Competitive landscape

Competitive landscape is a business analysis which identifies direct or indirect competitors and at the same time, it permits the comprehension of their mission, vision, core values, niche market, strengths and weaknesses. Based on the volatile nature of the business world, where companies represent a competition to others, this analysis helps to establish a new mind-set which facilitates the creation of strategic competitiveness. 

Due to the hypercompetition of the environment, the traditional sources of getting competitive advantage does not represent any more an effective strategy, as a result of the emergence of a global economy and technology. Consequently, this emergence should be analyzed in order to achieve competitive intelligence for developing a competitive analysis. The investment in the strategic management process is the foundation for the business stability because it helps to develop the fundamental basis of the business in order to be totally competitive inside the market.

Global Economy 

Global economy is one of the main aspects to consider before starting a competitive landscape profile, because it helps to understand the global economic activity where all the production factors such as people, knowledge, services, products move without limits. This factor is constantly transforming inside the business environment which leads companies to analyze the market where they will compete. Even if it represents opportunities for the company, the differences in the legal, economic and political aspects between organizations from one country to other should be considered. The idea of a "global mindset" determines the acceptance of this organizational diversity in order to be prepare for challenges.

Technological Changes 

Technology is considered inside the competitive environment because it represents a tool to acquire competitive advantages, as mentioned before. This technologies improve the efficiency and the productivity of companies because it helps to get new sources of growth. Technology is not only focused on economic growth, but also on the improvement of quality, service, knowledge and innovation and by this manner, in the improvement of development of companies. All the aspects inside the technological framework have been divided into three categories:

Technology diffusion 

This aspect is referred to the speed at which technologies are globally available and used in other companies.

Information age 

This aspect is focused on the access to information and its development through the decades.

Knowledge Intensity 

This aspect considers the transformation of knowledge into resources, the ones that help the company to increase their strategic flexibility.

Competitive Landscape Profile 

After companies consider the influence of global economy and technological changes during their strategic management process, they should focus on understanding the competitive landscape profile which is a comparative analysis of products from one company with the ones from another company, in order to understand the strengths and weaknesses. In order to evaluate each competitor, there should exist a strategic division according to their level of competitiveness.

It should be taken into consideration the Porter's Five Forces because according to its analysis, Michael Porter establishes that competition depends on 5 specific factors: potential new entrants, internal rivalry, suppliers, buyers and substitutes. The unification of the analysis of the competition with the Porter's Five Forces will create a complete competitive profile which will provide a detailed guide to managers of the company, because it will identify the advantages that the company has over its rivals or on the contrary, it will also help to generate decisions and solutions to be applied in cases of similarities.

In order to implement this competitive analysis, it has been divided in 3 steps:

Step 1: Collect internal resources 

Firstly, the company should focus on an internal aspect of the company and also, on its competitors in order to comprehend the global aspect of competition. This step allows the company to analyze through internet the performance of the company and also, the general keywords.

Step 2: Investigate competitors resources 

Secondly, after understanding the general movements of the company, the analysis should be focused on the research of specific aspects that can be compared with the personal company, this information defines the management process, the decision making process and the organizational service.

Step 3: Verify and Validate 

Finally, after collecting the general information and specifying some aspects, the analysis validates the veracity of the information found in the internet. It transforms itself from being an internet research into a personal investigation. In this aspect, companies use the technique of personal appointments with the competition in order to determine the real basis of competitive advantage.

References

External links
 Core Values
 Competitive intelligence
 Strategic flexibility

Further reading 
Illinois Institute of Technology. (2007). Strategic competitiveness

University of Massachusetts Dartmouth. (2017). Decision-making process

Category:Strategic management