my slide 5

1. 23 July 2004
Competitive Intelligence
in a Professional
Services Firm
Timothy R. Corman
July 23, 2004

2. 23 July 2004
 Creating a Competitive Intelligence Unit
takes time, patience, and thought
 Understanding the process is critical
 The Need
 The Idea
 The Solution
 The Result
 Linking investment to reward
NEED IDEA SOLUTION RESULT

3. 23 July 2004
NEED IDEA SOLUTION RESULT
What Tipped Us Off?
Number of
Competitors
Market
Prices
Win
Rate
?

4. 23 July 2004
NEED IDEA SOLUTION RESULT
What Could We Do?
 Innovate our offerings
 Lower the cost of delivery (and hence
price points to retain margins)
 Speed
 Reuse
 Quality
 Beat the competition at their own game
Obviously the answer lies within all areas!

5. 23 July 2004
NEED IDEA SOLUTION RESULT
How Do We Beat the
Competition?
 First, we needed to better understand
what they were doing
 Second, we needed an approach to
mine the wealth of knowledge our own
staff had about the “other guys” beyond
conventional means
 Third, we needed to get in on the ground
floor of opportunities to anticipate and
make a difference in competitive
situations

6. 23 July 2004
NEED IDEA SOLUTION RESULT
What are the Ground Rules?
• Reasonable payback potential
• Scaleable investment
• Visible value
• Ethically by the book
• Simple to understand
for the staff
• Straightforward to
document
Senior Leadership needed to be convinced the Ground Rules were viable.

7. 23 July 2004
NEED IDEA SOLUTION RESULT
Convincing the Leaders
 Facts to support the need:
 Competitive losses – why you lose a deal
 Pragmatic sources of information – tapping
the field
 Extending knowledge management (we
had the core framework)
 Achievable Payback Expectations
 Respected Ownership/Sponsorship

8. 23 July 2004
NEED IDEA SOLUTION RESULT
A Simple Value Proposition
 Assume a 20% Contribution Margin
 Average Deal Size = $1 Million
For every 5 deals where CI makes the
difference, that’s $1 Million in
incremental contribution margin!

9. 23 July 2004
NEED IDEA SOLUTION RESULT
Organizational Alignment
“Chinese Wall”
Sales Teams
Sales Support
•Deal Structuring
•Deal Review
Knowledge Management
•Solution
•Industry
•Competitive Intelligence
General Counsel
Free
Flow
Information
Filtered

10. 23 July 2004
NEED IDEA SOLUTION RESULT
Tactical CI Solutions
Sales Team
Support
New Hire
Debriefs
Business
Process
Inclusion
Continuous
Education
Knowledge
Capture
Measurement/
Reporting
Continuous
Sponsorship
Industry
Solution
Account
Deal

11. 23 July 2004
NEED IDEA SOLUTION RESULT
Proof Thru Example - Start
 Competitive Bid Project worth ~ $80 Mil
 Confidence in our solution
 CI Involvement: Knowing the Competition
beyond the published information:
 Board of Director/Decision Maker Allegiance
Mapping
 Pricing History
 Key Personnel (Project Leaders)
 Solution Differentiators (Successes/Failures)

12. 23 July 2004
NEED IDEA SOLUTION RESULT
Proof Thru Example – Ending
 Personal Discussions with Supportive and
Undecided Decision Makers
 Modification of Solution
 Differentiate our ability to deliver where the
competition has struggled
 Promotion of key project leader strengths
Having the knowledge from CI enabled the
team to consciously address (or not) certain
competitive elements leading to a WIN!

13. 23 July 2004
NEED IDEA SOLUTION RESULT
Measuring the Results
 Each Major CI program MUST have
measurable metrics
 # of new hires debriefed
 % of revenue from supported accounts
 #/$ of supported pursuits
 Cost to Value
 Sales/Executive team MUST reinforce
value delivered
 Testimonials
 Recognition of metric achievement

14. 23 July 2004
Things DO Get in the Way!
 Sustaining Exec Sponsorship – The Battle for
Attention
 Scope Control – Can you also look at this,
this and this
 Confidentiality – C’mon, you can tell me
 Acceptance of CI Analyst – And you are?
 Unmet Expectations – What, no guarantee?
NEED IDEA SOLUTION RESULT

15. 23 July 2004
Chipping Away the Barriers
 Sponsorship – Regular Communications
 Measurement Reporting
 Successes and Losses
 Passion & Discipline to Utilize
 Scope Control – Consider fee for service
 Confidentiality – Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell
 CI Analyst Value – References
 Expectations –
 Testimonials
 “Better” losses
NEED IDEA SOLUTION RESULT

16. 23 July 2004
Variation on an Old Adage
Power is in who you know not just what you
know…
Success is in what you do with BOTH who you
know and what you know!
NEED IDEA SOLUTION RESULT