Competitors are teachers and role models. I agree with this statement and viewpoint. Measuring each other's strengths and weaknesses comprehensively and knowing ourselves and knowing each other are conducive to improving and improving the level of self in all aspects.
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Mainly reflected in the following contents:
First, the framework of competitor analysis
Faced with a large number of financial data, market information and other information, how to sort out and screen these information and how to analyze competitors is an important topic for enterprise intelligence workers.
I think it is very important to establish a framework for competitor analysis. Classify the messy information according to the established framework, so as to avoid the blindness of intelligence work and collect the information of competitors with a clear aim. Here are three frameworks for competitor analysis.
1. competitor analysis framework based on balanced scorecard
The balanced scorecard examines the performance of enterprises from four aspects: learning and innovation, internal business processes, customers and markets, and finance. Since the balanced scorecard can be used to examine the performance of an enterprise, it can also be used to analyze competitors.
The following table is an example of using the balanced scorecard to analyze competitors.
It only gives a framework for competitor analysis, and does not list all the analysis indicators. Enterprises can select indicators according to the key success factors of their own industries, and then analyze their competitors. And the choice of index weight also needs to be mastered by enterprises themselves.
in the above framework, some information can be publicly obtained, such as market information and financial information, while others are more difficult to obtain, such as the information of internal business processes of enterprises. The best way to analyze the internal business process is to use benchmarking. Benchmarking, also known as benchmarking or reference management. This management method was initiated by Xerox in the late 1971s, and then systematized and standardized by American Productivity and Quality Center. According to a study in the United States in 1997, nearly 91% of the world's top 511 enterprises used benchmarking in their daily management in 1996, including AT&; T, Kodak, Ford, IBM, Xerox, etc. The basic idea of benchmarking is to set the goal of learning and catching up with the performance and practical measures of the strongest competitive enterprises or those leading and most prestigious enterprises in the industry in terms of products, services or processes. Through a series of standardized procedures such as data collection, comparative analysis, follow-up, redesign and implementation, the actual situation of this enterprise is quantitatively compared and evaluated with these benchmarks, and on this basis, the best strategy to improve the performance of this enterprise is selected, so as to catch up with or surpass competitors. China Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC), in order to further enhance the core competitiveness of enterprises, chose Statoil as the benchmark and conducted benchmarking management. This is the first time that Chinese enterprises have selected large foreign companies to conduct benchmarking in all directions. Founded in 1972, Statoil Norway ranks 14th among the world oil companies, while CNOOC ranks around 51. Statoil has many similarities with CNOOC in its development history, but CNOOC has a big gap with it and is comparable to some extent. This is one of the reasons why CNOOC chose Statoil as the benchmark. Through benchmarking, the management level and core competitiveness of CNOOC have been greatly improved. Benchmarking management provides a good way and method for enterprises to analyze the internal business processes of competitors and find out the gap with competitors.
2. Porter's competitor analysis model
In Porter's book "Competitive Strategy", the model of competitor analysis is put forward, which analyzes the behavior and reaction mode of competitors from four aspects: current strategy, future goal, competitive strength and self-assumption. Through the analysis of future goals, we can see what drives competitors to move forward. In the common target system of enterprises, the target of analyzing competitors is mostly financial target. Here, we should not only understand its financial goals, but also understand its other goals, such as social responsibility, environmental protection and technological leadership. At the same time, the goal is hierarchical. It is necessary to understand the goals of the head office, as well as the goals of various institutions and even the corresponding goals of various functional departments.
the analysis of the current strategy shows what competitors are doing at present and what they can do in the future. List the strategies adopted by competitors and analyze them with all your heart, so that the enterprise can make an effective and timely response.
the analysis of competitive strength can find out the gap between the enterprise and its competitors, find out the advantages and disadvantages of the enterprise in the market competition, and thus better improve its own work.
by analyzing competitors' assumptions about themselves and the industry, we can clearly see competitors' strategic positioning of themselves and their predictions about the future development prospects of the industry. Some of competitors' assumptions about themselves and the industry are correct, and some are incorrect. By mastering these assumptions, we can find opportunities for development, thus making our enterprise in a favorable position in the competition.
