Interestingly enough a former colleague recently asked me for my input and perspective on Competitive Analysis from a business owners perspective. Here was my response:
From the MBA program the key areas are:
SWOT Analysis
- Strengths
- Weaknesses
- Opportunities
- Threats
From my B-School days, we were taught that, by determining the above for your company, and also determining this for your competitors you are able to see where you can anticipate your competition’s strategy and get out ahead of it. It also helps to prepare you for typical questions/resistance points customers or potential targets would have towards your product in particular when comparing them to your competitor. The key is to stay ahead of the competition and be prepared with your target market so that you are never caught off-guard.
The things I think of when I am trying to gather info on competitors are the following:
- what are their core competencies
- how do our core competencies map to theirs
- expertise of key personnel
- what are their target markets (i.e. do you have a specific competency or client base in a particular industry that your competitor does not)
- strategic partnerships (who have they teamed up with)
- emerging product areas
- products vs. services: do they compliment each other or do they seem to be in conflict
- Too much or too little product/service diversity
- Latest management news/developments (i.e. have they recently lost senior leadership, recent re-organizations, etc which can lead to lack of leadership and direction)
Although something to consider, nothing listed in the above with the exception of SWOT analysis is based in any type of tested or research process or theory and is really something that I should be spending more time doing.
