Competitor Analysis Benefits
The world of business is a very dynamic and competitive arena. With the rise in modern technology and an endless drive to be the best, it is becoming increasingly difficult for businesses to keep ahead of their competitors. Distinguishing ourselves from the competition is now a constant realism for many business owners and this includes competitor analysis.
If ignorant both of your enemy and of yourself, you are certain in every battle to be in peril. (Sun Tzu)
As Sun Tzu points out if we don’t conduct competitor analysis then will indeed be ignorant of our competitors and this could be damaging to the business. By knowing our competitors then we can learn and grow so that we can be competitive. Being competitive means that we can also encourage business growth which is possibly the most important objective of any organisation.
Is Competitor Intelligence Frowned Upon?
Not at all, it is a common business practice which adds value to any organisation. There are no underhanded tactics involved and it is more about conducting a focused analysis of a competitor or competitors. This is why it is important to choose the right supplier to assist with your competitor analysis. Having the experience, knowledge and tools to conduct a thorough analysis is key. At the same time, having flexible project-based support means that you can keep costs low and ensure a professional focus on competitor analysis.
It is widely accepted that more businesses would undertake this business practice if they had the knowledge to do it and more importantly if they had the time to conduct the information collection, analysis and the time taken to understand the results. Clearly, many SMEs do not have the time or the experience to conduct a thorough and beneficial competitor analysis and this is how Kent Project Consultants can add value.
Competitive strategy involves positioning a business to maximise the value of the capabilities that distinguish it from its competitors. (Michael E Porter, 2004)
There are many elements to conducting a competitor strategy analysis and this includes many questions that need to be answered. It is clear that there may be some level of ‘I already know my competitor’ or ‘I know enough about them and they are not very good’, and this can impact negatively on any organisation. The reason is that what we may know could be much different to what we actually know. Assumption can be a dangerous word in the world of business, meaning that we should never assume anything about our competition.
What Is Involved In Competitor Analysis?
We will try and outline the process for conducting a competitor analysis and some of the questions we should be asking. Hopefully, this will provide some insight into the reasons and benefits of this kind of business practice.
Firstly, it involves lots of research using open sources to establish who the main competitors are. It is important to note that competitors can be broken down into two groups, these being existing competitors and potential competitors. The former would be those that are active in the same space as our own business and this includes those that are perceived as successful and those that are not. The reason why including those organisations that may not be successful is that we can further identify where they are going wrong which is valuable input for our project.
Once we have identified our competitors (existing and potential) then we can start to collect information. It is worth noting that the information collection stage may be governed by our strategic and operational direction i.e. objectives linked to operational and strategic requirements. Having analytical skills is key to conducting this kind of work and this is why we also promote competitor analysis as a project with clearly defined objectives and outcomes. Also, part of the analytical aspect is the collation, making sense of the information that has been collected. It is rare for information to be disregarded and it is far better to grade the importance and relevance of all information as opposed to throwing such information away if it is felt it is not that important.
Questions To Ask
We could separate the questions to be asked into ‘operational’ and ‘strategic’ with each focusing on differing levels of identified objectives. The operational questions we could ask ourselves when conducting a competitor analysis are:
- What services or products are they offering?
- What is the price of such services or products?
- How do these services or products compare to my own existing services or products?
The above is just an example of some of the questions we should be asking when carrying out a competitor analysis. The list can be very long and would depend on the industry and size of the competitor being researched.
From a strategic standpoint the questions could be similar to:
- What are the financial objectives of the competitor and how do they relate to our company?
- What social values does the competitor adhere to?
- What is the level of risk appetite of the competitor?
The above are just examples that barely scratch the surface when planning how to conduct a competitor analysis. Hopefully, they start to show the level of intent required when undertaking a project of this nature.
Competitor Analysis Outcomes
Finally, let us take a look at the outcomes which we would want to achieve from this kind of work.
- To identify the main competitors (current and future)
- A comparison of services/products between your company and the competition
- A thorough assessment/comparison of marketing strategies
- An insight into the pricing structure of all competitors
- An understanding of the innovation and technology used by competitors and how it adds value
Benefits To Your Business
The benefits can be immense compared to not conducting an in-depth look at your competitors. The main consideration for benefits should be that of overall business growth, although there will be other advantages and these may include:
- Identifying new technology
- Becoming more innovative
- Developing enhanced policies and procedures
- Increasing productivity
- Reaching larger audiences
- Tapping into new markets
The list of benefits goes on and on and there really is a lot of value to conducting a professional competitor analysis.
Finally, a competitor analysis is a useful tool to not just understand the competition, but also to identify areas of your business that will enhance growth and productivity. You will be surprised at how the intelligence on your competitors can help shape your own business and allow you to reach your full potential.