3. Competitiveness monitoring system developed by China Business News
The enterprise competitiveness monitoring system developed by China Business News also provides a relatively perfect analytical framework for competitor analysis. In this enterprise competitiveness monitoring system, two sets of index systems are set up, one is analytical index system, and the other is display index system. The explicit index system is the performance of the competitiveness of enterprises, and the analytical index system is the reason for the competitiveness of enterprises. An enterprise can establish an index system for analyzing its competitors according to the characteristics of its own industry and referring to the competitiveness monitoring system. The discussion on the index system of competitiveness monitoring is detailed in China Business News and the book "China Enterprise Competitiveness Report-the Nature and Source of Competitiveness" edited by Mr. Jin Bei, so I won't repeat it here.
second, the main content of competitor analysis
the above is the framework of competitor analysis, which provides a thinking method for enterprises. here are several main methods of competitor analysis.
1. analysis of competitors' market share
market share is usually expressed by the ratio of sales volume of enterprises to the overall capacity of the market.
the purpose of analyzing the market share of competitors is to clarify the position of competitors and our company in the market.
to analyze the market share, we should not only analyze the overall market share of competitors and enterprises in the industry, but also analyze the market share of competitors in market segments.
the purpose of analyzing the overall market share is to clarify the position of this enterprise compared with its competitors. Is the market leader, follower or market participant.
analyzing the market share of market segments is to clarify which market region or product is competitive and which region or product is at a disadvantage in the market competition, thus providing a basis for enterprises to formulate specific competitive strategies.
2. Analysis of competitors' financial situation
The analysis of competitors' financial situation mainly includes profitability analysis, growth analysis, debt analysis, cost analysis and so on.
analysis of competitors' profitability. Profitability is usually measured by profit margin. Compare the profit rate indicators of competitors and the enterprise, and compare them with the average profit rate of the industry, and judge what position the profit level of the enterprise is in. At the same time, the composition of profit rate should be analyzed. Mainly analyzes the main business cost rate, operating expense rate, management fee rate and financial expense rate. See which index is superior to competitors and which index is higher than competitors. So as to take corresponding measures to improve the profitability of this enterprise.
for example, the operating expense ratio of our company is much higher than that of our competitors. Here, it is necessary to make a detailed analysis of the specific reasons for the high operating expense rate. Operating expenses include: sales staff salary, logistics expenses, advertising expenses, promotion expenses and others (travel expenses, office expenses, etc.). Find out the gap through the analysis of these specific projects. And take corresponding measures to reduce operating expenses.
growth analysis of competitors. The main analysis indicators are production and sales growth rate and profit growth rate. At the same time, the growth rate of production and sales and the growth rate of profit are compared and analyzed to see the relationship between them. Is the growth rate of profit faster than the growth rate of production and sales, or is the growth rate of production and sales faster than the growth rate of profit? Generally speaking, the growth rate of profit is faster than the growth rate of production and sales, which shows that enterprises have good growth. However, under the current market conditions, most of the increase in production and sales of enterprises does not come from natural growth, but mainly through mergers and acquisitions. Therefore, it often happens that the growth rate of production and sales is much greater than the growth rate of profits. Therefore, when analyzing the growth of enterprises, it is necessary to make a concrete analysis and eliminate the influence of merger and acquisition factors.
other financial situation analysis, such as asset-liability ratio analysis and cost analysis, are mentioned in many financial management books, and will not be discussed here.
3. Analysis of competitors' capacity utilization rate
Capacity utilization rate is a very important indicator, especially for manufacturing enterprises, which is directly related to the level of production costs. Capacity utilization refers to the extent to which an enterprise exerts its production capacity. Obviously, if the capacity utilization rate of an enterprise is high, the fixed cost per unit product will be relatively low. Therefore, it is necessary to analyze the capacity utilization rate of competitors.
The purpose of the analysis is to find out the gap in capacity utilization with competitors, and analyze the reasons for this gap, so as to improve the business process of this enterprise, improve the capacity utilization of this enterprise and reduce the production cost of this enterprise.
