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Obtaining Competitor and Market Intelligence
Competitor
intelligence provides a foundation for good
planning and
development of
competitive and
innovation strategies. Planning for
→
innovation means not
only
planning for specific events, but
preparing to manage risk and handle future
uncertainty.
>>>
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New Product Development: 10 Best Practices
A crucial role of competitor
analysis is to forecast what products
competitors will come out with and when.
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Gather
information from your sales people,
suppliers, distributors, and customers.
Being on the front lines, these people
often hear about a competitor’s move
first.
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Have a
hotline so that anyone with competitive
information can immediately report it.
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Assign
people to stay on top of the situation
and keep in touch with the market and
leaders in the field.
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Keep in
contact with the key people who are
making things happen, and have a special
intuition for
trends and events.
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Obtain
vision from special early warning teams
that monitor the major segments of its
markets.
Market Windows
Integrate
competitor intelligence with
technology intelligence and other
information to identify market windows of
opportunity – the interval of time during
which a particular type of product can be
profitably sold. Market windows are
important because they provide indisputable
targets and goals. Engineers need market
windows as deadlines driven by the external
realities of the market and competition, not
by executive declarations. Competitive
pressures are the most important factor in
creating speed. The unmistakable threat of
the competition coming out with an excellent
product by a certain date is a mighty
motivator. Market windows thus provide both
motivation and credible deadlines, and
determining these windows should be part of
the planning process.
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Quantum
Quantum has
early warning teams for PCs, laptops, work
stations, and large computers. Early warning
teams keep it touch with important customers
and monitor competitors and technology. The
teams identify what aspects are driving the
market, and they monitor how these change
over time. Especially important, the teams
plot curves that show trends in features,
performance, and cost.
>>>
Komatsu
Komatsu
scrutinized the trash behind the service
centers of its major U.S. competitor,
Caterpillar, to find parts that has failed
and had had to be replaced. On the basis of
this, Komatsu designed new models that were
considerably more durable than its U.S.
competition.
Motorola
Motorola
noticed a pattern in the purchasing of
capital equipment by
Japanese firms, which tipped the firm
off that the Japanese were planning a major
move to Europe. A couple of years later,
when a half-dozed Japanese firms started
selling consumer electronics in Europe,
Motorola was prepared for it and retained
most of its market share.
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