...community that meets regularly at Club IT.” The club focuses on all music genres, which includes Hip- Hop, Techno, Electronica, MP3, and live bands. With these genres, the music caters to all people from young adults to older adults and single to married couples. Although the club is striving, Ruben and Lisa want their company analyzed for a more competitive advantage. As their intern, I will take a look at the company’s intranet resources, which is an internal network that only the owner’s and employees’ can access. The current intranet is a good resource of information, but it lack security. The access to the intranet needs to be accessible individually. The owners need to have their own login credentials with access to the information related to all the company’s information and employees’ information. The employees need to have their own login credentials as well, so they can access the necessary information related to their job title and personal information. One way to become more competitive is to take advantage of its information base to help a build a community with the support of IT. Several kinds of competitive information and strategies that Club IT can be gain by providing this service, for...
Words: 371 - Pages: 2
...Evaluate a Business Intelligence initiative that has been undertaken within your organization or one potential application of Business Intelligence within your organization? I work in the cruise industry. I never really knew how much Business Intelligence was a science. Granted, I knew we have analysts and copious amounts of data, but I never truly gave it much thought. After studying BI, I have come to realize BI is an essential aspect of my organization’s success. From measuring productivity of different departments (such as revenue, event planning, individual & groups reservations, cruising power, our company website, shipboard management, etc…) to understanding travel partner and guests needs and staying ahead of the competition, we wouldn’t survive without BI metrics and applications. Because I work in the event planning division of my company, I am not familiar with the names or metrics used to evaluate important data, but I do know from experience and part of my job function, reports and data gathered are used to make judgments and decisions about new products and constant improvements for existing services we currently provide. Surveys are completed by our travel partners and guests, and even employees. We compile reports and present them to management electronically. Our research, experience, and use of different applications, along with our IT departments, helps management and executives determine which direction to move forward. Feedback from our travel...
Words: 526 - Pages: 3
...premiere gourmet grocery store that offers shoppers the finest baked goods, meats, cheese and dairy, produce items and an assortment of domestic and imported wines. Kudler Fine Foods offers all customers a wonderful shopping experience and the finest quality of foods and wines. Leaving room to expand its current services and opening new locations. The company’s growth span is leading to an increased customer base. Kudler Fine Foods is increasing and looking to drive revenue upward while leaving the current prices as set. Kudler Fine Foods is ready to develop changes to increase their revenue . I will discuss in this paper the important elements needed in Kudler Fine Foods goal towards advancement in marketing and the role of using the competitive intelligence tactics. This could include other ways to successfully achieve goals of growth. Marketing Research “Although marketing research isn’t perfect, it seeks to reduce risk and uncertainty to improve decisions made by marketing managers” (Armstrong, , 2011) . Marketing research can help develop new product ideas and offer a fine tuning in slimming down products and services. Businesses use market research t o help determine who will be interested in purchasing their products and services. Marketing research will reach out to a target group of people based on certain feelings, needs, income and age. Mrs. Kudler conducted surveys to reach out to customer and receive feedback in areas of potential improvements. Pointing them in the...
Words: 963 - Pages: 4
...Competitive Landscape When it comes to this type of argument it is very compelling to understand what needs to be done here. It is very important for a company to be able to understand what their competitive landscape market is and how they are going to use it. Within the Jackson Hewitt Company, they have many different competitors that offer similar to the same type of services they do. So the question here really is how Jackson Hewitt markets themselves and the new service of financial services that makes them more appealing to the customer. Marketing is the key, the whole purpose of why a company has marketing teams. Here are some examples of Jackson Hewitt’s competitive landscape. So let’s start out with the most obvious question, what is competitive landscape. “A competitive landscape (also known as “competitive intelligence”) provides cohesive, detailed information on what your competitors are doing including” (Koch, 2009). So when doing the research on Jackson Hewitt, I had come to a conclusion that they do not offer financial advisory to their customer such as some of their competitors do like H and R Block. So when a company wants to start up a new service, they need to research their competitor s to find out exactly what they are offering and the pricing of those services. A company needs to offer more for less in order to be competitive in a field that is already crowded. “In gathering competitive intelligence and creating your competitive landscape, you will...
