How to leverage hiring data for competitive insights

Leveraging Hiring
Data for
Competitive
Insights
Kiran Nandavarapu
Director - Insights

Agenda
© 2016 Blueocean Market Intelligence 2
Analyze the data through a different lens, and
interpret it by supplementing it with secondary
source data, press releases or interviews
Gain insights into the competitors’ focus and momentum
in various areas, including new business/products,
geographies, verticals & many more aspects
Understand the significance of hiring data as a
valuable source for competitive intelligence
Leverage this data to derive meaningful and
actionable insights into the competitors business
‘Establish patterns’, ‘Predict the unpredictable’ and
‘Decrease uncertainty’
At the end of this session, you will be able to

Hiring data
Carly Fiorina
“The goal is to turn
data into information,
& information into
insights”.
Alex Peiniger
“In the end you should
only measure and look
at the numbers that
drive action”

How relevant is hiring data for competitive intelligence
Over the
recent years
There is a huge rise in the number of companies across all
industries and all regions
As much as the rise, there are also many
closures/failures
All the companies are facing intense competition
to grow “rapidly”
In this scenario, companies are very keen to know
how their competitors operate and grow
There has been a huge increase in the number of staff and skills
Reflected in
Hiring data
Hiring data reflects a factual representation of the company. It helps in reading between the lines, and provides
plenty of valuable insights

&^&^
Existing business growth
New business focus
Go-to-market strategy
Intention and focus
Are you looking to gain the following insights into your
competitor?

A few examples considered

Products/Services of focus
% increase of hires
over the last 6 month period
66%
89%
77%
96%
100%
100%
50%
100%
% increase of hires
over the last 1 year period
70%
81%
62%
100%
100%
100%
100%
92%
Growth in % terms
Traction of a few specific services
IOT
Machine Learning
Big Data &
Analytics
Mobile Services
Enterprise Suite
Aurora
Lambda
Container
(Include Workspace,
Workdocs & Workmail)
Services
(*jobs as of September 2016)
Key Inference
• AWS is recently focusing largely on services, such as IOT, Machine Learning, Big data & Analytics, Mobile Services and Enterprise Suite, that
clearly reveals its strategy to address the “Enterprise segment”.
Comparing the hiring data with the previous years’ open positions reveals the product/service a particular company is concentrating
in, and also the objectives

Customer segments catered to
169
25
8
June 2016
120
31
10
December 2015
85
19
10
June 2015
Enterprise Segment
Startups
Government
* Jobs as of August 2016)
Openings related to specific customer segments could mean that the firm is focusing on those segments whose hiring numbers
are growing
Key Inference
• While AWS continues to focus on Startups and Government sector, its positions for Enterprise Segment has drastically increased in the
last one year

Uber Products
1403
Priority services being considered for growth
Key Inference
• Uber is diversifying beyond taxi's . ‘UberEats’,
‘Uber for Business’, ‘Uber Courier’ and ‘Uber
Everything’ are the services that the
company is trying to expand in, apart from its
taxi service
(*jobs as of August 2016)
The company could be slowly expanding its other services, apart from its core service
UberRush
2
UberASSIST
3
UberPool
4
Uber Mobile app
7
UberEats-Courier
19
Uber Everything
22
Uber for Business
38
UberEats
208

Technologies being invested in (1/2)
Leading Banks
Open Positions
Blockchain NFC Mobile Wallet
Existing New Existing New Existing New
2 1 - - - 6
1 1 - - 1
- 2 1 6 4 14
Key Inference
• Blockchain is the latest payment technology that top financial
services companies are focusing on
Key Inference
• Uber is investing and developing its own map
services . It is attempting to move away from
leveraging Google for its map services, and is trying
to reinvent the whole wheel by developing its own
maps from scratch
Uber Open Positions
Engineering Manager, Maps Data Acquisition
Frontend Engineer - Map Tools
Senior Backend Engineer - Maps Data Acquisition
Software Engineer - Maps Research
Analyzing a company’s hiring data offers clues on the technology or skill set that the company is looking to acquire. It also enables
comparison among the top competitors in the industry to determine which specific technology they are interested in focusing on

Technologies being invested in (2/2)
Clues from the recently hired 6 people
Dan Stein Lauryn Morris John Novilla Kun Huang Mark Dixon Eitan Pilipski
Recruiter for ‘Special
Initiatives’
Led the recruitment for
Project Aura
Designer
Designed frames for
Michael Kors, Zac Posen
and Innovega
Quality Engineer
Work at Microsoft
suppliers to ensure high
quality hardware for the
Lumia ICON
Designer
Worked on the
designs of several
Nokia phones
Engineer
ex-Microsoft recruiter
who's worked on the
HoloLens and Xbox
Engineering director
Worked in Qualcomm's
Vuforia team
New
RolePriorJob
Key Inference
• Snapchat is working on a confidential hardware product. The company also appears to have big plans for augmented reality,
which may tie in with the hardware product effort
New investments in any particular technology can be traced if there are new job openings, never found till then
Snapchat
Open position - for a "3D mobile software engineer" offers a few intriguing clues, with requirements such as:
• Bring the most innovative product concepts to life to help push the boundaries of mobile user experience and interface design across
a new category of computer vision products
• Investigate and solve exciting and difficult challenges in image recognition, classification, and AR

