How Competitive Intelligence Isolated Opportunities and Internal Problems

We called this post how Competitive Intelligence isolated opportunities and internal problems. It’s a Competitive Intelligence case study. The article presents how our services provide more certainty and confidence.

You know how
You know how you want to expand from an already booming market place? And you see many new markets getting an inferior product offering? And you know customers would love what you do? But you don’t know where to start and what could get in your way? So you shuffle papers around at weekly board meetings. To make sure you are doing something productive. This situation was happening to one of our clients.

This is what we did
What is Competitive Intelligence?

Competitive intelligence is the finding, sorting and critical analysis of information. To make sense of what’s happening and why. Predict what’s going to happen and give the options to help you control the outcome. Competitive intelligence offers certainty, competitive advantage, insight, growth & security.
We first undertook comprehensive desk research. Then we travelled to meet relevant people to discuss the general market situation. This secondary and primary research allowed us to understand what was going on. And answer these questions:

How do your client’s key competitors intend to grow over the next three years? Do they have the resources to succeed?
What are their strengths and weaknesses, and can they beat them?
What are the barriers to entry into the US and Australian markets? Who are the key competitors in the US & Australia?
Who are the key competitors and customer types within their UK market?
What are the critical risks associated with the refurbishment and new build markets?
What internal risks do they face which may prevent them from succeeding?
This is what they got
An understanding of the US and Australian marketplace they would have to face. And a clear realisation there was a significant gap in the market they could fill. The gap was pleading for a niche supply. Customers gave no thought to their niche product. It was assumed a product attached to theirs came preinstalled.
There were two significant untapped markets. But they would need substantial marketing to generate the need for quality alternatives. They faced real opportunity.
An understanding that when it came to fire-retardant material testing, both markets were not as progressive as the UK.
The knowledge that the US and Australian markets were very fragmented. And very few direct competitors supply their product.
An excellent understanding of their probable competitors in the market. Their strengths and weaknesses and how to take advantage of both.
An isolation of the then main challenges facing the USA construction industry. Such as technology development and integration. Increasing material costs, skilled labour shortages, and limited environmental construction techniques. Insufficient productivity levels and a state of improving safety practices and compliance.
A realisation there was little interest in alternative fire-resistant materials. From Housing Associations, councils, hospitals, universities and the private landlord sector. There was a lack of interest within the refurb and new build sector, and it was down to cost. Unverified market viability short term and indecisive legislation and Governmental mandate.
The majority of UK competitors did not have non-combustible products. And most were just looking at aluminium as an alternative.
Internal
An independent understanding of the critical internal risks they had to face including:

No defined business plan.
No verified growth forecast.
And no pre-secured order book.
An underwhelming and confusing marketing messaging. Not helped two brands created to keep the owner’s siblings happy.
Too much focus on preparing weekly board meetings than actually doing anything.
The results were
A delighted owner with significant UK growth on his hands. And an expansion into the US and Australia markets. Also, he agreed with the internal risk findings. He understood the opportunity and needed an alternative board. One who didn’t spend a day preparing for a board meeting. And two days creating the minutes and actions. Some of the non-executive board were paid to attend these weekly meetings.

However, the divisions CEOs and directors being younger relations and would make things complicated. They did expand into the US and used our Intelligence to create a market. We will leave you to decide if the internal problems changed at all.

How Competitive Intelligence isolated opportunities and internal problems
This article is called how Competitive Intelligence isolated opportunities and internal problems. It’s a Competitive Intelligence case study. The post showed how we provided our client with more certainty and confidence.