You can’t solve a problem or take advantage of an opportunity until you know it exists. You can’t be creative in generating alternatives until you have a reason to do so. Rational techniques for environmental analyses focus on standard control processes and environmental scanning, but there are more recent, less traditional approaches that we will discuss today.
All companies want to be the best in their industry, but what does it take to do so? In a live trends news, Andrew King and Karim R Lakhani write for the Harvard Business Review how benchmarking against others can help determine if you are actually doing better or worse than your competition.
Companies benchmark their best practices to track the progress of their competitors, identify potential problems with their own company’s performance and set goals for improvement. The following list some new ways to conduct your own environment scans:
Benchmarking
The term ‘benchmarking’ is used to describe the process of measuring and comparing a firm’s performance with that of its competitors. While this practice has been around for over 50 years now, organisations have started using this only in recent decades as part of their strategic plan by choosing specific initiatives where they want to be number one or two within an industry.
A true benchmark comes from something measurable such as sales per square foot (for retail stores), quality ratings (in healthcare) or and customer satisfaction levels.
Advantage Of Benchmarking
- Benchmarking helps to identify the best practices in a certain field.
- It is a method of comparing one’s performance with that of others.
- It can be used for analysis, diagnosis and problem-solving.
- It provides an opportunity to learn from other organisations’ successes and failures.
- Benchmarking is a systematic process that involves identifying key aspects of the organisation’s operations, then collecting data on these aspects from comparable organisations.
- The benefits of this method are: improved efficiency, increased productivity, better quality products or services, reduced costs and improved customer service.
- Benchmarking is a cost-effective way to reduce costs.
- Benchmarking can help you find the best suppliers for your company.
- Benchmarking can help you identify competitive advantages in your industry.
- It’s easier to benchmark when you have an existing system in place.
- You don’t need to be big or well-known to benefit from benchmarking.
- There are many ways that companies use to benchmark. Some of them are more effective than others, so it’s important to know which ones work best for you and which ones will give you the most accurate results.
Phantom Competitors
There is such a thing as ‘phantom competitors’, which gives off the impression of being ahead of the rest when they are really not even close. Phantom competitors are a concept in a market where you can’t see your competition. This is because when customers search for solutions to the problems they face, they don’t consider all of their options equally. They may only look at one or two different ways that could solve their problem before settling on what seems like the best idea.
The result is that oftentimes, there are other companies out there who offer similar products and services but never get seen by potential customers because they’re not considered during customers’ searches.
Best Practices
Companies that try to beat others’ ‘best practices’ may find themselves outpaced because this concept doesn’t account for things like customers’ preferences. Benchmarking should rely on data instead of assumptions so that we know where our business stands relative to peers.
- Use a checklist to make sure you forget nothing.
- Be prepared for any situation with a well-stocked emergency kit.
- Keep your car in good running condition by changing the oil, rotating tires, and getting an annual tune-up.
- Make a plan to get out of debt or save money before it’s too late.
- Protect yourself from identity theft by shredding all personal documents that contain sensitive information before throwing them away.
- Plan for retirement — Start saving early and invest wisely so you can live comfortably when you retire.
Hiring
Hiring a futurist or other consultant can provide you with new ideas and insights. For example, they may be able to see the forest for the trees so that what is important stands out from everything else. This could help someone close to the situation who might not have this perspective as easily since it’s all around them every day.
Advantage Of Hire Futurists
- Provides a lot of information
- Gives tips on how to be successful
- Inspires others to do well in the future
- Encourages people to take risks and not worry about failure
- Allows you to learn more about yourself and what you want out of life
- Helps build new relationships with other hire futurist members
Monitor Weak Points
In order to make a successful real estate investment, two developers decided to buy inexpensive properties that were likely to become profitable soon. They did this by selling their own expensive property during the recession and using those funds for additional purchases of cheap yet promising land.
Real estate developers used weak signals in the market to find new, affordable investment opportunities during a recession. Real estate forecasting services and attending industry events helped these two determine what properties were about to be released from bankruptcy or foreclosure proceedings. They purchased many of those distressed assets at low prices with funds generated by selling some prominent realtors’ high-priced inventory (that they had acquired earlier).
Advantage Of Monitor Weak Signal
- Monitoring weak signals can help you find opportunities for business growth.
- Weak signals are often ignored by the competition, giving you a competitive advantage.
- It is cheaper to monitor weak signals than it is to advertise.
- Weak signals give insight into customer needs and wants that may not be apparent in traditional market research methods.
- Monitoring weak signals can lead to new product ideas or changes in current products.
- Using monitoring technology is the best way to keep up with your competitors’ activities.
Never Miss An Opportunity
A manager shares how he reads science fiction to find new ideas for his business. This helps him avoid being limited by traditional sources, which provide an opportunity for search that can lead him somewhere completely different. He also shares some tips on what you can do to try something new and not limit yourself, including researching the latest trends in your industry with questions about their implications applied towards your own business goals/tasks.
Advantages Of Opportunity Search
- Opportunity Search is a free service.
- It’s easy to use and can be accessed on any device.
- It has advanced search functionality that you won’t find anywhere else.
- You’ll get matched with people who are looking for what you’re selling 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
- Opportunity Searches save time by matching your business to potential customers in their area of interest or need.
- You can create your own profile page where you will receive notifications when new leads are available in your target market.
- Opportunity searches are the best way to find relevant, qualified leads.
- Opportunity searches are a great way to find potential partners for joint ventures.
- Opportunity searches can help you identify new markets that your business is not currently operating.
- Opportunity searches allow you to easily search through thousands of databases, social media sites and other websites at once.
- The information provided by opportunity searchers is all up-to-date. It’s never outdated or out of date like what you might get from an online search engine.
- You don’t have to spend hours looking for relevant information on different websites when using an opportunity searcher — everything is right there in one place.