If you would like to learn more then please do not hesitate to contact us for a no-obligation discussion.
Business Development Support
Helping organisations is the reason for our existence. Providing business development support is one of the key areas where we can assist our clients. Since our inception, we have helped many business owners with business development support. This includes across a number of different industries including security, retail, technology, property and many more.
In this post, we will explore the ways in which we have delivered business development support to various clients. Business development can mean many things to many people but the overriding reason for business development is to implement growth and add benefit. It’s as simple as that. However, growth requires the tools and knowledge to ensure that growth is achieved.
We adopt a project approach to business development whereby we understand the requirement or needs of the client and then plan and implement a project that will see those requirements come to fruition. By using a project-based approach we are able to clearly identify, define and monitor the progress of any growth strategy initiated. After all, we are project consultants!
Business development support should be a welcome service for many organisations. Maybe the organisation has little or no knowledge of how to develop or grow its business and needs a high level of support. On the other hand, there could be a good level of experience and knowledge within the organisation although they have hit a stumbling block and just require an external viewpoint with a certain business development project. Whatever the need, Kent Project Consultants can assist and help to develop the business or project.
Business development encompasses a wide scope of ideas, activities, and initiatives that a business owner and management implement with the goal of making the business better. (Investopedia, 2023)
We all have good intentions for our business but unfortunately, business development requires much more than good intentions. It requires a multitude of skills and knowledge to ensure the best chance of growth. This may include being a creative thinker, having experience in the world of business, understanding the world of sales and marketing, being an analytical thinker, being able to think strategically and so on and so on. There are many attributes that make a good business development person. Knowledge is key though, and having experience in running a successful business and learning from yourself. Luckily, the mistakes and successes navigated by our staff allow us to be best placed to help other companies. In addition to this is our approach to providing business development support, which is highly beneficial to the client. We believe SMEs shouldn’t be tied into lengthy contracts or governed by bureaucracy, so we adopt an agile project-based approach to business development support.
We have already identified that business development consists of many areas of support. Let us focus on one area which is classed as the ‘bread and butter’ of business development and that is ‘Sales’.
It involves pursuing opportunities to help your business grow, identifying new prospects, and converting more leads into customers. Business development is closely tied to sales — business development teams and representatives are almost always a part of the greater sales org. (Hubspot, 2023)
It is difficult to deny that sales-orientated strategies help any business to grow, having people with the skills and experience in sales is crucial for many organisations. They are the ones identifying and prospecting the leads and by doing so helping to increase revenue which in turn fuels growth. Add the marketing professionals into the mix and then you start to create an effective sales and marketing team that feed into the business development strategy. So, we can see from this that having a sales team alone is not the sole answer to growth and that much more is needed. Identifying the need for a sales team or a marketing executive would be part of the Project Management Plan (PMP) and so forms part of the overall strategy.
Another factor that can sometimes be a barrier for smaller organisations to implement growth is the multitude of other tasks they may be involved with, those we would class as Business-As-Usual. It may be that some organisations only have the resources to manage the day-to-day business tasks and so never get around to even thinking about business growth. This kind of example should be the main catalyst for considering business development support as it allows for additional resources, albeit external resources. Having a project consultant to undertake the business development strategy means that your organisation can start to grow and at the very least have some kind of strategy put in place. No focus on business development means that an organisation will fail to grow and this could mean revenue falls, profitability drops, stakeholders become unhappy, and the business falls short of its potential.
We have already mentioned sales and marketing and how this can assist in business growth. Now we will take a look at other areas which will assist in identifying and implementing business growth.
Strategic Partnerships For Better Business Development Support
Business development is not just about selling products or services. Sometimes, you will need to build strategic partnerships which will help support your growth. Knowing whom to partner with and for what reason are some of the first questions that need to be answered. This may require analysing the marketplace and identifying those organisations where you could form strong strategic partnerships. In addition to this, its understanding how to approach an external organisation and state your case. This is where we really start to get into the politics of business and start to develop strategic insight. By having experienced management consultants to support you through this then you have a better chance of creating strategic partnerships which allow your business to flourish.
Vendor Management
Business growth may require using additional vendors and so it is important to understand those vendors. It may be that there is a network of vendors and they may be deeply intertwined, meaning that if one vendor fails then others could follow suit. In this day and age, it is beneficial to ensure each vendor has been vetted to ensure that their policies and procedures are sufficient for your needs, not to mention that their values align with those of your own organisation. Supply chain compliance is for another post but it is something that is vital for any organisation and an area where we can assist.
