Developing CI Strategies – Planning Your Review

The Competitive Review process involves 6 Steps:

Step 1: Plan your review at 3 levels:

· Strategic level

· Tactical

· Operational

Step 2: Identification and classification of your competitors – current and future.

Step 3: Define Intelligence Requirements – focusing on needs (vs. wants) and a specific outcome you want to achieve.

Step 4: Determine how your results will be credible, trustworthy and actionable by decision makers.

Step 5: Develop a systematic intelligence collection and analysis capability then gather intelligence developing profiles and “apples-to-apples” benchmarks for each competitor.

Step 6: Establish a two way communications channel between theCI analyst and the user(s) of the information. Disseminate and explain findings and make any necessary refinements on intelligence requirements (Begin Step 3 again).

This section will focus on the first important step.

Defining the terms: Objectives, Goals, Strategies and Tactics

There is usually a lot of confusion between the terms Objectives, Goals, Strategies and Tactics so it is useful to define these terms. According to the Merriam Webster Collegiate Dictionary these terms in this context are defined, as follows:

Objectives: something toward which effort is directed : an aim, goal, or end of action b : a strategic position to be attained or a purpose to be achieved by a military operation.

Goals: the end toward which effort is directed.

Strategies: a careful plan or method : a clever stratagem b : the art of devising or employing plans, tactics or stratagems toward a goal c : the science and art of military command exercised to meet the enemy in combat under advantageous conditions.

Tactics: a device for accomplishing an end 2 : a method of employing forces in combat.

First, Establish Your Objectives

A typical Competitive Review has the following 4 Key objectives:

1.Identify competitor strategies – now and in the future.

2.Predict and monitor competitor’s likely responses to your strategies and tactics.

3.Understand a competitor’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT).

4.Determine how well a competitor’s capabilities and resources are to support their chosen strategies to gauge the likelihood of success.

Key ingredients in any competitive review are that the findings be: timely, trustworthy, concise, relevant, actionable and accessible to key decision makers. From this basic framework, establish specific Objectives around the competitor you are profiling. Objectives must be:

4 A single one line statement

4 Specific in focus

4 Measurable

They can also:

4 Relate to a specific time period

4 Relate to a specific competitor

Developing Strategies and Tactics

"Strategy without tactics is the slowest route to victory. Tactics without strategy is the noise before the defeat."

- Sun Tzu "The Art Of War,"

Strategy may be defined as the general scheme of the conduct of a war, tactics as the planning of means to achieve strategic objectives.

By achieving the Objectives of the competitive review, the investigation strategy can then be structured. Depending on the needs, some strategies may entail:

4 A SWOT analysis to understand the competitor’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats.

4 Determination of a company's strategy: low cost provider, vertical niche focused and/or products and services differentiation.

4 Leverage: Research into partnerships, relationships, clients, technology solutions, and platforms.

Additional information on Strategies and Tactics can be found at http://www.bartleby.com/65/st/strategy.html