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Added for You - Competitor Analysis in Business - Who are Your Competitors Anyway?
Modern mines collect veins of materials, which have been trapped over millions of years in the sediment. Once out in the open they can get into the ground water and move down hill with the normal erosion patterns and water flows. This is because the minerals have been buried for centuries underneath in layers from previous periods. In the old Berkeley Pit, a copper mine which is closed not far from the Sunlight Goldmine in Montana, the rain water mixing with the minerals left in the bottom of the Pit was quite toxic and contained arsenic, which is harmful in large amounts to humans and animals. Although arsenic is a poison, it is part of the natural occurring minerals in natu
The Regulatory competitor has the force of law to make or break your next strategy. These can be approval agencies, the Food and Drug Administration for example, or a watchdog like the Environmental Protection Agency and its state equivalents. Participation in an industry trade association that maintains a lob
Medical billing specialists are qualified persons responsible for the preparation of accurate claim forms, billing of insurance companies, and matters related to all insurance policies. They interact with insurance companies and keep themselves up-to-date with changes in procedures and regulations. In the United States, medical billing is a thriving industry. Today, many people, including employers, medical practitioners, and others take advantage of medical billing courses, because a medical billing specialist has an important role to play in any of health care team. He can process the entire claim thoroughly and quickly. Experienced medical billing specialists offer their s
Yet there are five other competitor types you might never see in the customer’s office, but their effects are felt every day. Advance knowledge of who these other competitors are prevents your company from being blind sided by the same events that can demolish other companies in your business. Go ahead. Try to put a name to each of the types. The pain should start about the third one.
First there’s the Look-alike competitor. They do exactly what you do for the same set of customers. These are the top of mind companies your sales people watch on a minute-by-minute basis. These are also the companies sales forces are most concerned about because the customer always uses them as a point of comparison. As a result of product management pressure from one side and sales force demand from the other, marketers spend most of their time responding to the actions of the look-alike set. Write down the names of your look alike competitors.
The Extensive competitor could do what your company does, if only it chose to. Extensives have the resources and expertise to move into your market but instead are listening to Sun Tzu and avoiding direct confrontation with a rival. No, the Extesnsive competitor serves a different market for the same type product. Cadillac doesn’t make tiny econo-box cars, but they have all they need to so anytime. They meet their financial goals but essentially without provoking a response from companies that do make econo-cars. It might take some head scratching but you can probably come up with one or two companies to fit this profile.
The Innovative competitor spells real trouble. These are the companies that completely change the rules of your market overnight. Barnes and Noble discounted Amazon.com because they saw them as just another look-alike. Since both buy books from the same printers Barnes and Noble knew that the online upstart wouldn’t get a much of a better price, if at all. But Amazon was really competing on innovation in logistics- book shopping in bunny slippers. Barnes missed this one completely and took more than a year to their online store up and running. In the late 70’sXerox dominated the copier market. Xerox’ main selling point was its huge field service force and distributed parts warehouses that guaranteed no copier would be down for more than four hours. Sharp entered the market with copiers that made four times as many impressions before needing service at all, using innovation to take away Xerox’s prime advantage.
In order to monitor the innovative competitor, look to sources within the scientific community, or university research projects (and the companies funding them.) As a mental exercise, imagine waking up tomorrow and your product is obsolete. What has replaced it? Better think about who is developing it, because if it isn’t you it is someone else.
There are three other types of competitor often missed by both startups and market leaders. Even though they don’t sell products to the your customer base their actions enhance or impede the success of your company.
Resource competitors use the same materials and talent as you do, but offer different products to a different market. They have nothing to do with your business other than demanding the same supplies. But the stock Java programmers, oil, genetic material, frozen peas and lumber are limited, therefore consumers of these resources are de facto competitors. A few years ago IBM Global services, Accenture and a few other large systems integration firms announced their hiring plans for new computer science graduates. The total was 10,000 more than every graduating computer science major in the entire country. A product manager at a small company planning on two new grads for a major project would have a hard time meeting the salary and benefit demand of the scarce resource of computer science grads. Purchasing and HR departments have their fingers on the pulse of supplies and resources. Too bad they are rarely invited to strategic planning meetings.
