Octopus Competitive Intelligence

  This article is the latest in our questions respected Competitive Intelligence professionals. This week we speak to Enrico Vonghia, Director of Markets and Competitive Intelligence at SUEZ in Canada. Some very interesting answer they are too. At the end of this series of questions, we will analyse the answers and publish a report. 1. In your view, what’s Competitive Intelligence? Competitive intelligence is the ability to intimately understand your customers and competitors and to communicate this effectively within your organization to enable more robust strategic decision making. It is monitoring the external environment and mining internal commercial and technical networks. Then connecting the dots to be able to anticipate competitor moves or customer buying behaviour. These insights must then be converted into actionable outcomes. Either strategically at the executive leadership level, or tactically at the commercial level, to drive profitable revenue growth. In this way, com...

Would it help to have the tools to create a successful Competitive Intelligence function? In this article, we are going to come at this subject from a different direction. If Competitive Intelligence thinking has taught us anything, it’s to look at things from more than one angle. So, rather than five things to do to make Competitive Intelligence function successful. We offer our thoughts on what Competitive Intelligence mishaps can reduce the value of your operation? Here are eight to be getting on with: 1. Need to know and nice to know Pretty early on, your Competitive Intelligence function needs to impress decision-makers. And make them realise your value to the organisation.  It is essential to focus on the “must knows”, and the “need to knows”. And not the “nice to knows” Avoid tactical issues like someone else’s Covid face mask. You may get success with tactical topics, and the nice to knows. But if they don’t have strategic value, then decision-makers will question the funct...

This article asks is Competitive Intelligence insight an antidote to lies and statistics? It is irrefutable that the whole world faces an entirely new set of challenges and opportunities. And one’s that will almost certainly reflect unexpected and unknown elements. Old ways of making decisions are gone Previously a solid base for excellent decision making was tried and trusted analytics processes. But what happens when there is no previous ‘like for like’ metric from which to garner the fundamental DNA of analytics… statistics? What if there is no precedent available? And what if the statistics are simply not there or are severely lacking or unreliable? And what happens if all you have are analysts at your disposal? What happens if they have neither the tools nor experience to adjust to the now pervasive ‘unbeknown’? It has become something of a ‘thing’ for us to reiterate when it comes to intelligence provision—the importance of having a mixed bag of capabilities. Simply, dependence o...

London: Octopus Intelligence announce a complete rebuild of their website  www.octopusintelligence.com The original website was a break from the norm within the Competitive Intelligence and Corporate Intelligence field. No pictures of radar screens, rockets, chess pieces and lighthouses. Octopus understood they needed to focus on people, businesses and their needs.  “But we believed the website was getting tired and clunky. So we needed to freshen and speed it up”, said Graeme Dixon, founder of Octopus. “A website that doesn’t tell people how clever we are, but tells them what Intelligence can do for them”. Octopus are told that business is full of analytics but struggle with actual Insight. Insight to make meaningful decisions and take action. Octopus Intelligence’s Competitive Intelligence and Corporate Investigations offerings are about one thing. Creating as much certainty for their clients as possible.  “Yes, it’s also about risk, sustainable growth, competitive adva...

This article explains how Competitive Intelligence helped a software provider better understand their competitive environment. And gave them a deeper understanding of their main threat.  You know how You when you have a pretty big competitor. And it’s taking market share from you. And you know your product is so much better. Your UX is cutting edge while theirs is ten years old and dated. Your customers are very loyal to your product, but because of their size and influence in the market, you are not growing. Well, not growing as much as you would like. What was happening Our client was a top 5 provider of Occupational Health software. Their clients liked that they could record all occupational health data in one place. Data that could be analysed and integrated into their other systems. They had two major UK and maybe three major global competitors. They knew they could outperform the number one in the UK market. But wanted to learn more about them and their plans.  This is w...

This article is called Competitor Analysis for any size business with a quick and dirty tool. It offers our basic thoughts on how to start analysing your competitors.  What is Competitor Analysis? Competitor Analysis is an evaluation of your identified competitors. So you understand them and be able to compare your way of doing things to theirs. To understand current and future direction, how they do business, their strengths and weaknesses and why their customers buy from them. Collate and group Analyse competitors by collating and grouping them into how directly they compete for your customer’s cash. List each of your competitors’ products or services. Determine how profitable they are and what their revenues are. Understand their growth strategies, marketing objectives and assumptions. Find out their current and future strategy, cost, supply chain and organisational structure. And their strengths and weaknesses. Answer questions Answer questions such as: Who are your actual comp...

When conducting Competitor Research and Competitive Intelligence, a few things should be looked at. Here are 8 steps to consider for Competitor Research and Competitive Intelligence 1. Accept you have a problem The senior team have to recognise that there’s a problem to be solved. Many ignore minor inconveniences hoping they go away. Most don’t. Once the problem is acknowledged, it is crucial to define the problem in a clear statement. This statement is then used to develop excellent questions to answer.  2. Find the winning move  Defined questions and answers are a good start. But without the deliberate decision to do something, then any Intelligence is pointless. A decision to do nothing is not a problem as long as there is sound reasoning behind it. Like, we will not do anything until this, and that happens. Competitive Intelligence and Competitor Research should lead to an improved Competitive position. And to put you on the right track.  3. The Future is uncertain Yo...

This article explains how Competitive Intelligence and Corporate Investigations prevented a lousy investment. Our investigations showed how an investment opportunity wasn’t what it seemed. This case study shows how our services provided our client peace of mind. And stopped a substantial loss of funds. And most importantly, it kept it’s fantastic reputation within family offices.  You know-how You know how sometimes an opportunity comes along. And on the face of it, the investment opportunity looks like a winner. You conduct your own due diligence, and everything looks great. You let your trusted contacts know, and they are really keen. Their money is burning a hole in your pocket want to invest. What was happening Our client is a very well connected organisation. They help global Family Offices invest money into infrastructure, businesses and funds. Most deals involve at least £20m and usually north of £100m. They isolated an excellent opportunity to invest in a Bond managed by a ...