Customer buying habits, needs and motivations are in many ways measurable, not mysterious. Today’s companies have more tools than ever to ground their innovative ideas with real market information — information revealing the feasibility of a new product or service as well as its roadmap to implementation. Understanding the importance of market intelligence is the…

Let’s cut to the chase — over half of all enterprise strategic plans fail the same year they’re born. Downstream risks aren’t accounted for, objectives go unmonitored, budgets are misappropriated and accountability is left static. The result is an organization acting as its own worst enemy, unable to execute on business opportunities before and while…

Everyone has faced a difficult decision in their lives where they wished they could see the potential outcomes beforehand. In business, those types of make-or-break choices happen every single day. Decision-makers want to know what’s going to happen if they introduce this new product, acquire that business or enter a brand-new market. While the future…

Organizations seeking to outpace the competition require ideas and strategies inspired beyond generalizations. Broad analysis or pre-published, generic findings don’t cut it. To know how to beat the competition, businesses need growth-oriented, yet actionable, data-informing ways to get and stay ahead of key industry rivals. Such data needs to be tailored to that exact enterprise…

Since competitive intelligence is all about broadening perspectives and learning to look at situations from a competitor’s viewpoint, there’s no hard and fast rule as to when competitive analysis should be conducted. Nevertheless, it’s always better to be ahead of your competition’s plans with sufficient time to react, maximize your strengths and exploit your competition’s…

From Hannibal defeating the Roman army to the startup of Apple in the face of IBM and Microsoft, history is dotted with stories of David versus Goliath face-offs where an underdog competitor wins out thanks to a superior strategy. But whether you’re looking at pivotal battles of opposing armies or the fierce competitiveness of the…

The average time associated with bringing a new drug to market hovers around 10 years — with six or seven of those years spent in clinical trials. As such, the risks for pharmaceutical companies looking for a good ROI on their R&D efforts have never been greater. Besides the millions — and in many cases…

If you’re new to business war gaming, the exciting news is that you’re not alone. War gaming is a human-based experiential tool that, through targeted role play, allows you to better understand your competitor’s mindset and pressure test your own strategies. As Proactive Worldwide’s president and co-founder, David Kalinowski likes to say, “War gaming is…