The Complete New Manager

99 Assess the Terrain

Before devising strategies, you must understand the competitive landscape as it exists and as it is changing. You should examine and understand what competitors have done in the past, are doing now, and are likely to do in the future. The aim of this assessment is to find, for your firm going forward, a unique and defensible mix of product, marketing, and pricing strategies, given the direction your competitors will likely take.

This approach requires a thorough understanding of competitors’ strengths and weaknesses, leadership, resources, and goals in order to estimate their possible approaches to competition. It is also useful to examine a benchmarking analysis comparing your organization’s financial results with those ...