By James D. Underwood from Competitive Intelligence For Dummies
Competitive intelligence (CI) enables an organization to continually evolve in response to ever-changing conditions. These conditions, or forces, can be classified into ten distinct categories. The first two forces described in this article — market and technological forces — drive the velocity of change. In other words, changes in these areas require your organization to adapt very quickly to take advantage of opportunities and avoid threats. The remaining eight forces affect the complexity of change — the number of issues that may affect an organization.
To beat the competition, you need to constantly monitor the environment in which you operate for potential opportunities and threats. Ten-forces analysis provides a solid methodology for accomplishing that goal.
Market forces
Market forces are those that affect the supply, demand, and price of products, and they come in many forms. The competitive intelligence (CI) team commonly monitors and analyzes
Unmet customer needs, because they can be opportunities for your company to step in
New competitors, especially nontraditional competitors from other industries
Mergers and acquisitions that may strengthen a competitor or cause you to lose a supplier or distributor
Changes in the supply chain and distributors
Technological forces
Technological forces impact everything from how a product is produced to how a customer uses it and may affect every function in an organization, including what products are developed, how marketing reaches consumers, and how sales are tracked and managed. Technological changes even provide new and more effective ways to handle shipping and logistics. The CI team can play an important role in your company by tracking technological forces and providing insight into how they affect each area of the company.
Economic forces
All sorts of economic events may impact a business, from an economic