The Regulatory competitor has the force of law to make or break your next strategy. These can be approval agencies, the Food and Drug Administration for example, or a watchdog like the Environmental Protection Agency and its state equivalents. Participation in an industry trade association that maintains a lobb
One of the greatest threats facing both employees and the companies they work for, is workplace violence. It has become the leading cause of death for women and the second leading for men, following closely behind motor vehicle accidents. In fact, the best estimates now being reported show that 1-in-4 employees will be the victim of workplace violence this year alone.While the media is quick to highlight the most deadly attacks that occur, the fact is that most employees will be lucky enough to only suffer from simple assaults. However, this is not to downplay the almost 400,000 aggravated assaults, 51,000 rapes and sexual assaults, 84,000 robberies, and nearly 1,00
The Extensive competitor could do what your company does, if only it chose to. Extensives have the resources and expertise to move into your market but instead are listening to Sun Tzu and avoiding direct confrontation with a rival. No, the Extesnsive competitor serves a different market for the same type product. Cadillac doesn’t make tiny econo-box cars, but they have all they need to so anytime. They meet their financial goals but essentially without provoking a response from companies that do make econo-cars. It might take some head scratching but you can probably come up with one or two companies to fit this profile.
The Innovative competitor spells real trouble. These are the companies that completely change the rules of your market overnight. Barnes and Noble discounted Amazon.com because they saw them as just another look-alike. Since both buy books from the same printers Barnes and Noble knew that the online upstart wouldn’t get a much of a better price, if at all. But Amazon was really competing on innovation in logistics- book shopping in bunny slippers. Barnes missed this one completely and took more than a year to their online store up and running. In the late 70’sXerox dominated the copier market. Xerox’ main selling point was its huge field service force and distributed parts warehouses that guaranteed no copier would be down for more than four hours. Sharp entered the market with copiers that made four times as many impressions before needing service at all, using innovation to take away Xerox’s prime advantage.
In order to monitor the innovative competitor, look to sources within the scientific community, or university research projects (and the companies funding them.) As a mental exercise, imagine waking up tomorrow and your product is obsolete. What has replaced it? Better think about who is developing it, because if it isn’t you it is someone else.
There are three other types of competitor often missed by both startups and market leaders. Even though they don’t sell products to the your customer base their actions enhance or impede the success of your company.
Resource competitors use the same materials and talent as you do, but offer different products to a different market. They have nothing to do with your business other than demanding the same supplies. But the stock Java programmers, oil, genetic material, frozen peas and lumber are limited, therefore consumers of these resources are de facto competitors. A few years ago IBM Global services, Accenture and a few other large systems integration firms announced their hiring plans for new computer science graduates. The total was 10,000 more than every graduating computer science major in the entire country. A product manager at a small company planning on two new grads for a major project would have a hard time meeting the salary and benefit demand of the scarce resource of computer science grads. Purchasing and HR departments have their fingers on the pulse of supplies and resources. Too bad they are rarely invited to strategic planning meetings.
The Regulatory competitor has the force of law to make or break your next strategy. These can be approval agencies, the Food and Drug Administration for example, or a watchdog like the Environmental Protection Agency and its state equivalents. Participation in an industry trade association that maintains a lob
My grandmother has always taken an interest in my personal and professional undertakings but I was still surprised when she expressed the desire to learn more about my job as a merchant account manager (not exactly a titillating position). During the course of our discussion, I explained that we generally charge between 1.5% and 1.75% for retail transactions (depending on the type of card) and over 2% for Internet and MOTO (mail order telephone order) transactions. My grandmother shook her head in disbelief and immediately determined that these fees “were too high.” “Andy, she exclaimed, “You’re making 2% profit on each transaction! How much is enough?”It was time
In order to monitor the innovative competitor, look to sources within the scientific community, or university research projects (and the companies funding them.) As a mental exercise, imagine waking up tomorrow and your product is obsolete. What has replaced it? Better think about who is developing it, because if it isn’t you it is someone else.
