Market intelligence has the power to provide strategic value to a business’ future, explains Hans Hedin, vice president of business development at Global Intelligence Alliance
Information is power, and companies that have the right information at the right time have the power to transform themselves into world leaders. Enter market intelligence.
Market intelligence supports strategic and operative decision-making with information about the company’s external business environment. It encompasses anything from ‘plain vanilla’ market monitoring to strategic analysis and advisory services from experts. Most market intelligence is based on readily available information. Obviously, having the right market intelligence tools, talent and processes will be key to success.
The world around us is increasingly complex, and the supply of data has virtually exploded. Market intelligence programmes help companies manage this increased uncertainty by taking a greater responsibility for strategic analysis. They do this by utilising methods such as scenario analysis, megatrends analysis, and so on.
Unfortunately, many companies neglect to, or are unable to, benchmark their market intelligence functions against their competitors or peers, and are unaware if the way they handle information is optimal. This is a crucial weakness, as companies that conduct market intelligence well can surge ahead of the competition and save time and money. Companies with world class market intelligence functions work closely with decision-makers, use their budgets and their teams more effectively and use more extensive internal networks.
So how can B2B brands achieve world class market intelligence?
1. Create external networks
You can turn to external resources, such as expert networks, for some of your needs. For instance, you can:
- Identify low value and time-consuming intelligence deliverables, such as news monitoring, basic fact-based profiles of customers, competitors, markets and technologies, etc, all of which could be outsourced.
- Encourage the involvement of investment relations teams in market intelligence, as they have good connections with investment bankers and industry analysts and can act as ‘expert resources’ in the external intelligence network.
- Participate in market intelligence conferences and workshops in order to extend an external network through other market intelligence executives and gather ideas for further development.
2. Link to business strategy
Those involved with B2B market intelligence need to clearly articulate how their work is directly linked to the business strategy. For instance, you can:
- Conduct an intelligence needs survey and analysis to show how the market intelligence team can better support the business.
- Ensure market intelligence is embedded in the decision making process, by identifying when key decisions are to be made, what information is needed and by whom.
- Ensure strategy, innovation and sales teams are involved in the collection, analysis and/or conclusions through workshops, briefing sessions or reports.
The best way to do all the things above is to set up a service level agreement for the services that the market intelligence programme shall supply. This is a good way of balancing the ad-hoc requests that often arise. In order to set up a service level agreement, a precise ‘needs analysis’ needs to take place.
3. Become a trusted advisor
B2B market intelligence teams should use a consultative approach to their work so they become trusted advisors to top management. For instance, you can:
- Provide a complete suite of market intelligence deliverables; from basic self-service competitor profiles to more advanced strategic workshops focusing on scenarios analysis, megatrends analysis or ‘war games’.
- Train internal teams on the differences between a straightforward research and a consultative approach.
- Learn and apply management consulting tools and techniques, such as social style mapping, engagement techniques, interview techniques and strategic analysis concepts
4. Tackle sidetracking issues
Companies face issues that executives are not comfortable with confronting. Such issues could be the very ones that B2B market intelligence teams need to focus on and to advise on possible solutions. For instance, you can:
- Map the company’s strategic objectives and ensure regular market monitoring activities cover them.
- Conduct scenario analysis projects in order to identify how, why and under what circumstances selected strategies may backfire.
- Run ‘war games’ regularly to understand how industry players might react to new products or strategic moves, on a tactical and operational level.
Simply put, market intelligence needs to be embedded into the decision-making process in key areas such as strategy, innovation, sales and marketing. Only then can it have the power to provide strategic value in the long run.