive Intelligence Process

Strategic Planning Process Defines:

• Trends Shaping the Future• The Future Customer• The Business• The Vision• Strategic Intent of Competitors • The Value Proposition• The Goals• The Critical Success Factors • The Strategic Initiatives• The Metrics

Plan Collect

Scope of Competitive Intelligence

Published Sources

External Sources • Customers • Distributors• Suppliers• Industry Experts

Internal Sources• Sales Call Reports• Trade Show Reports• Press Releases• Interviews

Communicate

Compile &Disseminate

Analyze

• Financial Performance• Business Processes• Distribution Channels• Products/Technology• Cost Structure• Personnel• Business Relationships• Key Customers• Strategic Intent

Integrate

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THE WJ MURRAY & ASSOCIATES’ PROCESS DELIVERS:

The marketing, manufacturing and technology strategies of key competitors.

The relative cost position of your firm and key competitors.

A map of the key competitors channel to the marketplace, both sales and service/ repair.

The value adding business processes of key competitors as well as their information technology and knowledge management infrastructure.

Emerging customer needs and how competitors are positioning to satisfy those needs – how your firm should position itself - a winning business strategy that is different from that of key competitors.

Tactical information that produces winning proposals; i.e., price, delivery, terms, value proposition.

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CHARACTERISTICS OF THE WJ MURRAY & ASSOCIATES’COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE PROCESS:

A process that encompasses market and customer information as well as informationabout key competitors.

Provides an Internet or Intranet based delivery vehicle and a focused approach thatnegates information overload.

Goes beyond data collection to interpret the meaning of the data; develops insight andimplications of the data which results in actionable business recommendations.

Develops a deeply shared and tested consensus among senior managers about thestrategic intent of key competitors.

A process that impacts the organization’s resource allocation decisions.

A process that is continuously improved.

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Plan

Actions

1. Interview senior managers2. Identify

• The customers and the vision• The value proposition• Goals/critical success factors• Cost structure/drivers• Technology• Historical profitability• Strategic initiatives

3. Reach consensus with management• Value added competitive intelligence• Key competitors• Key internal customers/location• Competitive intelligence delivery vehicle

4. Interview key competitive intelligence user groups

• Information needs• Processes used to accomplish work

Results and Outputs

1. Consensus on goals, strategies and critical success factors 2. Consensus on value added competitive intelligence 3. Agreement on information architecture 4. Agreement on communication plan and vehicles, e.g.,

• One-on-one briefings• Group discussions• Input/output vehicles• Archival rules

5. Agreement on roles and responsibilities 6. Metrics for success and continuous improvement 7. Consensus on expected results 8. Agreement on budget, resource requirements 9. Agreement on system access and security procedures

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Plan Collect

Actions

1. Published sources• Analysts reports• Governmental sources• Press releases• News articles

2. Interview and collect information from third party sources

• Customers• Distribution channel• Suppliers• Industry experts• Benchmark best practice organizations

3. Internal sources• Call reports• Trade show reports• Interviews

Results and Outputs

1. Competitive, market and customer information collected 2. Value added sources of information identified3. Map of data collection process completed4. Templates for inputting data from internal sources are deployed5. Competitive intelligence IT architecture defined6. Process for continuously monitoring data sources identified and deployed

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Plan Collect Analyze

Actions

1. Determine the customers’ best and poorest suppliers - Why?2. Determine the customers’ preference for market channels3. Determine the customers’ preference for products/services4. Identify the customer's value drivers

• Who is responding - how?5. Identify outsourcing opportunities6. Identify the customers strategic alliance process7. Create market growth and profitability forecasts

• Market growth by geography• Business profitability

8. Identify key competitors’• Manufacturing processes and cost structure• Channels to the marketplace for sales and service• Technology and capability• IT systems• R&D and capital spending

Results and Outputs

1. Competitive position• Cost structure/capital spending• Technology• Business processes• IT infrastructure• Products/services• Changes in competitive position

2. Key competitive initiatives and components of strategy3. Future market position4. Outsourcing opportunities 5. Competitive manufacturing facilities and expansion plans6. Competitive outsourcing activities7. “Best practice” competitors8. Strategic alternatives and recommendations9. Differentiating strategy

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Plan Collect Analyze Communicate

Actions

1. Complete one-on-one briefings with key managers2. Conduct group meetings and discussions3. Post analyzed data on communications vehicle

• Internet/Intranet• Group ware

4. Specific reports for functional managers

Results and Outputs

1. Strategic and tactical competitive intelligence in the hands of decision makers and implementers2. Communication process3. Information input and output process4. Strategic decisions are improved5. Strategic decisions are implemented6. Consensus on

• Competitive strategies• Implications for the firm• Relative position of the firm on key parameters

7. Commitment to action

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Plan Integrate Collect Analyze Communicate

Actions

1. Senior manager meetings to reach consensus on:• Trends in the marketplace and who is responding • Customers’ unmet needs• The firm’s value proposition• Competitive strategy and implementation methods• Goals• Commitment to achieve the critical success factors• Results required

Results and Outputs

1. Differentiated competitive strategy2. Improved performance relative to competitors3. Competitive intelligence process installed and operating4. Agreement among customers that firm has improved relative to competitors5. Agreement among channel partners that firm has improved its competitive position6. Improvement in quality of decisions