Words: 449 - Pages: 2
...to in regards to weaknesses and strengths to determine if it is moving in the right direction (Internal Organizational Analysis, n.d.). When internal analyses are not completed honestly and accurately it will affect various portions of the business. Generally, the finances are affected. Finances determine the sustainability of many organizations because of the overhead. When credit is maxed out and there are no funds available to pay employees, vendors, or produce then the company could potentially go out of business. Upon researching, surveying, and reviewing cost I would ensure that the information received is valid. I think that S.W.O.T. (Strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats) internal analysis could increase a level of competitive advantage. Many organizations tend to...
Words: 433 - Pages: 2
...THE EFFECTS OF ECONOMIC WAR ON ORGANIZATIONS FROM A LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR PERSPECTIVE. Individual Term Paper Table of Contents I. A. 1. 2. B. 1. 2. II. A. 1. 2. B. 1. 2. C. 1. 2. III. A. B. Background of the topic ............................................................................................................... 3 What is Economic War and what are its practices? .............................................................. 3 Pre-technological Era ........................................................................................................... 3 Technological Era ................................................................................................................. 3 How Competitive Intelligence translates into companies’ life? ............................................ 6 As a tool of Corporate Strategy ........................................................................................... 6 As a part of the Corporate Culture ..................................................................................... 6 Economic War and Corporate Culture .................................................................................. 7 Organizational Leadership....................................................................................................... 7 Where Economic War becomes a problem: advocating ethical behaviour ..................... 7 Where Economic War benefits: crisis leadership ......................
Words: 3585 - Pages: 15
...Kudler Fine Foods After searching for opportunities for a different lifestyle, Kathy Kudler had a vision of opening her own gourmet food department. On June 18, 1998, Kathy Kudler’s first store front of Kudler fine foods opened their doors, in La Jolla, California (Kudler Fine Foods.) Within two years later she open an additional establishment in Del Mar, California, which is within 30 minute distance from the La Jolla Store. Five years later she open a third store located in Encinitas, California. Kudler fine foods’ businesses have been doing great with the exception of one of the stores making enough money to break even. Kathy wanted her store to sell the finer items of the international cultures. Kudler Fine Foods consist of freshly bake breads, the finer meats, freshly organic produce, gourmet cheese, and superior selection of wine. Importance of Marketing Research Kudler Fine Foods is an upscale food supplier that will attract customers who are of a median to upper income. Marketing research is of importance when dealing with this any organization, especially when the products exceed the average price the same items. Kathy would need to know the target market of her customers. The target market consists of the characteristics and dimensions of their present and potential clients. Kathy needs to be aware of the average income of individuals in the area of the store, their lifestyle, population, sex, marital status, and the commute from Kudler fine foods to their home...
Words: 1027 - Pages: 5
...Analyzing Your Competition Overview Almost everyone in business understands the principle of trying to offer something better than what their competitors are offering. Gaining an advantage is the key to success and even survival. But many of the so-called advantages that businesses rely on are not sustainable. They can be easily copied, stolen or negated. Real competitive advantages — things like brand name recognition, patented manufacturing processes or exclusive rights to a scarce resource — cannot be easily copied. Every company has a unique set of strengths, and it's critical that you determine yours, as well as your competitors'. Hold a brainstorming session with your staff and advisors to perform a formal SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis. This analysis helps you to see how your strengths stack up against your competitors' weaknesses and suggests ways to take advantage of marketplace opportunities. After you have performed the analysis, there are four basic competitive strategies to consider. 1. Become the low-cost supplier. By under-pricing the competition, you can achieve greater volume, which can drive your costs down even further by realizing economies of scale. Of course, it's important to still maintain a healthy profit margin so the key here is to lower costs, not just prices. 2. Achieve product or service quality differentiation. Think about the hundreds of companies that have achieved such differentiation for themselves...