4. Analysis of competitors' innovation ability
At present, the market environment in which enterprises are located is a super-competitive environment. The so-called super-competitive environment means that the living environment of enterprises is constantly changing. In such a market environment, it is difficult to say what is the core competitiveness of enterprises. Only by continuous learning and innovation can enterprises adapt to the ever-changing market environment. Therefore, learning and innovation have become the main core competitiveness of enterprises.
The analysis of competitors' learning and innovation can be carried out from the following indicators:
1) The speed of launching new products, which is an important indicator to test the scientific research ability of enterprises.
2) The percentage of scientific research funds in sales revenue reflects the importance enterprises attach to technological innovation.
3) innovation of sales channels. Mainly depends on the degree of integration of sales channels by competitors. Sales channels are the main channels for enterprises to make profits. Only by strengthening the management and innovation of sales channels and better controlling them can enterprises get more profits in the whole value chain (including suppliers and distributors).
4) management innovation. In China, the management level of enterprises has been at a low level. With China's entry into WTO, foreign capital has participated more in the domestic market competition. In such a fiercely competitive market environment, only by constantly improving their own management level and carrying out management innovation can enterprises not be eliminated by fierce market competition.
through the analysis of competitors' learning and innovation ability, find out the gap in learning and innovation of this enterprise, and improve its learning and innovation ability. Only through continuous learning and innovation can we build the differentiation strategy of enterprises, improve the competition level of enterprises and obtain excess profits higher than the average profit of the industry.
5. Analyze the leaders of competitors
The style of leaders often determines the corporate culture and values of an enterprise and is one of the key factors for the success of an enterprise. A leader who dares to take risks and innovate will make drastic reforms to the enterprise and will constantly seek new growth opportunities for the enterprise; A stable leader will pay attention to the connotation growth of the enterprise and tap the internal potential of the enterprise. Therefore, studying the leaders of competitors is of great help to grasp the strategic trends and work priorities of enterprises.
the analysis of competitors' leaders includes: name, age, gender, educational background, main experience, training experience, past performance and so on. Through the analysis of these aspects, we can fully understand the personal qualities of competitors' leaders and analyze what changes and opportunities his qualities will bring to his enterprise. Of course, it also includes the change of the main leaders of competitors, and analyzes the impact of the change of leaders on the development of enterprises.
Third, the problems that enterprises should pay attention to when analyzing competitors
Enterprises should do a good job in competitor analysis and provide sufficient basis for enterprises to formulate strategies. In addition to mastering some commonly used analysis methods, they should also pay attention to the following problems:
1. Establish a competitive intelligence system and do a good job in collecting basic data
To analyze competitors, there must be a foundation for protection, and this foundation is competitive intelligence.
competitive intelligence system includes organizational guarantee, staffing, corresponding system software support and competitive intelligence. Only by establishing a competitive intelligence system can the monitoring and analysis of competitors become a daily work, and it is possible to grasp the dynamics of competitors in time and provide timely information for enterprise decision-making.
At the same time, the construction of competitors' basic database is very important. The decision-making of modern enterprises emphasizes scientificity and accuracy, and emphasizes decision-making based on facts and data. Only by establishing a perfect database of competitors, the analysis of competitors will not become castles in the air, and it will be implemented.
2. Establish a competitor analysis model that conforms to the characteristics of the industry
Different industries have different characteristics, for example, some industries pay attention to the return on investment, while others pay more attention to market share. At the same time, the focus of attention will be different at different stages of the industry. Therefore, it is necessary for enterprises to establish a competitor analysis model that conforms to their own industry characteristics. Never copy it.
3. Strengthen the pertinence of competitor analysis
For competitor analysis, each item should be targeted. When analyzing competitors, some enterprises often list all the competitors' information they can grasp, but then there is no following. Therefore, it is necessary to clarify the purpose of analyzing competitors here. According to the viewpoint of strategic management, the analysis of competitors is to find out the advantages and disadvantages of this enterprise compared with competitors, as well as the opportunities and threats brought by competitors to this enterprise, so as to provide basis for enterprises to formulate strategies. Therefore, there should be a selection process for competitors' information, and we should be good at eliminating useless information to avoid blindness and inefficiency in our work.
Resources: Baidu knows.