There are three other types of competitor often missed by both startups and market leaders. Even though they don’t sell products to the your customer base their actions enhance or impede the success of your company.
Resource competitors use the same materials and talent as you do, but offer different products to a different market. They have nothing to do with your business other than demanding the same supplies. But the stock Java programmers, oil, genetic material, frozen peas and lumber are limited, therefore consumers of these resources are de facto competitors. A few years ago IBM Global services, Accenture and a few other large systems integration firms announced their hiring plans for new computer science graduates. The total was 10,000 more than every graduating computer science major in the entire country. A product manager at a small company planning on two new grads for a major project would have a hard time meeting the salary and benefit demand of the scarce resource of computer science grads. Purchasing and HR departments have their fingers on the pulse of supplies and resources. Too bad they are rarely invited to strategic planning meetings.
The Regulatory competitor has the force of law to make or break your next strategy. These can be approval agencies, the Food and Drug Administration for example, or a watchdog like the Environmental Protection Agency and its state equivalents. Participation in an industry trade association that maintains a lob
The Arkansas State Agency that oversees the collection and reporting of State income taxes deducted from payroll checks is:Department of Finance and Administration Revenue Division P.O. Box 9941 Little Rock, AR 72203-9941 501-682-2212 www.state.ar.us/dfa/taxes/wh_tax/index.htmlArkansas requires that you use Arkansas form “AR4EC, Employee’s Withholding Exemption Certificate” instead of a Federal W-4 Form for Arkansas State Income Tax Withholding.Not all states allow salary reductions made under Section 125 cafeteria plans or 401(k) to be treated in the same manner as the IRS code allows. In Arkansas cafeteria plans: are no
There are three other types of competitor often missed by both startups and market leaders. Even though they don’t sell products to the your customer base their actions enhance or impede the success of your company.
Resource competitors use the same materials and talent as you do, but offer different products to a different market. They have nothing to do with your business other than demanding the same supplies. But the stock Java programmers, oil, genetic material, frozen peas and lumber are limited, therefore consumers of these resources are de facto competitors. A few years ago IBM Global services, Accenture and a few other large systems integration firms announced their hiring plans for new computer science graduates. The total was 10,000 more than every graduating computer science major in the entire country. A product manager at a small company planning on two new grads for a major project would have a hard time meeting the salary and benefit demand of the scarce resource of computer science grads. Purchasing and HR departments have their fingers on the pulse of supplies and resources. Too bad they are rarely invited to strategic planning meetings.
The Regulatory competitor has the force of law to make or break your next strategy. These can be approval agencies, the Food and Drug Administration for example, or a watchdog like the Environmental Protection Agency and its state equivalents. Participation in an industry trade association that maintains a lob
If there is one great myth in inventory management it is that one single technique will solve all inventory problems. Not that people believe that one technique will solve all problems in all situations but that in any given company one approach is all that is required to manage all inventory.For the inventory manager this is very attractive as it means that there is only one approach to manage. For the software vendor, consultant or advisor it means only one solution to sell.There is a wide range of techniques and approaches that people use to manage inventory. These include JIT, MRP, DRP, SCM, Risk Management, safety stock and EOQ’s Sometimes they are used on
The Regulatory competitor has the force of law to make or break your next strategy. These can be approval agencies, the Food and Drug Administration for example, or a watchdog like the Environmental Protection Agency and its state equivalents. Participation in an industry trade association that maintains a lobbying presence is the best way to anticipate regulatory changes, or, better yet, encourage them in favor of your strategy rather than someone else’s.
Finally, there’s the Political competitor. This entity doesn’t have the force of law most times, but can have public opinion on its side. Labor unions, technical standards organizations and environmental activists fit this category. The motto here is “if you can’t control ‘em, join ‘em.” There’s no law against working for a big oil company and joining Greenpeace to keep tabs on what the club is up to.
Simple awareness of the spectrum of competitors beyond the simple look alike, already extends your company’s radar over the horizon. Its not too far a leap to figure what you can do anticipate, or even influence, their impact and their effect on your business.
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