In case you missed it, last week the 2020 State of Competitive Intelligence Report dropped. I wanted to give it a quick shoutout here because the content is so relevant to this community.
This is the largest study on the best practices and trends in the field of market and competitive intelligence, drawing from the responses of more than 1,000 CI professionals and stakeholders.
Some key findings:
90% of businesses report that their industry has become more competitive in the last three years, and 48% say it has become much more competitive. Large enterprises face the most competitors, but all size businesses have seen an increase in the number of competitors year over year, with the average climbing from 25 competitors to 29.
Nearly every business is now investing in competitive intelligence - 94% have at least some employees working on CI, the study found, and more than half (57%) have dedicated teams of two or more CI professionals.
I highly recommend checking out the report, if you haven't already.
In your survey, did you ask what the CI organization set-up was and how CI analysts participated in the company's business? Is it sales enablement or risk management, strategy development or other? I'd be interested in knowing how CI pros are placed and how they participate. I'd love to hear from our colleagues too.
Great questions @Jack Boureston , and yes, many of those aspects did come up in the study. The short answer is (for better or worse) it varies a lot by company. For example, the most common departments where CI pros are placed are Marketing and Strategy/Research/their own departments. This can influence their focus - sales enablement vs. strategy development etc. Similarly, the report digs into the top stakeholders for CI pros - the #1 being executive management, followed by Sales & Marketing & Product. Those are some of the trends - would love to get your takeaways too.
Well, it's kinda varied Ellie. Yes, serving the execs by providing them insights is important. Also being focused on an emerging technology or assigned to a specific campaign (as needed) has been reality too. Lastly, helping out with other's questions too. Sales enablement has not been a major focus, but could be. It has depended a lot requirements.