Published in Competitive Intelligence Magazine

Case Study Overview

Peter, leader of the competitive intelligence team, receives an urgent assignment from his manager, Ramesh. They have six days to complete a competitive intelligence analysis for a possible innovative product move by Acme Technologies, an aggressive competitor. Each day is pressure packed with activities and decisions.

• Day 1: Getting the Assignment
• Day 2: Deciding the Plan
• Day 3: Meeting the Sponsor
• Day 4: Deciphering the Data
• Day 5: Testing the Interpretations
• Day 6: Delivering the Conclusions
  

DAY 1 – Getting The Assignment

Guest Commentaries: Ellen Naylor, August Jackson (interview)

Peter’s eyes widen ever so slightly when he sees the assignment. His boss, Ramesh, Director of Market Research, had just received an urgent request from the Vice President of Product Development about a rumored product development move by one of their fiercest competitors, Acme Technologies. Moreover, as everyone knew, when Ramesh felt pressured, it flowed down quickly to people who worked for him. Ramesh, succinct as always, gave the assignment to Peter. “Peter,” he said, “you have six days to tell management where Acme Technologies will be investing their R&D dollars for the next year.”

“Why do they want to know this?” asked Peter. Ramesh had not learned to be patient with this type of question even though he knew Peter was going to ask it. Peter always wanted the context for the question. Why was it needed? How would it be used? Who was asking? How should the conclusions be presented?

“Just get the data, Peter,” he snapped a little more forcefully than he intended. “You would not have been asked if it wasn’t important. I know your next question and the answer is that I will be presenting it.”

Now it was Peter’s turn to be miffed. Not so much about Ramesh’s doing the presentation, since he knew that Ramesh valued having face time in front of management. Rather, it was the constant struggle to work within the organization to improve competitive intelligence. Although Peter and his team reported to him, Ramesh sometimes had trouble with what seemed to Peter like the most basic and methodical steps of CI. Other managers were even more problematic to work with as they openly questioned why a separate competitive intelligence (CI) team was necessary. If nothing else, thought Peter, I am learning a lot about people in this position.

Breathe, he counseled himself. Business was tough and it was hard on everyone. Though their actions sometimes seemed counterproductive to effective competitive intelligence, the managers’ motivations were clear and understandable. Even Ramesh’s impatient tone could be forgiven. He was trying to balance many factors to make the right decisions.

After all, Ramesh had brought him into the company to form the CI team that Peter now headed. Ramesh had secured the budget and run the initial organizational interference for the team and Peter. Through their projects together, they had many conversations about what needed to be done and how to do it better to make a significant impact on the company. In those discussions, one of Peter’s firm positions had concerned the fact that proper questions asked within a clear context would lead to better answers. When the pressure was not so heavy, Ramesh easily agreed with Peter’s approach. In this situation, it was not so easy.

“Ramesh,” he started with controlled calmness, “it is fine with me that you will be presenting and I do want to make sure that you have good information to present. We have a lot of information about Acme but I doubt that you want to drown them with all of it.”

“You’re right about that,” conceded Ramesh. “We only have about 30 minutes for the presentation at the meeting.”

“Which meeting is it?” asked Peter.

Ramesh, settling slightly and catching the rhythm of Peter’s questions said, “It is the Product Development Strategy meeting.”

This helped Peter understand more of the request’s context. The quarterly Product Development Strategy meeting discussed key investments for the business. The vice presidents of engineering, product development, marketing, and a variety of support organization leaders attended it. From experience, Peter knew that their agenda typically included a review of year-to-date performance and one or two special topics.

“Is this question about Acme one of the hot topics?” asked Peter.

“Yes,” replied Ramesh. “Sales have received word that Acme is investing heavily to improve their product subsystems. The expectation is that whatever Acme is doing will show up in their next product cycle, some 12-18 months from now. If it is true, then we barely have time to react. Both engineering and product development are especially worried about the issue. Marketing is clueless, as usual,” he chuckled. Though both Peter and Ramesh had marketing backgrounds, it was their inside joke to assign Marketing little value.

It was funny, thought Peter, how much trouble Ramesh and other managers had sharing information. It always seemed like asking to clarify a request met with irritation if not hostility. Peter was slowly learning not to dwell on that emotional response. Instead, he found it best simply to ask open questions and let the Ramesh talk.

“What do we already know?” asked Peter. Ramesh was very connected in the company and throughtout the industry. When Peter had first started the CI team, he had missed this fact and suffered for it. Three managers, including Ramesh, raked Peter over the coals during his first management presentation because it was missing broadly known information.

Ramesh answered, “We know that Acme has increased its R&D spending. Actually, your Competitive Intelligence report of the competitors’ key financials first helped us see this.”

