Octopus Competitive Intelligence

A Competitive Edge In The Market Understanding your competitors is crucial when looking at your sales planning process. Investing time in researching them will allow you to reduce surprises in your sales planning. Have you been in business for a while and been doing well, with lots of sales and satisfied customers? Then you may notice that you aren’t winning as many customers as you used to. You realise that some of your customers are switching to new providers. Or have otherwise disengaged with you because of a noticeable reduction in your business with them. You inquire about the matter and discover that your consumers favour the new organisations because they offer something unique, fresh, or unusual. Or they ignore you or use some excuse.  Alternatively, other things may have distracted them and prevented them as they used to do. Initially, you may take the news that your customer has gone elsewhere as a sign of personal rejection—’they don’t like me”. Then you will stop b...

Disruption is often hard to see until it is too late. And there are many examples of this. Consider the demise of Encyclopaedia Britannica, Kodak, Woolworths, ToysRus and Borders books. Or the growth of Airbnb as a competitor to hotels, the iPhone, and their iTunes to replace compact discs? All the obvious stuff. But you know it’s very rare for a company to be destroyed by an existing competitor, and new entrants and fresh ideas tend to kill them. So, why are the effects of disruption so tricky to spot? An incumbent’s critical problem is usually that they struggle to see that their market leadership is being lost. New entrants using new methods are a significant threat to the survival of market incumbents in many ways. Some of these take longer to emerge, breeding false confidence within the market.  Short Term Goals Why? Most companies focus on short-term metrics such as monthly or year-on-year revenue and profit growth. Yes, the incumbent may detect a decline in th...

Why Context Is Critical In Competitive Intelligence Analysis Of Innovation A novelty product can be tomorrow’s disruptor, especially if ignored in its context. You will have heard the story about the demise of Kodak. This article asks why context is critical in competitive intelligence analysis of innovation. The story goes that Kodak was crazy for ignoring digital photography. Yeah, we know; it’s in every business textbook. And it’s still one of the favourite examples of business failure since they went belly up.  A lesser-known accompanying fact is this. Did you know that in 1975, Kodak invented the digital camera? Crazy eh? A foolish decision not to take it to market. It really screwed the company up, and in 2012 Kodak declared bankruptcy. It was all over. Or so it seemed. Eastman Kodak emerged from the ashes and is now focused on B2B chemicals and imaging. Their original core market – was chemicals for photographs.  They Went Back To What They Thought They Did Best In...

Case Study On Unleashing The Power Of Competitor Analysis By Gaining The Strategic Edge There’s an abundance of too much historical competitor data and assumptions in business, and this, combined with little insight into their competitors’ future actions, is dangerous. The power of competitor analysis is to acquire valuable insights to enhance competitive advantage. To sharpen your competitor analysis, try focusing on these three actions: Outwitting your competitors Outmanoeuvring them Outperforming them Article Summary The danger of relying on historical data and assumptions in competitor analysis Key actions for sharpening competitor analysis: outwitting, outmanoeuvring, and outperforming competitors Highlighting the importance of insight and understanding in gaining a competitive advantage Competitor analysis involves crafting insights to strategically outwit, outmanoeuvre, and outperform rivals. What Was The Situation? Here is a case study where we were asked to conduct a compe...

“Nothing New Under The Sun” Ecclesiastes 9:1  The first gladiatorial games recorded in Rome took place in 264 BC when the sons of Decimus Junius Brutus organized an event for their recently deceased father. Today, we have a modern version: Consultants playing in front of management. While not as entertaining as watching Russel Crow, management is still bemused by the different models and fast flowing bs. Naturally, managers don’t need to  do  anything with these hyperbole new models. Just laugh quietly. Maybe even signal thumbs up for a project that will go the way of all other hot air projects.  The latest such nonsense is BANI. BANI The city of Bani is the capital of the Peravia province; its residents also know it as the home of poets. The city’s Patron Saint is “Nuestra Señora de Regla.” But poor Dominicans- they never expected such poetry to become the latest buzz term in consulting circles. BANI- an acronym coined by James Cascio, a consultant and a “futurist”,...

  What Are Competitors Doing Well? In the cutthroat business world, rivalry makes it easy to become consumed. Constantly analysing and critiquing your competitors’ every move. We tirelessly search for their flaws, hoping to capitalise on their mistakes. But what are competitors doing well? We spent weeks and countless waste management hours convincing ourselves we were better than them. But it’s important to step back and shed our egos. Recognise the areas where your competitors excel. Acknowledging their successes can be a humbling experience, forcing us to reevaluate our strategies and strive for greatness.  What Could Your Competitors Be Doing Well? So, let’s delve into what your adversaries could be doing well. Maybe we should appreciate the power of innovation.  Your competitors may demonstrate adaptability in an era of rapid technological advancements.  They have embraced and harnessed emerging technologies to transform their products and services.  They h...