Good CI resource

We are always out looking for relevant resources that can enhance our understanding of important concepts. JTHawes Consulting has a great blog that delves into matters of competitive intelligence. It's worth a look.

JTHawes Blog

Tough Times and the Competition

Here is a portion of an interview given by Paul Kinsinger that is featured in the most recent edition of McKinsey Quarterly. He is a long-time pioneer in the field of Competitive Intelligence and a personal favorite professor from my days at Thunderbird.


Here is the link

Analytics at Work

We often refer our clients and potential clients to the great Davenport/Harris work, "Competing on Analytics". It does an incredible job of explaining the value generated by creating a culture of analysis that can be understood by the average executive.

Davenport has recently created a follow-up and we can't wait to see how it can add value to our engagements. If it is half as informative as the original we will be more than satisfied.

Check out this recent interview(link below) with Mr. Davenport and then head over to Amazon.com to make your purchase. The fate of your company might rest on your ability to leverage your data for strategic gain.

Interview: Moving On With Analytics

President Obama, Terrorism, and Corporate Intelligence

We were all disturbed when we heard of the alleged terrorist plot that took place on Northwest Flight 253 on Christmas day. While the plot ultimately failed it unnerved a sensitive public that is forever scarred by September 11th. Almost immediately the media, policy makers, politicians, and members of the intelligence community quickly jumped into the fray to mete out blame and determine fault. This was especially disturbing considering that the intelligence community reportedly had credible intelligence on this man and possible threats to the U.S.

President Obama said it well when he stated "The system has failed in a potentially disastrous way,...The bottom line is this: The U.S. government had sufficient information to have uncovered this plot and potentially disrupt the Christmas Day attack,...But our intelligence community failed to connect those dots." Very chilling words.

Now international terrorism is far more serious, important, and wide reaching then corporate intelligence but there is still a lesson for the business community to learn. It is one thing to collect competitive information and it is a whole other thing to actively analyze and respond to this new found knowledge. We simply can't be satisfied that we are gathering information from the internet or trade shows. We need to adequately digest all of the information that we gather and act on what the intelligence says. Your inaction can lead to some serious negative consequences.

All companies should perform an internal audit to determine whether or not their current CI infrastructure is capable of connecting and acting on the disparate and distant dots that form actionable intelligence. Because we all know that it is one thing to passively monitor your competitive landscape and it is a completely other thing to harness this information in the development of sound corporate strategy.

Helping people understand why they need you

I recently met with a CPA to help his firm evaluate its marketing messaging. Up to this point his firm has been successful at generating revenue through reputation and word of mouth referrals. But now he is looking to grow his business and to get more aggressive with his marketing.

His firm goes beyond the traditional accounting model by offering full service IT integration and systems implementation. His model might be similar to Accenture except that his target market consists of far less sophisticated companies in the $1 to $50 million range. Those who have used his firm can attest to the value he offers. But in spite of his success with his current customers he still faced several challenges as he endeavored to grow the business.

Among them:

• How to communicate his "added" value to an audience that was used to looking at IT and Accounting separately.
• How do you begin to develop a marketing strategy when there is no one in your competitive space to benchmark against?
• How can you convince this market that your services are a necessary catalyst to growth and not a cumbersome cost?

Through the course of the exercise we tried to look at past examples where new services or products faced a market with seemingly unchanging and archaic views of what was available. Apple Computers, Netscape, and Nike were all examples of companies that revolutionized things by redefining the rules and perceptions of a given space. They didn't get bogged down in apples to apples comparisons with the competition, they focused getting to the heart of how their offerings could redefine the lives of those who used them. For example, in the early 1980's a write up on the computing power of a Tandy computer wouldn't have meant anything to the average American. But once you are able to convince them of why the PC was able to enhance our lives we witnessed a something that was game changing.

We took the same approach. We didn't want these unique services to be "cubby holed" in with the existing offerings by other CPA's or IT firms. This firm did all of those things but it also did so much more. We wanted to focus on the "Why" and not the "What". That led to the creation of some messaging that really resonated and communicated value to the intended market. Once we determined why this offering was a solution for what was plaguing the market the rest fell into place.

