Objective
A global management consulting leader, with expertise in assurance, digital transformation, audit, advisory and taxation was experiencing increasing competition in its core markets due to innovative services and capabilities from its core competitors. There was an overwhelming sense of ‘being in the dark’ as the client did not have a systematic mechanism to collect key developments regarding new products, services and innovative changes in the delivery process of its core competitive set.
The research objective was to build a quarterly tracking system of the client’s key competitors across 3 service lines.
Methodology
We leveraged a combination of secondary and primary research to collect the desired depth of information for each key intelligence question.
Secondary research was used to align:
- competitors’ service lines with the client’s service line
- key team members in the delivery team for each service line and
- their roles in the delivery process.
Contacts who were identified in the secondary research phase were further engaged through in-depth discussions to answer KIQs (Key Intelligence Questions) around three service lines namely risk assurance, deal and tax & advisory.
Outcome
A monitoring tool was created that tracks and reports on the client’s key competitors and in the following areas on an on-going basis:
- Eco-system (acquisitions and strategic alliances) developments
- Innovation updates (business model, tools, methods, frameworks)
- Changes in go-to-market strategy
- Allocation of resources and capital
- Changes in performance measurement (finance, culture, morale, performance against business and corporate strategy)
- Capabilities (best product/service/tools being sold)
- Delivery model.
The competitive intelligence study was a resounding success as it proved to be very popular with the client. What started as an engagement to track competition eventually evolved into a key component of a monthly report that is distributed to the client’s executive teams.