New investment focus areas
Number of job openings in Gigafactory
1
2
1
1
1
2
1
2
1
3
1
1
6
2
2
1
Controls Engineer
Electrician
Environmental Engineer
Equipment Engineer
Maintenance Technician
Manufacturing Engineer
Material Handler
Mechanical Engineer
Metrology Engineer
Production Associate
Supply Manager
Technician Lead
Construction engineer
NPI associates
Recruiter
Waste Treatment Engineer
N=1706 (as of August 2016)
Number of job openings by Department
539
380
222
160
99
63
44
35
28
26
23
17
15
11
11
10
10
6
3
Sales
Service
Engineering
Manufacturing
IT
Supply Chain
HR
Energy Sales and Operations
Gigafactory
Finance
Marketing
Product Excellence
Workplace
Facilities
Production
Design
Retail Development
Legal
Communications
Key Inference
• Tesla is hiring over 28 professionals for its Gigafactory. Majority of the requirement is for construction professionals.
Construction of the Gigafactory is proceeding at a fast pace, and a number of new openings may be expected in the future
The level of Investment in any area can be identified, when the hiring numbers are drilled down for that particular segment
8 engineers,
for Autopilot
feature

Regions targeted for expansion (1/2)
Number of job openings by region
US
APAC
EMEA
Canada
92
301
411
902
N=1706 (as of August 2016)
Key Inference
• Apart from US, Uber is focusing on expanding into the APAC region, specifically India and South East Asia (Singapore and Phillipines)
• It has just 1 position in China, which denotes its receding growth. In contrast, during 2014 and 2015, it had been hiring in huge numbers
for China
The hiring numbers in different regions globally, signifies the fueling growth, or fall of the company in those regions
APAC region
88
72
57
39
22
22
20
18
17
17
13
8
5
4
3
2
2
1
1
India
Australia
Singapore
Philippines
Malaysia
Russian Federation
Hong Kong
Thailand
Indonesia
Vietnam
Japan
New Zealand
Pakistan
Chile
Bangladesh
Peru
Sri Lanka
China
Kazakhstan

Regions targeted for expansion (2/2)
Hangzhou Beijing USA Guangzhou City Shanghai Chengdu Singapore Wuhan overseas Haikou Suzhou City Shenzhen Hong Kong Island
(*jobs as of August 2016)
320
122
24 10 8 7 7 6 5 3 3 2 1
August 2016
77
114
1
6 Beijing
Hangzhou
Shenzhen
International
October
2015
479
86
60
40
15
Hangzhou
Beijing
Shanghai
Shenzhen
International
June
2016
104
159
18 Beijing
Hangzhou
International
June
2015
A look at the hiring numbers over a period from a region perspective, reveals which regions are targeted for expansion
Key Inference
• Aliyun started with their international expansion, out of China during 2015. By 2016, they have more clarity, of about 24 open positions in US
and 7 in Singapore. This shows that they have started operations in those regions and can expect many more jobs in those regions in future

Emphasis to improve sales
US & Canada
South America
Europe
APAC
Middle East
Africa
587
2
311
176
46
17
Key Inference
Focus regions to expand sales
• UK
• Netherlands
• Romania
• Ireland
• APAC - India
US & Canada
South America
Europe
APAC
Middle East
200
7
177
48
41
* Jobs as of August 2016)
Sales openings
Pre- Sales openings
When the sales or business development hiring numbers are large in a particular region, it clearly reveals the company’s intention to
expand in that region or its intention to open a new office
59%
29%
12%
Other Departments
Sales
Pre Sales
15© 2016 Blueocean Market Intelligence

Different departments and their priorities
Key Inference
• The number of job positions is seen to be high for Cloud and Platform Engineering, Marketing and PR departments
• There are no roles for Sales department and very few for the Business development department. Only in growing regions such as APAC,
higher number of roles are seen for marketing and PR
35
16
7
11 12
2
1
16
1 2
13
4
10
3
12
20
5
11
24
14
8
6
9
4
Brazil Japan Netherlands Philippines Singapore UK US
Business
Develop
ment
Cloud &
Platform
Engineeri
ng
Content
Acquisiti
on
Content
Delivery
Content
Operati
ons
Content
Platform
Engineer
ing
Creative
Services
Custom
er
Service
Data
Engine
ering &
Analyti
cs
Enhanced
Content
Facilities Finance Financial
Planning
and
Analysis
Human
Resources
IT
Opera
tions
Legal Market-
ing
Media
Enginee
ring and
Partners
hips
Partner
Devices
PR Product
Enginee
ring
Science
and
Algorith
ms
Stream-
ing
Client
UI
Enginee
ring
User
Experience
Number of Job openings by department
N= 301(as of August 2016)
Job split of the various functions provides an overall glimpse of the firm and its business priorities

