Thunderbird-TWC/Bright House Competitive Intelligence Challenge Two

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Thunderbird-TWC/Bright House Competitive
Intelligence Challenge Two

• Getting the Most out of Secondary Sources

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The CI Challenge So Far
The CI Challenge Process So Far
Challenge 1
1.5
one week
two weeks

• In Challenge One, you all worked with the
  painpoint and opportunity analyses templates to
  create the key intelligence questions that were
  posted on March 12.
• Since then, you have been seeing how much water
  you
• could put in each glass
• from inside TWC and
• Bright House.

FORUM PAINPOINT OPPORTUNITY ANALYSIS
KIQ 1
Internal Intelligence Collection
KIQ Development
KIQ 2
KIQ 3
Scope
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Introducing Challenge TwoBeginning to Collect
Competitive Intelligence outside of TWC/BH
This challenge is about leveraging intelligence
from the public information sectorbasically,
secondary sources. Remember this slide from the
Forum
The Competitive Information World
Private
Secret
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Keys to Keep in Mind About the Public Information
Box
Keys to Keep in Mind About the Public Information
Box

• 1) Most companies under-value whats in it
• They think that if information is in the public
  record, it cant have real value as CI
• This is dead wrongtheres lots of good CI you
  just have to know how to find it
• 2) Many people dont know how to get the most out
  of searching the public box
• It takes them a whole bag of
• oranges to get one glass of
• juice

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Keys to Keep in Mind About the Public Information
Box
Keys to Keep in Mind About the Public Information
Box

• We know the key challenges you all have re public
  information sources are
• Not enough time to search, and
• Its hard to know where to look re CI
• We hope to help in this Challenge by
• 1. diagnosing the Key Intelligence Questions
  (KIQs) you created in Challenge One so you can
  better understand what kind of CI to look for,
  and
• 2. guiding you to specific sources to search for
  the answers

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Problem Statement If we knew more about our
COMPETITORS FINANCIAL STATUS AND MODEL, we could
adjust our own financial metrics and guidelines
to compete more effectively with them in the
marketplace.
KIQ 1 Developed in Challenge One

• Key Intelligence Questions
• 1. What business model does our competitor
  have that allows them to offer their products at
  their current rate?
• 2. What are their internal financial metrics
  that allows them to compete so effectively?
  (i.e., IRR, ROI, ROE, Return on Customers, P/E,
  etc.)
• 3. What kind of return does our competitor
  get on those bulk order rates and is that
  sustainable over the long term?
• 4. What are our competitors customer
  acquisition costs per customer?
• 5. Retention costs per customer?

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Diagnosing the Financial Status and Model KIQs
Diagnosing the Financial Status and Model KIQs

• You may be able to find, either through secondary
  sources in Challenge Two, or primary sources in
  Challenge Three, specific answers to some of the
  data in KIQs 2, 3, 4, and 5
• But, it is more likely that you will find only
  pieces of these puzzles that you will have to
  identify and arrange to create the whole picture.
  
• So, search for the whole answer to ATTs
  customer acquisition costs per customer, for
  example, but also look for any clues that would
  help you figure this out later.
• With regard to KIQ 1, you almost certainly will
  have to build your version of ATTs or Verizons
  business model once you understand the data
  points youve identified in KIQs 2-5.
• Thunderbird will provide you with some modeling
  tools in Challenge 4.

• Key Intelligence Questions
• What business model does our competitor have that
  allows them to offer their products at their
  current rate?
• What are their internal financial metrics that
  allows them to compete so effectively? (i.e.,
  IRR, ROI, ROE, Return on Customers, P/E, etc.)
• What kind of return does our competitor get on
  those
• bulk order rates and is that sustainable over
  the long term?
• What are our competitors customer acquisition
  costs per customer?
• Retention costs per customer?