Words: 10912 - Pages: 44
...load results from the next page… and the next (into infinity.) When using sites like Google you can see 10 to 10,000 results to search for specific items hidden well beyond page one of the results. Fireshot Allows you to take screenshots and has dozens of very useful features.When used for competitive intelligence it allows you to quickly gather visual records and note them. Firebug A development tool that allows you to see the code structure for any web page. Very useful for finding software vendors who provide different platform capabilities to your competitors. Scrapbook Add visual bookmarks into a catalog that can be tagged and categorized. Competitive Intelligence professionals can quickly sort reference sites and create visual archives for team collaboration. List Open URLs https://addons.mozilla.org/En-us/firefox/addon/list-open-urls/ When you have multiple tabs open on your browser this saves all the URLs to a text file. Very useful for opening 5 to 25 tabs on a research project and documenting the list of source sites for later reference. HR ORIENTED TOOLS LinkedIn http://linkedin.com If you don’t use Linkedin for competitive and market intelligence you are really missing something. Linkedin provides all sorts of data about employees, relationships, company data, new hires, people that left, press...
Words: 714 - Pages: 3
...researchandmarkets.com/reports/657511/ UK Automotive Industry: Sector Report Description: This industry profile is an essential tool to help your company gain an in-depth knowledge and competitive advantage in the industry. The profile is an assimilation of insider knowledge, market characteristics and economic indicators. It analyzes the critical success factors in the industry – how the industry has evolved and how competitive dynamics have impacted market behavior. Sectional Highlights -- Structure of the industry, market size, and growth rates have been analyzed -- Value chain analysis categorizes the value-adding activities to develop low-cost differentiation strategies -- Trend analysis detects historical patterns that could help in forecasting future demand periods -- Critical issues are reviewed that may become a threat to the industry -- PEST analysis uses a framework of external factors for macro-environmental scanning of the industry to help in taking advantage of opportunities and making contingency plans for threats -- Competitive positioning of the industry leaders has been evaluated in terms of sales, profitability, stock trend and other performance indicators Key Benefits -- Provides input for strategic business planning -- Targets business opportunities & risks -- Exploits competitive intelligence Target Audience -- Investment Managers -- Venture Capitalists -- Management Consultants -- Research Companies -- Other Industry Professionals Contents: 1. Industry Overview...
Words: 718 - Pages: 3
...[pic]Porter's Four Corners Model Porter’s four corners model is a predictive tool designed by Michael Porter that helps in determining a competitor’s course of action. Unlike other predictive models which predominantly rely on a firm’s current strategy and capabilities to determine future strategy, Porter’s model additionally calls for an understanding of what motivates the competitor. This added dimension of understanding a competitor's internal culture, value system, mindset and assumptions help in determining a much more accurate and realistic reading of a competitor’s possible reactions in a given situation. The Four Corners Motivation – drivers This helps in determining competitor's action by understanding their goals (both strategic and tactical) and their current position vis-à-vis their goals. A wide gap between the two could mean the competitor is highly likely to react to any external threat that comes in its way, whereas a narrower gap is likely to produce a defensive strategy. Question to be answered here is: What is it that drives the competitor? These drivers can be at various levels and dimensions and can provide insights into future goals. Motivation – Management Assumptions The perceptions and assumptions the competitor has about itself and its industry would shape strategy. This corner includes determining the competitor's perception of its strengths and weaknesses, organization culture and their beliefs about competitor's goals. If the competitor thinks...
Words: 890 - Pages: 4
...business STRATEGIC AND COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS: Methods and Techniques for Analyzing Business Competition 1 © The MindShifts Group Pty Ltd Page 1 of 5 www.mindshifts.com.au STRATEGIC AND COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS: Methods and Techniques for Analyzing Business Competition By Craig Fleisher and Babette Bensoussan (Prentice Hall, 2002) Book Description Given the priority of competitiveness in modern companies, practitioners of competitive or strategic corporate intelligence (CI) need to come to terms with what business and competitive analysis is and how it works. More importantly, they need to be able to convert the wealth of available data and information into a valuable form for decision-making and action. Collected data must be converted into intelligence. This is accomplished through analysis. Strategic and Competitive Analysis comprehensively examines the wide spectrum of techniques involved in analyzing business and competitive data and information including environmental analysis, industry analysis, competitor analysis, and temporal analysis models. It helps business analysts and decision-makers to draw effective conclusions from limited data and to put together information that does not often fit together at first glance. The Analysis Iceberg Strategic management involves all aspects of a business and requires a knowledge and understanding of the environmental impacts on an organization to ensure that correct decisions are made and taken. It is not just about looking at best fit...
