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Abstract

The focus of this paper is on the use of organizational competencies to improve the understanding of the strategic directions and actions of a firm that may be a competitor or a collaborator. Competitive analysis is concentrated on a level that can reveal discernible comparative advantage vis-à-vis other players, rather than merely looking at the end products a firm offers or the markets it serves.
By examining a range of plausible futures and understanding the possible 'stepping stones' a firm intends to take in reaching its desired targets, competitive intelligence can facilitate countermoves through strategy formulation to gain advantageous positioning. An example is drawn from a study, which has implemented this approach - an organizational competence analysis of several large diversified multinational corporations in consumer goods industry.

Introduction

The issues and challenges, before the corporate sector have never been as turbulent and unpredictable as they are today, following the globalization, intensive competition, emerging multi-lateral trading order and need for sustainable development. As resources get limited and options with the investors, customers, employees and other stakeholders increase, the need to attain and retain competitiveness becomes a criteria for survival. Not surprisingly, much of the intelligence monitoring and diagnosis of competitors have been focused on a firm's visible manifestations, such as end-products, market share and financial performance indicators. The main problem in looking at a firm merely in this way is that it fails to analyze the fundamental factors of competitiveness that actually enable that firm to gain competitive advantages. If intelligence activities are unable to capture the 'competitive essence' of who the major players will be and where they are likely to dominate, there will be a lack of the utilization of competitive knowledge in strategic planning. In a struggle to survive, organizations are frantically looking for a "Sustainable Competitive Advantage".

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* Contributed by: -
Varun Dawar & Vaibhav Hari,
IMT, Ghaziabad.