Competitive Intelligence, Market Analysis and Benchmarking
Steps to effective use of competitive analysis and market intelligence to support your strategic developments and action plans.
Understanding your competition is one of the most difficult tasks facing management.
Our intensive competitive intelligence program will show you how to analyze every aspect of your competitors' business operations as well as the total market environment.
From marketing, sales, manufacturing, service and corporate planning strategies, this course shows managers how to analyze timely objective facts to fuel their strategic decision-making.
The Best Part:
The course will show you how to size up the core competencies and vulnerabilities of your competition. Learning is reinforced by a custom-designed workbook and lots of time for discussion.
Who Should Attend
Chances are strong that your competition is actively analyzing your organization's strategies. This course is essential learning for:
- Senior marketing and sales executives
- Market analysts and market researchers
- Brand/product managers
- Business owners, partners and directors
- Business development leaders
- Strategic planners and intelligence specialists
What You Will Learn
- Incorporate competitive analysis into your strategic planning, marketing and sales planning processes
- Predict your competitor's product level strategies, prices and market development direction
- Build a cost-effective intelligence system using current resources
- Transform mountains of information into crisp, useable intelligence reports
- Discover best-in-class companies and build on their success
- Build a cost-effective intelligence system using current resources
- Perform benchmarking analysis at the corporate, business and product levels
- Assemble a competitive analysis team
- Develop the corporate mind-set to support effective competitive analysis
- Utilize synergy analysis to guess a competitor's next moves
- Apply your skills in specially written case exercises and real CI projects
Program Content
Competitive Intelligence Fundamentals
- What is competitive intelligence?
- Competitive analysis vs. strategy
development
- Four types of competitive analysis
Conducting Industry Analysis
- Categorizing your competition
- Identifying the competitive forces driving your industry
- Focusing competitive analysis
Corporate Competitive Analysis
- Determining a competitor's personality and strategic issues
- Conducting a financial analysis
- Conducting a strategic analysis
- Conducting a technical analysis
- Conducting a business mix analysis
- Incorporating your analysis for better strategic decision-making
Analyzing Competitive Business Units/Divisions
- Defining business unit competitive advantage
- What major functional areas should
you analyze?
- Business analysis areas:
- Marketing capabilities
- Sales function
- Service and support analysis
- Manufacturing analysis
- E-business
- New product R&D
- Mapping future competitor moves
Making Competitive Intelligence Work in Your Organization
- Turning competitive data into usable intelligence
- Six major factors for success
- Coordinating internal and external data sources
- Ethical issues
Benchmarking: A Definition
- The role of benchmarking in competitive analysis
- What is the value?
- What results can you expect?
A Framework for Benchmarking
- Which of your functions to benchmark – three criteria
- Identifying key performance variables – four major steps
- Using benchmarking analysis as a part of the strategy process
- Industry evaluation
- Sustainable competitive advantage
- Using benchmarking as a part of the quality process
- Foundation for continuous improvement
- Measuring your own performance vs.
the best-in-class companies
- Building a comparable base
Completing a Benchmarking Project – Key Stages
- Establishing a team that works
- Composition, leadership and roles
- Sponsorship and resources
- Defining the benchmarks
- Collection and analysis of data
- Utilizing the results
Competitive Analysis Summary
- How will your competitors compete?
- Use of value chains to identify competitive advantage
Instructors
![]() David Gibson
David Gibson is an instructor at the Schulich School of Business, York University who specializes in in competitive intelligence, benchmarking and market analysis, and has instructed managers on effective intelligence gathering techniques for diverse organizations including Bell, CIBC, BMO, Harris Bank, Home Depot of Canada and the Government of Ontario.
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