Words: 319 - Pages: 2
...everywhere for process improvements and re-engineering of companies (Beretta, Dossi and Grove, 1998). My aim for this essay is to explain the concept of benchmarking using a range of sources. I will also critically analyze how and why organizations use benchmarking as a weapon to persist in today’s competitive business environment to see if it really is that effective. Benchmarking is the continuous analysis of processes, functions, strategies, performances and many other aspects of a business compared with or between the “best-in-class” organizations by gathering information by using appropriate methods of collection, with the intention of evaluating an organizations current standards and then carrying out self-improvement by applying changes to match or exceed the standards (Anand and Kodali, 2008). Benchmarking is a technique used for continuous improvement of something within a business. It is a way of measuring a firm’s product; services or activities against top other organizations either internal or external to the firm (Drury, 2012). This could be close competition for example; customer service on telephone calls from mobile network providers such as EE and Vodafone, to non-competitive firms using the same example customer service on telephone calls with different firms such as British Gas and EE. These firms could all potentially look at each other’s process’ to gain ideas on how to improve their own standards or processes they undertake when providing their service. By doing...
Words: 3114 - Pages: 13
...fine bakery products, meats and seafood, produce, cheese and dairy, and wines. The company wants to expand with a new location. With the expansion, Kudler needs to focus on the marketing strategy and incorporate additional marketing research. Competitive intelligence and analysis helps Kudler redefine the marketing strategy. Importance of Marketing Research According Kerin, et. al. (2009), “Marketing research is the process of defining a marketing problem and opportunity, systemically collecting and analyzing information and recommending actions” (Marketing, 2009, p. 199). Marketing research helps create long-term business plans, launch new products or services, and expand into new markets. Market research determines what the consumer desires in the store and the ranking against competitors. Kudler identifies the market share through research. Marketing research involves five steps. The five steps are defining the problem, develop the research plan, collect relevant information by specifying, develop findings, and take marketing actions (Longmeyer, 2011). Using the five steps of market research identifies the weaknesses and strengths in the expansion development. Additional Market Research For Kudler to remain competitive, they need additional market research in business trend research. Business trend research shows the growth rate and trends in the food industry. Although surveys help determine satisfied customers with the store, customers are not satisfied with...
Words: 701 - Pages: 3
...2013 ------------------------------------------------- Dear Hiring Manager, I am applying for the Competitive Intelligence Analyst position at Google. Working at Google has always been a dream for me and this position excites me further because it involves my passion for research and keeping abreast of the technology industry. I do understand that my career path so far isn’t that of a typical intelligence analyst. However, I believe that many of the skills I gained during my five years as a business analyst are transferrable to this position. In addition, my MBA specialization in competitive intelligence (called ‘business intelligence’ in Thunderbird) and my project at BillingTree has taught me the latest techniques in information gathering. Studying at Thunderbird, which is the #1 in Global MBA, has also helped me appreciate the nuances of working with other cultures, which I am sure will help me in intelligence gathering. Listed below is a comparison of your job requirements and my qualifications: Your Requirements | My Qualifications | * MBA / BA / BS Finance, Economics, Marketing or Liberal Arts, or equivalent practical experience. | * MBA degree with a Competitive Intelligence concentration, BS degree in engineering and five years of business analysis experience. | * 4 years of analytical experience with an understanding of competitive industry dynamics. * Experience analyzing and synthesizing qualitative and quantitative information, identifying...
Words: 592 - Pages: 3