1
3
1
VP of Marketing
Head of customer service
Japan
Phillipines
US
Head of Customer Service,
Talent operations lead and
Brand Design lead
• To market and reach out to the customers in the
APAC region
Rationale behind hiring of senior personnel (1/2)
© 2016 Blueocean Market Intelligence
• To develop strategy for media
• To create a difference in positioning
• To drive strategy for the newly acquired products
1
Head of Global
Media
1
Director of
Accessories
1
Director of
FitStar
* Jobs as of August 2016
Senior position hiring, which are usually few in number, will signal the firm’s focus to strengthen and expand any existing business
division or expand into a new segment or a strategic initiative

Rationale behind hiring of senior personnel (2/2)
Appointed a new president and chief executive:
former Amazon Web Services executive
Adam Selipsky
• To make Tableau as a globally recognized technology brand
• To focus on its cloud service Tableau Online
AWS, Head of New Initiative
AWS is looking for a Head, to form a new business initiative. This is a
strategic initiative for the company, & is still in the early stages. The
group functions as a start-up within Amazon, and offers a creative,
fast paced, entrepreneurial work environment
Head of Channels - ASEAN To penetrate specifically enterprise accounts and SMBs
Head Business Development, FSI To drive their day-to-day interactions with key FSI prospect
Hired Peter Stern,(previously Time Warner Cable
executive) to focus on cloud services, including
iTunes, iCloud, and Apple Music
• Reignite speculation that Apple is preparing its own streaming
television service, a closely-watched expansion into a lucrative
new market which has never been confirmed by the company
* Jobs as of August 2016

Current performance vis-à-vis Previous years’
Key Inference
• The pace of hiring has reduced compared to the previous year, as the company aims to stabilize its existing business
* N=62, as of August 2016
Comparison of hiring data for a 3 year or a 5-year period offers a snapshot of the increasing or diminishing pattern of the company
performance, and the reasons behind the same
1
1 2
1 1
1
1
1
2
2
1
2
1 1
10
1
8
6
1
7
3 4
2 1 1
Australia Canada China Germany India Ireland Japan Singapore United Kingdom United States
2013 Open Positions
Q2, Q3, Q4 1212
2014
Q1, Q2, Q3, Q4 1947
2015
Q1 245
Q2 271
Q3 367
Q4 178
2016
Q1 160
Q2 80
Number of job openings by roles
Account
Manager
Sales
Professionals
Partner
Manager
Operations
Analyst
Customer
Service
Representat
ives
Manager Director Workplace
Coordinator
Software
Engineer
Finance
executives
Partner
Support
Engineer
Website
Optimization
Manager

Reason behind this hiring spree
Key Inference
• General Electric has been on a mission to reinvent itself as a software company. The company is working to pivot the 124-year old
industrial company for the digital age. Its stand-alone software unit, “GE Digital” established in 2015, now has more than 28,000
employees.
• GE likely wants to shift to a more tech-based business model, particularly since industrial companies are seeing disruption from
the Internet of Things.
Do you know which company?
• Is in high gear to attract ”Engineers” in Silicon
Valley
• Aiming to lure engineers from titans, such as
Apple and Cisco

United States | United Kingdom | India | United Arab Emirates
For more information, please contact
Kiran Nandavarapu| Director – Insights
Hope the session was informative..
© 2016 Blueocean Market Intelligence
www.blueoceanmi.com

Speaker details
Kiran has close to 10 years of extensive experience in providing research and consulting
services in the technology space. He is experienced and specialized in various
Competitive/Market Intelligence services including Competitive benchmarking, GTM
strategies, Technology assessment and strategic insights, Market analysis and sizing,
Customer usage & insights etc.
He has been managing some of the leading clients for Blueocean which are spread across
various departments/personas including Strategy and Planning, Product Engineering,
Strategic and Product Marketing, Sales and Field teams, Market Insights etc. He heads a
team of 20 plus analysts that specializes in tracking the market & competition His teams
focus and expertise areas include Experience across ICT Industry - Cloud Computing, IOT,
Big Data, IT Infrastructure, Ecommerce, Fintech, Security and other emerging technologies
Prior to joining Blueocean, Kiran worked with IDC as a lead analyst in the software and
services practice tracking the Indian Software and Enterprise IT space at large and was
providing consultative & advisory services to various clients in the IT industry. Kiran holds a
bachelor degree in mechanical engineering and an MBA in Finance
Kiran Nandavarapu
Director - Insights

Competitive Intelligence services from Blueocean
Who is the
competitor?
What do they sell?
How do they
market & sell?
Whom do they
sell to?
How can you
compete?
Company profiling Market-share study Company deep-dives
Product Mix study Product tear-downs Pricing analysis
Promotion analysis Partner analysis
Channel & Distribution
Analysis
Customer profiling Customer strategy deep-dives Win-loss Analysis
Alerts, Battle-cards Innovation tracking Compete strategy deep-dives
Early warning system Technical compete What-if-analysis

How to leverage hiring data for competitive insights

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