The Four Pillars Of Analytical Competition

Distinguishing one 's firm from the alternatives is a major concern for any business. Strategic analysis provides the starting point in the strategic management process organizations use to evaluate and choose the competitive advantages that distinguish them from other organizations within the market. Dominating businesses should also "choose among alternative grand strategies to guide the firm 's activities, particularly when they are trying to decide about broadening the scope of the firm 's activities beyond its core business (Robinson & Pearce, 2009)."

Competitive analysis main objective is to research, analyze, and compare the competition in relation to the company. Analytical tools used for competitive analysis include the five forces framework, value net, driving forces, strategic groups, competitor analysis, and key success factors are analytical tools. The competitive analysis will enable the trucking company to understand more about the industry and the competition, to be able to develop a competitive strategy that will give the company a competitive advantage by taking into account the actions and responses of the competitions (Thompson, Peteraf, Gamble & Strickland, 2016).

Competitor analysis is a serious part of the organization therefore; Target must identify and address all issues pertaining to the business. Target must pinpoint the tangible competitors, and substitutes, evaluate opponents’ objectives, strategies, strengths and weaknesses, and opportunities and threats, and uncover what opponents Target should take on or stand clear of. Therefore, Target must analyze the company’s economic, sociocultural, technological, political, and future.

Imagine you are part of a strategic planning group at a large corporation that is considering developing a new proposed product. The marketing director has asked your team to do a competitive market analysis to determine the product’s potential success. The analysis will focus on your primary competitor in the product’s market.

The four pillars of analytics competition are (1) Support of a strategic, distinctive capability, (2) an enterprise-level approach to and management of analytics, (3) Senior management commitment, and (4) Large-scale ambition (Davenport & Harris, 2007).

In order to be an effective analytical competitor, Davenport and Harris (2007) assert that firms must meet certain prerequisites. Those prerequisites are at least a moderate amount of quality data about the type of business that analytics will support, hardware and software, the commitment of managers to develop analytics, and executive sponsorship (Davenport and Harris, 2007, p.16). Analytics is about extrapolating new information and

2. Uniqueness - There is no single path to follow to become an analytic competitor, and the way every company uses analytics is unique to its strategy and market position. Accenture 's use of analytics has always been unique to acquire the market position. Accenture, in telecommunication industry uses bundle

Companies often use a (CPM) – Competitive Profile Matrix to better understand their external environment as well as their competition within the industry they operate. The matrix identifies a company’s key competitors and draws a comparison using the industry’s critical success factors. The analysis also reveals a company’s strengths and weaknesses against its competition, making them aware of problematic areas needing improvement and also areas that are doing well and need to be protected (See Appendix F).

The marketplace has been dynamic and competition between companies in the same industry has been increasingly intense (Ranchhod, 2004). Having dynamic capabilities contributes to a company’s “long-term survival or competitive advantage” (Johnson et al., 2008: 84). This is especially essential

The threat of new entrants refers to the threat posed by new competitors within an industry. If it is easy for new firms to enter the industry barriers to entry are low and the threat of new entrants is high. A profitable industry attracts more competitors. Economies of scale, learning curve effects and other macro factors impact the nature of an industry 's

To remain competitive a company must consider who their biggest competitors are while considering its own size and position in the industry. The company should develop a strategic advantage over their competitors’

“Competing on Analytics” defines an analytical competitor “as an organization that uses analytics extensively and systematically to outthink and out execute the competition.”(1) Business analytics is a new way for companies to separate themselves from their competitors. I recently completed an internship at the firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) and will work there full-time upon completion of this program. PwC uses analytics to help solve complex business issues and to identify opportunities across different industries. PwC is the largest professional service company in the world and is part of the Big Four accounting firms. PwC operates in over 157 countries with more than 750 offices throughout the world.(2) PwC is structured into three service lines, which are Assurance, Advisory and Tax. The assurance practice audits almost 30% of the global fortune 500 companies.(2) The advisory practice is mainly consulting activities that cover strategy, cyber security and privacy, human resources, deals and forensics. (2) These three practices generated $35.4 billion in revenue in 2015. (2)

Different organization looks at the level of technology that competitors used in production of their services. Another crucial thing is the evaluation of what the competitor’s customer are complaining about and takes it as an advantage of attract customers to the organization (Matthew, 2010).

Competitive advantage is explained by Mahoney and Pandian (1992) as the function of industry analysis, organizational governance and the firm’s effects in the form of resource advantages and strategies. In order for a firm to be competitive it must adapt to the volatile business environment and through strategic management decisions establish a competitive advantage that will ultimately produce superior performance relative to its competitors (Akimova 2000).

Operating – ABC has traditionally competed on operating efficiency thus, ABC may not have operating expertise necessary to compete extensively on analytics. ABC needs to create an organizational level of expertise through the implementation of IT architecture, data scientist skillsets, and a comprehensive objective to implement these tools and skills.