Targets

A second, parallel task is to determine which targets your firm could be interested in. Here, the best thing is to determine both which firms are currently in your markets and, of these firms, which are really the critical players in regard to your own firm. Note the word determine. In many industries, too many companies really just assume who is in a niche, competing with them. Such assumptions are not always correct, however.

For example, we did a study for an insurance company on competition in four product niches. To start, we first summarized the knowledge and findings of the firm's executives, marketers, and so forth. That produced a consensus list of the top ten companies in each niche, as far as this firm's executives were concerned. Then we investigated each niche and compared what the client "knew" with what CI disclosed. The results were stunning. The results were approximately the same for each of the four separate niches:

Seven of the ten firms on each internally generated list of top competitors were actually among the top ten in that niche.

At least two of the three firms identified by the client's personnel were not in the top ten in that niche. In fact, most of the firms misidentified as currently being in that niche had not been in that particular niche for at least two year.

Each niche had at least one competitor, always among the top five in that niche, that no one in the firm had identified (a cloaked competitor ^[4]).

The lesson here is that setting up a list of targets involves more than merely asking your firm whom to target. ^[5] It involves checking for the need to include new competitors, and even potential competitors, as well as the need to eliminate those that are no longer in the marketplace.

Now the potential CI unit actually has a matrix, showing both potential targets and areas of major CI concern. Experience shows that typically, this level of effort will become further divided into groupings such as these:

between two and five companies that are head-to-head with your firm at all times in all markets. Here, the areas of interest typically are the broadest, and timeliness of providing that CI is most critical.
from five to twenty companies that compete in some geographic areas and/or in a few product (or service) lines. Here, your firm's interests are more focused and, usually, less time oriented.
companies that are on the edges of your markets, in either a geographic or product sense. For them, your firm's interest is in whether they are moving toward (or away from) your core markets. That intelligence is typically provided when it happens rather than on a periodic basis.
companies that are potential entrants to your markets. Here your firm needs to know of any indications that such firms are getting ready to move.

At this point, a firm will have established the core of its CI reporting pattern, which will drive its research and analysis. Management now knows:

which kinds of CI it needs
on which firm it needs CI
to which internal clients it is to be sent
when it must be there

Super Business - Project Management Articles

Targets

Targets