Be Different or be dead

November 29, 2010

Why competitor knowledge is really important to your career success

Source: Pexels

Why competitor knowledge is really important to your career success.

One of the critical components in developing a business plan for any organization is HOW you intend to compete and WIN given the competition in your space.

The challenge is to decide what its strategic uniqueness is relative to the competition that is targeting the same customers you have chosen to SERVE. A detailed assessment of your target customers’ critical priority needs and desires must be made along with the internal competencies that line up with satisfying them.

And you need to know your competition at a granular level - strengths, weaknesses, performance, value proposition and business strategy.

Know your competition at a granular level in order to build a winning career strategy.

The internal world of an organization where you are fighting for career success has similar competitive dynamics and it’s critical to understand the competition for the jobs you want.

Here are 7 questions to consider as you evaluate who you are up against for those few precious leadership opportunities:

1. Who are the players in the organization that are considered to be high potential and promotable now?

2. How would you rank them in terms of probability of success? Who are the top three and in what order? What skills do they have that you don’t? What strengths do you have that they don’t?

3. What currency does each of your competitors have in the organization? Currency describes the amount of influence you have on the decision making process in the organization. People with a high level of currency are typically asked for their opinion on matters of importance; they are consulted when exploring the pros and cons of various courses of action and are in on the final decisions.

Persons with lower currency are not regularly consulted on important matters and rarely are asked to participate in task force teams quickly assembled to address a critical issue.
You can observe high currency factor individuals in meetings. They are always engaged in the conversation going on and people look to them to voice their views; they are valued by the organization and represent intense competition for you.

4. What is your currency factor? Where do you rank relative to the top 3?

5. Do you have specific strategies to build your currency in your career game plan?

6. What is your competitors’ overall career strategy? How does it compare with yours?

7. Does your plan put you in a stand-out position relative to them or are you merely catching up to them? Beware of copying what others do, however, as benchmarking has pitfalls.

Knowing who else is in the game is critical to you developing your career strategy.

Do your homework.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 11.29.10 at 12:00 pm by Roy Osing
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