Summary
We could write for hours on the subject of business development but it would be much more beneficial to sit down with a potential client and speak openly. So, if you are an organisation looking for trustworthy and experienced business development support then feel free to contact a member of our team. We are happy to talk with organisations from any industry, including security, retail, learning & development, property, oil & gas and many more. We are confident we can offer some level of support and are always exploring new projects.
What Is Change Management?
Change Management - Why It Matters
We will take a look at what we mean by change management and more importantly, why change management initiatives are so important for modern organisations. So, what is change management?
Change management is the overarching approach taken in an organisation to move from the current to a future desirable state using a coordinated and structured approach in collaboration with stakeholders. (APM, 2023)
Understanding the need for change is crucial as the entire change management initiative is to ensure the continuity of the organisation through the continuity of growth and profitability. In some cases, not implementing effective change can be the downfall of the organisation and this is exactly what we are trying to mitigate. An organisation in this modern business world should always be attempting change to ensure that it remains ahead of the curve.
It is widely accepted that many change management initiatives fail and are never attempted again. Failure could be for many reasons including factors contributed to organisational, technical and process approach. It would be simple if change could be effected just by the management of the organisation, but this is not the case as the entire organisation from bottom to top must be behind such change. Change will never be implemented if all levels of the organisation do not buy in to the changes.
Change is never simple and so must be approached using robust methods, thorough insight, investment and conducted using a project management approach. This approach will assist in the effective implementation of change.
Impact of Change
Any organisation must understand the impact of change management, this being the impact to business as usual operations, the people and the shareholders. Kent Project Consultants can undertake a change impact analysis so that your organisation fully understands the impact of potential change. It is worth noting that impacts are not always negative and can sometimes also be of a positive nature to an organisation.
A change impact assessment will look at all parts of the business and establish how the change management initiative impacts the business as a whole. Clearly, it is important to identify and understand what the change entails before being able to assess the impact. This means that a clear plan of change has been implemented and prior decisions have been made. Assessing the impact of change is in itself a difficult process and this is why it important to be supported by the right consultancy.
Impact can be assessed in a two-step process, firstly identification of impacts and secondly the severity of the impact. This is not to say that this two step process is simple in itself and depends on the size and complexity of the organisation.
Human Impact of Change
Us humans can be complex and we all have different views and motivations. Understanding the differences in people is one the critical elements of implementing change. Just because a manager believes in the change and is fully behind it, doesn't mean that every person in the organisation will be as willing to accept the change. Without getting too much into people types in this post, we can highlight that there are various different types of people and this will contribute to how effective the change may be accepted.
It is important for any manager or consultant to understand that the human resistance or acceptance to change is dependant on a number of factors, including the type of person, their experiences, their perception and the way they are informed of the potential change. It is worth noting that if there is resistance to change then this can take many forms. It could be one of the workforces representatives being very vocal about the change on behalf of their peers, or the resistance could be in form of a drop in productivity from certain individuals or teams.
Remember, as humans we can be susceptible to stress, and change in some circumstances can promote stress within individuals and organisations. People will be considering the consequences of the proposed change, asking the most basic question 'How will this affect me?'. As professionals, we must be open to every person's difference of view and empathetic of their emotions, albeit still keeping the need for change a priority for the benefit of the entire organisation.
Change Should Deliver Value
Whatever the reason for effecting change, it must deliver value to the organisation. Change is about looking forward and realising where the organisation should be in view of being in a better position. Change management involves an investment in time, money and people, so this in itself should highlight the importance of any change adding benefit to the organisation. Not to mention, the benefit must outweigh the previously mentioned investments.
From experience, not all value and benefits are planned and they may arise from the process of change management. This means that as an organisation there would be the expected (planned) benefits and then there could be the not expected (unplanned) benefits. The latter arising from the implementation and process of change management.
Change remains difficult to pull off, and few companies manage the process as well as they would like. Most of their initiatives - installing new technology, downsizing, restructuring, or trying to change corporate culture have had low success rates. The brutal fact is that about 70 per cent of all change initiatives fail. (Beer and Nohria, 2000)
As we can see from the above statement, the change initiative needs to deliver benefits to the organisation or it could be classed as a failure. This is why it is so important to have experienced project consultants by your side ensuring that any change management is discussed, planned and implemented as a project and with specified deliverables. The change management process is one that is ever evolving and an agile approach is required to ensure that the change remains at the forefront of the organisations vision and objectives. As already discussed, many change management initiatives start with the right intention but over time and with below par management, they can veer away from adding any benefit or value to an organisation.
If you feel that you have a need for change management or you are currently implementing change and would just like an external viewpoint, the don't hesitate contacting one of our team.