SOURCES OF INFORMATION ABOUT COMPETITORS
Decision making can be improved by an adequate supply of relevant information and a knowledge of good sources of information is an important first step. A suitable starting point is to examine what competitors say about themselves and what others say about them. Sources of information fall into four categories:
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• public • government • trade • investors.
Public sources
Advertising, promotional materials and press releases are prime sources of information on what competitors have to say about themselves. Articles and newspaper reports provide a good source of information on what others have to say about them. Nonetheless, one does have to be wary of the information gleaned since it may be biased or even distorted.
Trade and professional sources
Courses, seminars, technical papers and manuals prepared by competitors can give detailed insights into competitors’ activities. However, it can take a considerable amount of time to distil and analyse this information. Distributors, the trade press and even customers can be good sources of information about what others have to say about competitors.
Government
In the UK, firms have to lodge their annual reports at Company House in London and the contents of these reports provide insights into the operations of competitors. In particular, lawsuits, government ministries and national plans are useful sources of information.
Investors
Annual meetings, annual reports and prospectuses are primary sources of what competitors have to say about themselves. Credit reports and industry studies provide an outsider’s viewpoint.
BENCHMARKING
There are several notions about what benchmarking is. Here we will adopt the view that benchmarking is the continuous process of measuring products, services and practices against the toughest competitors or those companies recognized as industry leaders with a view to stimulating performance improvement. Camp (1989) identified four types of benchmarking:
• benchmarking against internal operations • benchmarking against external operations of direct competitors • benchmarking against the equivalent functional operations of non-
competitors • generic process benchmarking.
These approaches all involve comparison of the performance and management of processes. A fifth category could be added—that of product benchmarking which compares the features and performance of products.
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Competitor benchmarking involves performance comparisons between organizations which are direct competitors. Some competitor comparisons are possible from public sources, but these are often of limited detail and hence limited value.