If you are trying to reshape a rather commoditized market or if you are trying to create demand for something new your messaging has to be spot on. You need to clearly define the added or new value to your audience. If you don't they will see no reason to change what they are doing irregardless of how much your offering may help.

All of my customers aren't all alike?

Here's a business story that a number of you might be familiar with. Hopefully it will motivate wholesale change with the manner in which you approach your customers.

Picture this.

A growing consumer products company has several successful products that are all the rage with homemakers who love to craft. These products potentially have other uses or customers but the housewives really love them and, as a result, become the fuel for this company's growth. All marketing efforts were devoted to this group, all consumers were considered similar, and all messaging was uniform. And the company continued to grow....in spite of this. Eventually demand leveled out and the company ceased to grow.

Is there a lesson here?

Rule #1 in marketing is "know thy customer". And if you have a halfway decent product or service that word customer likely has an "S" at the end of it. So let's make that "know thy customers." You likely have multiple customers and those multiple customers likely have unique tastes, buying habits, and preferences.

You know where this is leading....Market Segmentation. Since everyone has different reasons for using your products it is essential that you find an economical way to connect to those unique groups. In marketing parlance this is segmenting the market and there are several ways to do this ranging from simply interviewing several of your key customers to applying robust statistical analysis like CHAID to a large survey population. It is only common sense that, if your customers are different, that you adjust accordingly.

Some of the positive results of market segmentation include:

• More accurate sales forecasting which means improved resource planning.
• Increased revenue by focusing marketing efforts on the high demand customers.
• You better understand your markets and they will appreciate your willingness to get to know them.
• Cost savings when instead of marketing to the entire customer base you match messaging with the groups that will be the most likely to receive them.

Identifying and addressing the differences in your audience is Marketing 101. At the very least you need to have people within your organization who are familiar with the nuances of your marketplace. Ideally you have someone in your organization or you bring in a third party to help you identify these things. We recommend that perform several and regular activities to engage your customer base. This could be as simple as informal conversations at the point of purchase. And it can lead to performing an extensive survey of this same group to statistically distinguish between the groups. The internet has become a masterful place to engage with the customer and to determine their unique desires.

Go forth. Continue to sell your products. But do so smartly. Don't treat a Sally like a Fred. They may both buy your products but they are very different. It is your job to know those differences and provide incentives to ensure their loyal and profitable patronage.

A virtuous bank?

The travails of the current recession have had the thinking public looking for the source. While the list of culprits is long and varied the popular voice almost uniformly heaps the lions share of the blame on Wall Street and the financial sector. Whether or not this disdain is fully justified is a question for another day but the current actions- think AIG and Goldman Sachs bonuses- within this sector have only strengthened the anger.

But new forward thinking businesses are emerging out of the malaise created by the greed of the previous generation. Whether or not this latest iteration of businesses can succeed will probably depend on their ability to reign in the universal drive for excessive lucre. Among the companies leading this new charge is none other then organization from the oft hated Financial Sector, Spanish bank Caja Navarra. It is this bank and its unique business model, referred to as "Civic Banking", that I want to showcase.

Since 2000 this bank has been quietly and effectively turning a healthy and guilt free profit in Spain. Their motto, "Future financial institutions will be civic...or they won't survive" not only explains their Raison d'être it also serves notice to the other financial institutions that they are harvesting a new wind of change.

Picture this. I have a bank account and I receive a monthly statement that details my charges and what I've made in interest. Pretty standard stuff. Caja Navarra does this but they also will let you know exactly how much money they made off of you and they give you the ability to designate 30% of those profits to charity. So we now have increased visibility and incredible corporate responsibility.

The bank is now poised to enter the US Market. They have met with institutions such as Columbia, Wharton, and Thunderbird evangelizing their message of corporate responsibility. The way the public currently perceives the suits on Wall Street this type of move couldn't come soon enough. We need more organizations and corporations that think beyond themselves and, hopefully, this will inspire more of them to follow suit.