However, you can’t do that unless you understand your company. Looking at your company's profile helps you identify gaps in key information and focus on key performance requirements and results.
Company Environment
- Products: What are your main offerings? What is the relative importance of each to your success?
- Vision & Mission: What are your stated purpose, vision, values, and mission? What are your organization’s core competencies, and how are they related to your mission?
- Personnel: What is your personnel profile? What are your personnel or employee segments and groups? What are the educational demands for different employee segments and groups? What are the key elements that engage them in achieving your vision and mission?
- Assets: What are your major facilities, technologies, and equipment?
- Regulatory Requirements: What are the applicable occupational health and safety regulations; accreditation, certification, or registration requirements; industry standards; and environmental, financial, and product regulations? What is the regulatory environment under which you operate?
Company Relationships
- Company structure: What are your organizational structure and governance system? What are the reporting relationships among your governance board, senior leaders, and parent organization?
- Customers and Stakeholders: What are your key market segments, customer groups, and stakeholder groups? What are their key requirements and expectations of your products, customer support services, and operations? What are the differences in these requirements and expectations among market segments, customer groups, and stakeholder groups?
- Partners & Suppliers: What are your key types of partners and suppliers? What role do they play in your work systems, especially in producing and delivering your key products and customer support services? What role do they play in enhancing your competitiveness?
Think about these questions carefully because their answers will determine the approach used to gather data. When thinking about your company’s structure, you need to determine how your employees are placed within the company.
Note that if you don’t have a system that will help encourage and educate them, this could damage company moral. Also, if your business doesn’t have measures that keep your company’s information private, this could cause problems.
After you analyze your own company’s structure, it will help you determine which information you need to gather and interpret. The reason why such emphasis on the employees and how the departments are structured is important is that using this technique requires everyone’s support. They need to stay motivated and positive if they are going to contribute with any information they find.
Competitive Intelligence