The competitive marketplace is undergoing a series of irreversible changes that are combining to create a fundamentally different and more risky business environment. These changes are:- Market fragmentation
- Dynamic customer buying behavior
- Shortened product/profit lifecycles
- Global competition
- Shrinking and highly variable profit margins
- Customer demand for personalized solutions
These changes have led to one central market truth: ALL market demand is dynamic, localized, and differentiated by product and service.. The only winning business strategy in these competitive marketplaces will require a careful, closed -oop BI approach that aims at winning market share in the most profitable micro markets. Ironically, despite these changing market dynamics, most companies are stretching supply chains around the world in search of low cost, and extending product lines that already have little if any differentiation for the competition. Low costs and extended lead times help bottom-line improvement, but do little to grow the top line. These competing developments are creating a fundamental conflict that must be resolved. The following key actions will enable companies to determine where and how to best strike in the marketplace and gain competitive superiority to win the battle for profitable micro-markets: 1. Undertake a market segmentation exercise to ensure you have identified the subset of micro markets of customer/product/channel and marketplace that have the best combination of profitability and competitive differentiation.
2. Develop a closed loop analytic set of business strategies, processes and technologies aimed at evaluating the risks and competitive benefits of multiple scenarios to achieve dominant market share in the most profitable markets.
3. Assess the opportunities of including manufacturing network partners in this analysis and extend your competitive capabilities across these ecosystems.
4. Focus, focus, focus -- make sure you're constantly evaluating and focusing your preemptive analytics on areas that promise a high return.
Business Intelligence is becoming one of the most mission critical processes and capabilities that a company can develop and has become a focal point for providing the insight necessary for intelligent decision making. This is affording analysts and managers a unique opportunity to demonstrate their value to the enterprise and play a larger role in it's success. |