Making Competitive Intelligence Effective with Cross-functional Teams (Part 2 of 4)

by admin , August 6, 2007

On the topic of making Competitive Intelligence effective, I have observed a number of companies over time that have produced extraordinary results through innovative use of the information. It is my experience that these successful companies do the following:

1. Have a commitment to making decisions with intelligence
2. Create a cross-functional team, including leaders from Sales, Marketing, Product Development, Finance and the Executive Board
3. Determine the most effective routes to generating effective competitive intelligence
4. Involve a 3rd-party to provide guidance (This is not a shameless plug. Ill explain later)
5. Provide a strong voice to evangelize the competitive intelligence
6. Demand accountability of leaders based on their willingness to consider and implement changes based on the intelligence initiatives

Create a cross-functional team
All too often, research and intelligence is conceived, developed, gathered, ignored and buried in one small corner of one department of a company. The information never gets to see the light of day in areas of the organization that might make very good use of the findings.

In a whitepaper distributed by the Corporate Executive Board (Which I cant find a link to online anymore. If you would like a copy of the report, email cdalley@primary-intel.com and request the British Telecom case study), one of the most important drivers of success was the fact that British Telecom, the subject of the study) created a Strategic Action Committee comprised of key stakeholders in the company that could work together to act upon the data. Also, a Marketing Strategy and Insight Group, staffed with representatives from Marketing, Product Management, Sales Customer Service, Pricing, Solutions, etc was responsible for disseminating intelligence to the key internal stakeholders.

Significant strategic business change requires action on the part of most every department in the company. The business change conversation wont be effective until the every department provides a senior management member to work on this collaborative team.

Determine the most effective routes
The first item of business for the cross-functional team is to decide what needs to be understood. A wish list of intelligence can be created, but eventually, this needs to be pared down to something that can be accomplished and will provide value.

The matrix below may help you categorize your initial intelligence initiatives. Go for the types of intelligence that are easy to generate and that have a high ROI potential, based on the intelligence needs identified by the cross-functional team. (For more thoughts on categorizing ease of gathering intelligence, you may refer to a previous post)

Once you have a group of change agents assembled and an intelligence plan, you are almost ready to move into the field.

In the next posts, Ill elaborate on the remaining points.

And, if you want to talk, lets chat. Post a response, call (801-838-9600 x5050) or send an email (cdalley@primary-intel.com)

Making Competitive Intelligence Effective with Cross-functional Teams (Part 1 of 4)

by admin , August 3, 2007

On Wednesday, I was a little sour toward irrelevant Competitive Intelligence efforts. Fortunately, I am associated with dozens of companies that are producing intelligence efforts at different levels of effectiveness. More importantly, each of these companies has a commitment to making the efforts more effective over time. They are searching for best practices and making changes.

In my experience, companies that make the most effective use of intelligence all use the same system at some level. If your company truly wants to make gains based on intelligence it should:

1. Have a commitment to making decisions with intelligence
2. Create a cross-functional team, including leaders from Sales, Marketing, Product Development, Finance and the Executive Board
3. Determine the most effective routes to generating effective competitive intelligence
4. Involve a 3rd-party to provide guidance (This is not a shameless plug. Ill explain later)
5. Provide a strong voice to evangelize the competitive intelligence
6. Demand accountability of leaders based on their willingness to consider and implement changes based on the intelligence initiatives

Lets talk about the first point.

A commitment to making decisions with intelligence
This quality starts at the very top. Perhaps you have a corporate board or an executive team. How do your CEO, CSO, CMO make decisions? Have they been around so long that they know everything? Do they reach out personally to clients, employees, partners and other significant market drivers?

You may not know the executive personally, but you can infer their receptivity to market intelligence by the conversations they have with employees. If they are the type that make idle talk and discuss the weather or the local sports team, they may tend to be more closed-minded about intelligence-based decisions. On the other hand, if they are committed to LISTENING to real matters that effect real people, they may tend to consume intelligence more willingly.

Of course, if the executives already sponsor intelligence initiatives, you might consider that a dead giveaway.

Why is this commitment to making decisions so important?

Because intelligence is only a means to an end. The end has to be change in the company that produces more revenue. And, change doesnt happen without a commitment at the highest levels.

All of your competitive intelligence efforts wont mean much if the change agents in your company dont use it. You can contract with 3rd-party vendors, scrape websites, monitor press releases, evaluate public financial documents and measure market penetration forever. But intelligence without action is worthless.

Over the next few posts, lets consider the other bullet points above.

And, if you want to chat, lets chat. Post a response, call (801-838-9600 x5050) or send an email (cdalley@primary-intel.com)

You Couldnt Make Competitive Intelligence So Irrelevant if You Tried

by admin , August 1, 2007

If your idea of effective competitive intelligence is gathering a bit of information, consolidating that information into a brief doc (perhaps on an attractive company letterhead) and sending that doc off to a distribution list, please stop reading. Go back to your cube, surf some more web sites and live a happy life.

Pardon me if Im a little grumpy today, but I have just finished reviewing a companys CI efforts and have added one more company to the pile of irrelevant competitive intelligence efforts.

What do I mean by irrelevant? In this case, the marketing department employs a few analysts to gather CI on a few competitors, market conditions and industry developments. These people put a little personal spin on the data and then launch their reports and briefs into different corporate branches through email, an intranet and their SFA tool.

(Yes, there is disdain in my description, but it wouldnt matter if they increased the quality of their personnel or budget to gather more information.)

The problem here is that the CI program is not making any difference at all in their ability to be more competitive. The data that is collected is better than nothing, but even if it is read, nobody acts on it, provides feedback or seems to value it at any important level of the company.

The intelligence has to make a difference somewhere in the company or the program is simply a money sink that exists because other companies have a CI department.

I suppose that there are all kinds of people out there, but I, for one, would be bored out of my skull if I didnt think my efforts were making a positive difference in the company. If I found myself in that situation, I would do everything I could to change the situation. To be clear, this isnt a matter of personal ego. Instead, I want to leverage our competitive intelligence efforts to create as much benefit as possible.

Enough of the rant. On Friday, Ill describe an environment that makes exceptional use of Competitive, Market and Sales intelligence.

And if you want to chat about these thoughts, please leave me a post, call me (801-838-9600 x5050) or email me (cdalley@primary-intel.com)