Knowledge Is Power

SCIP Boston eLearning March 21 "Tools for Early Warning" by Kent Potter

SCIP Massachusetts Chapter Presents:

An Onsite eLearning Multi-Chapter SCIP Webinar (Must Attend In Person to Enjoy Networking and Program)

Be First to Know: Proven Tools for Early Warning Analysis

Kent Potter, Managing Director, The Bennion Group

Welcome by SCIP Board Member and SCIP CEO

Wednesday, March 21, 2012 6:00PM - 8:00PM

Special thanks to our Host

Digimind Inc

DESCRIPTION Does your CI group have a process for Early Warning Analysis? If it does, how good is the process? There is more you would like to know. How do you decide what information is most important, how do sort through the information overload, and how to go about getting the pieces that you need? The Indicator Tree methodology allows you to test assumptions quickly and systemically, and indicates where to find confirming or invalidating data. The analysis then identifies who must be contacted both inside and outside of the organization to get the information. Kent also provides tools to quickly assess the implications of your intelligence to see the real landscape

SPEAKER

Kent Potter, Managing Director, The Bennion Group

The Bennion Group is a global management consulting firm that combines intelligence, organizational design, and advanced business techniques to help clients to increase their strategic effectiveness and operational efficiency. Managing Director Kent Potter has frequently spoken, written, and conducted programs on business strategy, business intelligence, scenario planning, war-gaming and related concepts in the Americas, Europe, Africa, and Asia.

LOCATION Digimind Inc 10 Fawcett Street Cambridge, MA 02138

AGENDA

6:00PM - 6:30PM Registration and Networking

6:30PM - 7:15PM Presentation

7:15PM - 8:00PM Q&A and Networking

REGISTRATION SCIP/SLA Members and Students: $15.00 (SLA Members/Students please email [email protected]) Non-Members: $25.00

To register, click on www.scip.org/events/March/SCIP Massachusetts Chapter Presents

Please Note: This is An Onsite eLearning Webinar (Must Attend In Person to Enjoy Networking and Program)

Space is limited, so be sure to register early to guarantee your spot!

CONTACTS

Cynthia Correia/[email protected]/617.689.8877

Parmelee Eastman/[email protected]/781.416.3686

Robyn Reals, Educ. Mgr. SCIP/[email protected]/703.739.0696 X 107

CANCELLATION POLICY Cancellations received in writing on or before Wednesday, March 14th will be honored.

Compete to the Best? No, Says Michael Porter

Michael Porter discussed the barriers to developing effective strategies with Joan Margretta who recently published the book, Understanding Michael Porter: The Essential Guide to Competition and Strategy in the Dec 21, 2011 issue of Working Knowledge.

After not having a strategy, seeking to be the best in an industry is the next most common mistake companies make, posits Porter.

"The granddaddy of all mistakes is competing to be the best, going down the same path as everybody else and thinking that somehow you can achieve better results."

Many internal and external forces push organizations to adopt this strategy. Executives do not assess theirs strengths, their target markets, and their competition correctly. They tend to ignore their biases and the behavior created by internal reward and/or cost systems that may be counterproductive. Managers, says Porter, also hate to make trade-offs because they dislike accepting that they and their firms have limits.

External forces pushing companies to adopt the best strategy include security analysts and consultants who push customer-centric strategies. But, as Porter points out, “If you listen to every customer and do what they ask you to do, you can't have a strategy. Like so many ideas that get sold to managers, there is some truth to it, but the nuances get lost. Strategy is not about making every customer happy. When you've got your strategist's hat on, you want to decide which customers and which needs you want to meet. As to the other customers and the other needs, well, you just have to get over the fact that you will disappoint them, because that's actually a good thing.”

Organizations expanded their definition of their industries based on the work of Theodore Leavitt, losing their ability to place their company in the correct sub-segment. A famous example is the railroad company which should have realized that it was in the transportation business to compete effectively against long-distance trucking and airfreight. But railroads have a unique position in the transportation business which must be considered when developing a strategy. Porter adds, “Defining the industry as transportation can be dangerous if it leads managers to conclude that they need to acquire an airfreight company so they can compete in multiple forms of transportation.”

Other common mistakes are confusing marketing or operational effectiveness with strategy. “It's natural for strategy to arise from a focus on customers and their needs. So in many companies, strategy is built around the value proposition, which is the demand side of the equation. But a robust strategy requires a tailored value chain—it's about the supply side as well, the unique configuration of activities that delivers value. Strategy links choices on the demand side with the unique choices about the value chain (the supply side). You can't have competitive advantage without both.”

How does your firm define its strategy vs. your competition? If multiple companies are seeking to be the best in an industry, they are essentially chasing the same target customers who can then demand price concessions. With this dynamic, some market segments are ill-served and overall profitability of the industry is lower than it would be if organizations had each selected a unique value proposition.

Is this dynamic operating in your industry currently? If so, what can you do to push your management to refine its strategy to be unique? You could:

1. Write an analysis of the competitors’ strategies to show the similarities among them and to your organization’s plans
2. Suggest a war gaming or scenario planning exercise to allow the executives to realize the issues themselves
3. Interview customers, and non-customers if possible, to solicit their views of the various competitors striving to be the best—customer comments usually carry more weight than employee views

You may be able to think of more ways to focus attention on this issue. The important point is to have the issue examined to help your firm succeed and, of course, keep you employed.

Tips for Selling Your Ideas and Work

At a recent sales training session, the trainer Kevin Hallinan asked “How many people hope their children grow up to be salespeople?” When I responded that I did, he told me that I was very unusual. Actually, I’ve found my sales training and sales experience to be very useful in selling my ideas, my research methodology, and my recommendations in all my subsequent jobs.

Selling is fundamentally about listening to the audience, understanding their desires, fears, and, oh yes, also their stated needs. Selling is communicating effectively. Selling is establishing a trust relationship. These skills can help CI people be effective in their jobs and lead to their next job.

So what did Kevin Hallinan say that could be useful for CI professionals?

1. Clarify every wishy-washy word. This applies equally to the information about competitors that you receive, the reports you generate, and the requests for information that you receive. Clarifying the requests that you receive will help you avoid wasting time chasing unwanted information and help you focus on the important questions, resulting in satisfied requesters.

2. When you speak with people say the unexpected. Most people start a conversation with the question, “Did I catch you at a good time?” Hallinan suggests starting with “Did I catch you at a bad time?

3. Set up ground rules for each presentation or assignment up front. Say, “If you expect me to develop a fully developed cost structure for your competitor in two weeks, I will not accept the assignment.” Instead of saying “I’ll do my best” when you know deep down that the request is unrealistic. This lowers natural defenses to help build a rapport.

4. Studies show that people move away from pain faster than they move toward reward. While there is a push to involve CI in generating new revenue with new market assessments as well as competitive evaluations, start presentations and reports with what the competitor can do to hurt your company, then add what your firm can do to take market share from that rival. You’ll have more attention on your work.

Add these concepts to your operating repertoire to gain more respect and response to your work.

Kevin J. Hallinan does sales and leadership development under the name Winning Incorporated in the Boston area.

February 2012 EastSight InSight

Are you looking beyond your traditional competitors to watch for new emerging rivals to avoid being blindsided by a new entrant in your marketplace? Scan secondary literature periodically for announcements of potentially substitute products. Call a few salespeople to ask what they are hearing from customers. Check with marketing staff who attend trade shows to find out what information that they picked up on new competitors, in addition, of course, to the information that they gathered on existing rivals.