Brad Kuvin
Editorial Director

Know Yourself, and Your Competitor

During a recent conference I heard a speaker wax eloquently about the principles put forth in The Art of War, the Chinese military text attributed to strategist Sun Tzu (translated: Master Sun) sometime during the 5th century BC. The conference speaker deftly applied some of Tzu’s often-quoted premises to manufacturers, notably these pearls:

• Know your competitor and know yourself: Have a hundred wars to sustain, a hundred times you will be victorious.
• If you ignore your competitor and know yourself, your chances of losing and winning will be equal.
• If you ignore both your competitor and yourself, you will only count your battles by your defeats.

Important to Tzu, and mimicked throughout the evolution of military training around the world since his teachings became known, is the use of intelligence operations and espionage. No, I’m not suggesting metal formers spy on their own employees nor their competitors. However, successful manufacturing companies regularly shine bright lights on—and peer through strong magnifying glasses at—their operations. And, they equally invest time and effort to learn all they can about the actions and strategies of their competitors.

A white paper from the change-management specialists at Ardoq, “6 Best Practices for Defining Your Business Capabilities,” notes that the rapid pace at which companies are adopting automation, while also gathering and relying on analytics to make critical decisions, requires extra-careful attention to the organization’s building blocks. It suggests these best practices:

1. Define your business capabilities by what is done, not how it is done.
2. Classify business capabilities as core, supporting and strategic.
3. Center business capabilities on information, not processes.
4. Build business capabilities as a hierarchy.
5. Use business capabilities as a common language.
6. Start with what’s already there and adapt.

Zeroing in on number 2, I feel like most metal formers have a solid grasp on their core capabilities—the value streams that deliver value to customers. I wonder, though, about supporting capabilities, such as HR-related processes devised to attract, recruit and retain talent, and strategic capabilities that enable a company to set and navigate a longer-term course.

When it comes to monitoring competitors, the power of the Internet and social media makes this task easier than ever. For example, search-analytics tools can reveal the keywords your competitors are targeting for paid and organic search. Another option: Establish Google Alerts, not only for mentions of competitors but also for specific keywords, to see which companies appear regularly on them.  

Here’s a tip that’s perhaps a little sneaky: Link-research tools can be set up to send email notifications every time that a competitor gains a new backlink to its website. Of course, these same tools also allow you to follow your own backlinks.
Lastly, keep an eye on competitors’ social media channels and their posts, using tools such as Hootsuite, and monitor any blogs or newsletters that they might provide. 

Take to heart one more quote from Tzu:

“If the enemy leaves a door open, you must rush in.”

Technologies: Management

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