Covid-19 is the most recent highlight of our current times. This pandemic, born at the end of last decade, has greatly influenced our global society. Covid-19 marks a huge change in business practices as well as public interaction.
Due to the social distancing measures business practices have become more virtual. Major services were moved online. Those that were not able to adapt simply collapsed in the light of the pandemic. Businesses had to address serious health concerns in a shocking lockdown of the world.
Some of these were temporary adaptations. However these adaptations often left a permanent mark on usual practices. A common example would be the shut down of dine in restaurants. People visited restaurants due to their pleasant social environment and service.
However because of the pandemic this trend has seen a drastic change. Once people started using online platforms to order food, restaurants are seen as more irrelevant. People, very quickly, became accustomed to having food at the comfort of their homes.
This transformed the food industry. Restaurants now have to collaborate with delivery services platforms especially in the urban areas. This seems more like a permanent change especially for new restaurants because of the customer market these platforms bring.
This is just an example of how Covid-19 has changed aspects of business. Moreover it has changed how we view business in practice.
This has also happened to more solid business practices like Marketing and Business intelligence. It is safe to say that Covid-19 has changed the dynamics of business.
How Competitive Intelligence is being reshaped
Pandemic was struck by an element of surprise. No one predicted the great switch in our everyday lives. More importantly no one could predict the changes it would cause because of the domino effect.
Hence intelligence became a job with serious demand. Everyone wanted to adapt and so everyone needed intel on the emerging situations in the market.
Latest developments in competitive intelligence
Following are the latest developments in competitive intelligence
Practice of competitive intelligence in day to day activities
Competitive intelligence became a more detailed and specific practice. Usually competitive intelligence was used to develop strategies and identify opportunities and trends. However competitive intelligence is now seen as an essential practice in day to day activities. Intelligence is now needed in sales, monitoring the activities, marketing, by product teams. Intelligence is now more integrated in business practices to tackle obstacles created by Covid-19.
Use of technologies and Software
Use of technology and software for gathering intelligence has advanced in competitive intelligence practices. Technology has served humans to make our task easier and more effective. This increased demand for tactical intelligence due to the pandemic has forced businesses to think of better ways. And what better ways would there be than the use of technology. A lot of marketing simply relies upon social media to reach its customers.
Retaining of customers
Retaining customers and clients has become one of the utmost priorities for businesses. Hence tactical intelligence is focus greatly on the needs and wants of customers. Businesses need to ensure the utmost satisfaction of customers in order for them to survive the drastic change in society. We have also seen some cases where businesses worked outside of their own model in order to provide for their customers.
Focus on market changes
Competition became a bit less relevant in the light of the pandemic. Businesses see competition as less of a threat. Their focus shifted from competitors to market changes. Business makes a matter of race against obstacles. Competitive intelligence focused more on market changes and insights in order to remain in a continuum. Competitive intelligence becomes more about market and customer than about competitors and opportunities. CI teams are more focused on helping the sales department with pitches and deals to appeal to customers.
Refining the data
When lockdown was impose in the major parts of the world, the primary source of data was the internet. The majority of the world moved online which also marked the change in behavior and trends. Hence companies allocated CS teams in order to collect and refine that data to be use in competitive intelligence. This is perhaps the most comprehensive change especially for CS experts to be include in competitive intelligence activities. The CS department can be see in doing competitive intelligence activities like tracking accounts for retention using competitive intelligence tools.
Need for large and medium size organizations
In the transforming economies of the 20th century competitive intelligence was seen as a need by large companies. These companies often dominated the market share. They needed intel and insights to retain those shares but also grow over their competitors. However this is not the case today. Competitive intelligence has become a need for medium sized organizations as well. This is due to the expansion of technology and communication, especially via the internet. The world has become a global village and needs constant improvement and identification of opportunities. The concept of value proposition has a far deeper meaning today than ever for businesses.
Problem solving
Integration of creative problem solving is use in competitive intelligence. The biggest reason for this is that data is difficult to manage. Hence businesses started relying less upon data and more upon intuition and understanding of data. So competitive intelligence has become more understanding oriented than data oriented. The purpose of competitive intelligence is to develop insights. Those insights are now develop using interpretation of data and its exploitation.
Competitive Intelligence is one of the most useful tools in business. How the pandemic has changed competitive intelligence. And how companies have adapted its methods using this tool shows the extent of its ability to transform businesses to adapt and survive. Hence competitive intelligence is not just limit to transforming businesses but also transforming industries.
The idea of social entrepreneurship is all about providing greater value using business as a tool. This concept could transform economies of scale to a social economy. Where the economy serves people and not the opposite. This concept holds answers to underlying and developing social problems emerging due to capitalist mindset. It is incredible to see how a simple yet sophisticated tool of intelligence could have such a great impact on society. After all, competitive intelligence is what allows businesses to propose greater value and gain competitive advantage.