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Some Places to Look for Competitors Financial
Status

• A competitors Annual report reveals many hidden
  secrets
• Analysts can provide some detailed informational
  reports on companies
• Shareholder presentations have good information
  about their financial status

• Verizon Informational Linkshttp//www.google.com/
  finance?qVZhttp//finance.yahoo.com/q?sVZhttp
  //investor.verizon.com/

• ATT Informational Linkshttp//www.google.com/fin
  ance?qThttp//finance.yahoo.com/q?sThttp//www
  .att.com/investor.relations/

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Problem Statement If we knew more about our
COMPETITORS MARKETING AND COMMUNICATION
STRATEGY, we could adjust our own marketing and
sales strategies to compete more effectively in
the marketplace.
KIQ 2 Developed in Challenge One

• Key Intelligence Questions
• How does our competitor segment and target their
  markets?
• How does our competitor then position itself in
  those market places?
• What products does our competitor offer to its
  customers?
• What does our competitor say about us? Our
  products? Both explicit and implicit.
• How do their customers react to their marketing
  and communication strategy?

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Diagnosing the Marketing and Communications
Strategy KIQs

• -KIQ 3 is basically a collection of hard datathe
  more exhaustive and specific the information you
  collect, the more informed you will be about
  countering.
• -KIQs 3 and 4 are essentially about
• anecdotal datathat is, you will be collecting a
  variety of responses and opinions that will need
  to be interpreted in Challenge Four to be of
  maximum value. The more anecdotal information you
  can collect (sample size) and from the broadest
  variety of sources possible (sample
  representation), the better the insight you will
  be able to draw from it in Challenge Four.
  Thunderbird will help you with some
  interpretative approaches in Challenge Four.
• -KIQs 1 and 2 will be entirely interpretative,
  in that you will find descriptions of their
  segmentation targeting strategies, but we will
  need to assess (as I discussed in the Forum)
  their effectiveness to provide the insight
  necessary to be able to counter.
• Thunderbird will provide assessment tools in
  Challenge Four.

• Key Intelligence Questions
• How does our competitor segment and target their
  markets?
• How does our competitor then position itself in
  those market places?
• What products does our competitor offer to its
  customers?
• What does our competitor
• say about us? Our products? Both explicit and
  implicit.
• 5. How do their customers react to their
  marketing and communication strategy?

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Some Places to Look for Competitors Marketing
and Communications Strategies

• Competitor Websites provide valuable information
  about their positioning in the market
• PR News wires reveal hidden gems about a
  competitors strategy
• Watch dog sites reveal publicly available
  information about competitors

• http//www22.verizon.com/
• http//www.att.com/
• http//www.prnewswire.com/
• http//www.publicintegrity.org/telecom/

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Search a specific site using Google
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Search for a specific file type using Google
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Problem Statement If we knew more about our
COMPETITORS OPERATIONAL AND STRATEGIC GOALS, we
could more adjust our own operational and
strategic goals to compete more effectively in
the marketplace.
Results from Challenge One
KIQ 3 Developed in Challenge One

• Key Intelligence Questions
• Where is our competitor targeting to enter into
  in the future?
• What markets (i.e., regions, locales, and
  neighborhoods) is our competitor targeting?
• What national and regional players are our
  competitor targeting for long term contracts?
• When is our competitor targeting to enter into
  those markets?
• What products and services are our competitor
  launching to enter into those markets?
• What products and services are they planning to
  introduce after launch?
• How does the competitors technology compare to
  our own? Quantitatively and qualitatively?

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Diagnosing the Operational and Strategic Goals
KIQs

• This problem set is about creating as complete a
  picture as possible of ATTs and Verizons
  future competitive strategies and timelines.
  Thunderbird will provide some forward-looking
  methodologies in Challenge Four.
• -KIQs 1-5 focus on STMP issues (segment, target,
  market, product), and you should be looking for
  as much
• hard or interpretable data as possible in trying
  to answer them. You may get lucky and find entire
  lists, or you may find only partial answers that
  will have to synthesized.