Peter remembered that report well. His team had taken the top line financials for each major competitor. Then, working with the finance team, they had modeled the division and product line R&D spending for each company. Finally, by overlaying the models on the product roadmaps, the CI team had alerted management that Acme and one other company were aggressively investing. The question now seemed to be “investing in what?”

“We also know that Acme has acquired two small companies with some very interesting technologies,” Ramesh continued. “Now the rumors say that Acme might be negotiating a deal to takeaway business from us at our biggest customer.”

There it was. Nothing made management’s blood boil like an imminent threat to revenue and profit. His company had a large share of the business at that customer. If another company, like Acme, could steal some of that share, then the business might suffer substantially.

“Okay, that helps. Once we understand what Acme is doing, does our decision come down to what new features or technologies we include in our current product line or in future product lines?” Peter asked. This question came from another mistake that he had made earlier. A prior analysis had painted a beautiful picture of the competitive landscape and pointed out a compelling solution. Unfortunately, for Peter, that solution was three years out and management needed to take meaningful action much sooner. The scars from that mistake were slow to heal.

“They are telling me that we will have to make changes to the current product line,” said Ramesh, “although I have difficulty believing that product development can respond that quickly. Engineering says they need at least 6 months incorporate a new technology and you know that it will take another year for it to appear in the product line after Engineering is done.”

Peter noticed that both engineering and product development were making estimates without the benefit of detailed competitive information. Maybe the required changes would be simple once the company understood Acme’s technology-based threat. On the other hand, these groups often assumed the worst. This was not unusual. All of the entrenched organizations protected their turf.

“Sally has been tasked to come up with the plan to counter Acme’s actions,” Ramesh went on. Sally, the Vice President of Product Development, was known as a heavily process-oriented person. She received credit for making the company’s product development execution methodical and predictable. Once a product entered the development pipeline, it exited when promised. Sally valued solid information and Peter knew that any presentation in front of her would have to be well supported.

Peter’s first “ah ha” moment in CI came when he recognized that great analysis was less important than meaningful change. In fact, he had changed from measuring his team’s value based on their analytical successes to whether they resulted in implementing strategy changes. Peter now focused more effort on understanding how individual senior managers made decisions and he used that knowledge to tailor the CI presentations accordingly. As a result, he could now better present the intelligence analysis and recommendations to his senior management customers and better trace the impact it had on their strategic decisions.

“When will we meet with Sally?” asked Peter.

“Meet with Sally? We don’t have time. Even if we did have time, she is too busy to meet with us,” said Ramesh.

This was the major problem in the company’s current CI process: senior managers tended to pass down assignments to the Competitive Intelligence team and provide little opportunity to discuss them. Peter had highlighted this issue many times but had not been able to resolve it.

Since Peter tracked the effectiveness of CI projects, he had noted that when senior management discussions occurred at the beginning, they were the prime indicator of how effective the project outcome would be and how satisfied the senior managers would be with the results.

Peter began pushing back on Ramesh’s assumptions. “Well, if this initiative is as important to Sally and the company as it appears, wouldn’t she want to get the best possible answers from us? Of course, she may be too busy but we should at least try, don’t you think?”

Ramesh said, “We cannot go to her unprepared, and we are not ready to see her!”

“You’re right about being prepared. Here is what I propose given the accelerated schedule. I’ll draft a set of starting key questions based on what you have told me today. We’ll meet again later today and refine them. Once you are satisfied, I will create an execution plan for the analysis and draft an outline of the presentation. Is that good for you so far?” Peter asked.

“Yes. Go on,” said Ramesh. “What are you planning to do then?”

“Once we’ve decided on the questions, execution plan, and presentation template, call Sally and request 30 minutes of her time, preferably within the next two days. Explain that we need to confirm the assignment’s purpose and plan for next week’s meeting. I think she’ll agree,” said Peter. “In the meantime, the team will start working through the execution plan. We will have a detailed update in two days. If the meeting with Sally happens later, we will incorporate the latest information into the draft we show her. Will this work for you?”

Ramesh felt the smallest stirrings of confidence building. Peter really did know competitive intelligence. His team could start from an amorphous need, crystallize it into something tangible and quickly produce useful answers. They had proven this over and over again. Yes, Peter was right about getting the context, defining the questions, and tailoring the output. There was only one thing left for him to do.

“I’ll call Sally and get us on her calendar. And Peter, I’m sorry for snapping at you earlier. I’m just feeling the pressure,” said Ramesh.

“No problem,” Peter said with a smile. “Let’s get to work.”

Competitive Intelligence Case Studies (www.cicases.com) is an effort dedicated to advancing problem solving discussions among competitive intelligence professionals. The cases are fictional and any resemblance to actual people, companies or situations is coincidental. Read or contribute commentary about this case at http://blog.cicases.com. Contact Tom Hawes at tom@jthawes.com for permission to use this material in classroom or training settings.

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