INTRODUCTION
An organisation that deems itself as a force to be reckoned with in its industry is an organisation that needs to be aware of its external environment and not just focus on its internal activities. The external environment is one that is constantly changing which requires an organisation to always be at the forefront of that change if it is to succeed. Competitive intelligence provides an organisation with such an opportunity, the use of competitive intelligence by an organisation encourages an organisation to use its resources efficiently in response to the ever changing external environment.
Competitive Intelligence is a concept that requires an organisation to fully understand its competitive environment and identify its main competitors. This would require certain information to be collected and analysed. The strengths and weaknesses of competitors should be investigated as well as determining any future plans that they might have. The concept also encompasses the idea of knowing what people expect from your organisation and how you can improve processes and activities to better satisfy those that require certain products and services from your organisation.
The aim of Competitive Intelligence is to provide an organisation with the ability to be able to make strategic decisions through the use of accurate and reliable information that was gathered in the process of Competitive Intelligence, the process of Competitive Intelligence is one which includes the collection, analysing as well as distribution of “actionable intelligence” within an organisation.
SCENARIO
The University of Pretoria is one of the most highly rated universities in South Africa as well as Africa, although it has a high enrolment rate with many ...
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... advantage over us. Competitive intelligence is a tool that we can use in order to learn from the successes and failures of other when we plan on implementing something that others have tried to do already, through these observations we can decide on how to modify them so that we can succeed. Competitive Intelligence is a proactive process and as such it will grant us the opportunity to be able to learn about new products and technologies that have been introduced into the market that we can adopt for the benefit of our organisation. With the pace of business continually increasing Competitive Intelligence is a much needed tool in any company in order to give our company a competitive edge over other companies. With the help of Competitive Intelligence we might be able to explore other avenues of business that would be to the benefit of our company in the long run.
2) Competitive Capacity.-Refers to the competitive capacity for productive innovation and change. A high skills economy depends on a high level of entrepreneurial and risk-taking activities, whether in terms of new business ventures or through innovation within existing enterprises, linked to new technologies, R&D and the upgrading of skills. This is best achieved in a context of value added' rivalry between companies rather than its zero-sum' variety that leads to cost cutting, down sizing and lose of competitive innovation.
Millar, V., Porter, M. (1985) ‘How Information Gives You Competitive Advantage’, Harvard Business Review pp. 18-36. [Online] Available at: http://zaphod.mindlab.umd.edu/docSeminar/pdfs/Porter85.pdf (Accessed: 17/11/2011)
Competitive advantage is the advantage for the competitors and gained by the offerings from the consumers that have the greater value either by the low prices of the products and by providing the benefits and services to the consumers that denotes the high price. It is a set of the innovative and different features of the company and the products and services sale to the consumers so that company can achieve the targets what they have decided and it is the betterment for the enterprise in the competitive market (Porter, 2011). There are three determinants which can be used in the competitive advantage that what the company produce for their consumers, their target market that what they have to achieved and the competition from the other entity
Thompson, A.A., Strickland, A.J., & Gamble, J. E. (2010). Crafting and executing strategy: The quest for competitive advantage: Concepts and cases: 2009 custom edition (17th ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill-Irwin
Along with the rapid development of economy and society, the companies have to own skills to adapt, cater, and transfer new knowledge, and try to modify their activities to reflect insights. Strategic management evolves
Businesses reached a critical juncture in global competition and the business intelligence capabilities and analytic prowess will play critical roles in the most competitive sectors of global economy.
It can be deduced that the business strategy can be generally understood as a chess game in the real life scenario, which requires the companies to carry out all round analysis and evaluation within the intense market competitions. It is generally speaking that at the initial stage of the chess game, advanced and highly sophisticated players are likely to carry out a series of all rounded evaluations and analysis with a view to guaranteeing the best outcome and pot...
This strategy emphasizes the use of an organization’s resources and capabilities to achieve a core competence that cannot be imitated by competitors. Furthermore, the resource based school argues that if an organization distinctively improves its internal capability; that is being able to have effective inside machinery to deliver products and services to customers, the organization will enjoy a massive advantage in the market. This school also argues that in order to have a competitive advantage, an organization must have resource and capabilities that are sophisticated to those of competitors (QuickMBA, 2010).
...ompletes an analytical assessment of a firm. A firm establishes its competitive building by investing scarce resources again and again in its value-added activities. By doing this the organizations will be able to give rise superior products and services that the buyer's desire and continue to grow the business and adhere to its strategic plan once implemented.
Business intelligence is a series of technologies, processes and tools required to convert data into information that is further converted to knowledge and plans respectively that yield profitable business accomplishments. Business intelligence consists of components such as knowledge management, warehousing, data mining, querying, reporting and business analytics. The definition of business intelligence is knowledge acquired about a business via the use of various software and hardware technologies that enable an organization to transform data into information or plans (MÜLLER et al., 2013). Companies and organizations employ business intelligence to cut costs, improve decision-making and in identifying new business ventures. What makes business management special is that it allows the company team to use data strategically in responding ...
Companies are able to become analytic competitors through various activities. One of the first steps to becoming a competitor is the widespread use of modeling and optimization. Instead of following basic statistical information, it is wise to look for ways to enhance profitability. To become successful at this, organizations use both internal and external information retrieved from outside sources for a vivid understanding of their consumers. Secondly, an enterprise approach is necessary. Through this approach, employees become proactive at finding out what items or processes are effective. A good example would be of how the article talks about UPS’s approach for assessing problems,” The UPS Customer Intelligence G...
This is a crucial part of a strategic analysis because ‘…organisations do not exist in a vacuum, they are part of a complex world’ (Bowman 1987:61) and many factors can influence operations, beneficially and unfavourably. However, these can be difficult to comprehend due to their complexity, diversity and fast changing nature. Necessarily a number of techniques have been developed to facilitate the process and to ‘…contribute to answering the key managerial question…’of what ‘…opportunities and threats might arise in the future’ (Johnson & Scholes 2002:99).
We can define competitive advantage as simply what a given company excels best at. This could be the distinguishing factor as to why consumers purchase from your company and not the competition. This could also be understood from the perspective of quality that a business can create for the consumer.
Competitive strategy is the approach that an organisation takes in order to gain advantage over its competitors. According to Porter, there are two major sources of competitive advantages: costs and differentiation. Cost-based competitive advantage involves reducing production costs so that an organisation can earn higher profit margin or offer products at lower price compared to competitors. Differentiation-based competitive advantage involves offering unique properties that are not offered by competitors’ products. Differentiation allows an organisation to charge a premium for their products because they offer additional benefits to buyers.
It is important for organisations to achieve their goals, as this can assist them to reach a competitive advantage, which is a highly attractive position for a firm to be in.