• Key Intelligence Questions
• Where is our competitor targeting to enter into
  in the future?
• What markets (i.e., regions, locales, and
  neighborhoods) is our competitor targeting?
• What national and regional players are our
  competitor targeting for long term contracts?
• When is our competitor targeting to enter into
  those markets?
• What products and services are our competitor
  launching to enter into those markets?
• What products and services are they planning to
  introduce after launch?

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Diagnosing the Operational and Strategic Goals
KIQs, cont.

• -KIQ 6 will have to combine hard data re what can
  their technology do vs. yours and interpretable
  data re how is their technology perceived by the
  customers and those who influence them vs. yours.
  Look for all the hard data necessary to make the
  comparisons in the former for the latter, we
  will need to set up a methodology in Challenge
  Four to help measure the impact of the
  perceptions battle so that TWC/BH can craft an
  effective counter-strategy.

• Key Intelligence Questions
• 6. How does the competitors technology compare
  to our own? Quantitatively and qualitatively?

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Some Places to Look for Competitors Operational
and Strategic Goals

• Keep track of competitor buzz using web 2.0
  sites like trendio.com

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Some Places to Look for Competitors Operational
and Strategic Goals

• Keep track of competitors customer relationships
  through blog search engines like icerocket.com

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Competitors Operational and Strategic Goals

• Keep track of competitors moves using Google Maps

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Data Collection Strategies and Tips

• There are lots of ways to capture the
  intelligence you are gathering. This is just one
  system that we recommend. If you prefer to use
  another, please share!

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Data Collection Strategies and Tips

• 1) You know what the Wow! answer is to these
  KIQsImagine what the slide would look like.

2) Build your final report with that Premium
Answer in mind
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Data Collection Strategies and Tips

• 3) Track your intelligence according to
  completeness and reliability

The number we heard from the ex-sales guy with
the Competitor re their acquisition cost per
customer may not be fully reliablehe really
hates the Company and is trying to paint them In
a bad light.
That list of targeted markets we got from
that vendor is reliable but covers only part
of the region.
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Other Web-based Sources of CI

• Web casts
• BestCalls.com
• http//www.bestcalls.com/
• TV Guide of Web casts
• Events of about 3,700 firms
• Subscription required
• Earnings.com
• http//www.fulldisclosure.com/
• TIP! Search for conference call transcripts in
  Investext by searching by company name and
  limiting to contributor Fair Disclosure Financial
  
• Network, Inc

• Word of Mouse
• Topica
• directory of Internet discussion groups, mailing
  lists and newsgroups.
• http//lists.topica.com/
• Online forums
• NetNews Tracker
• http//www.netnewstracker.com/
• BoardReader
• http//www.boardreader.com/
• Extremetech.com, CNET.com, Slashdot.org, Amazon,
  Epinions.com

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Other Web-based Sources of CI

• Want-ads
• Use to
• Identify new products
• Discover expansion plans facility descriptions
• Uncover strategy shifts
• Find company overviews
• Follow Organizational changes

• Hypernetworking
• LinkedIn.com
• Ryze.com
• Itsnotwhatyouknow.com
• they make finding business leads quicker and
  more reliable, including hiring employees,
  signing up distributors and locating industry
  experts.
• CNN.com

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Other Web-based Sources of CI

• Alert Services
• Monitor changes in competitors web sites
• http//watchthatpage.com/
• http//trackengine.com/

• Internet Archives
• Use the Wayback Machine to see
• how a companys Web site has changed over time
• http//www.archive.org
• Contains about 30 billion
• archived Web pages

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Other Web-based Sources of CI

• Follow the Links
• Links expose business relationships
• partners link to partners
• vendors link to clients
• associations link to members
• Reverse link
• LinkPopularity.com queries Google,  Altavista,
  and Hotbot, and reports on link popularity.
• Specific searches
• company AND Contract... Distributor... Client...
  Customer... Project... Alliance... Partner...
  Joint venture..