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Competitive Intelligence: Monkey Traps

The objective of any strategy, whether military or business, is to align one’s strengths against the competitor’s weaknesses.  Your company must find the weaknesses inherent in the competition’s strategies and then develop competency in those areas. The idea is to attack your competitors in areas where they are unable and/or unwilling to change they way they think or act.

If your CI research shows that your competitor has a weak customer service component, then make sure that your company’s customer service is upgraded and develops enough of a reputation to cause clients to defect to your company.  

If the industry standard is to deliver a product in 2 weeks, and research indicates that clients are dissatisfied with the waiting time, then your company’s objective should be to modify your business or manufacturing processes to allow delivery in one week.  

One of the main objectives of Competitive Intelligence is to challenge business assumptions, shatter myths and taboos and make key decision makers face reality. It’s time to move beyond the competitor news summaries that arrive on the CEO’s desk everyday.

 Keeping in Touch with Reality: Finding the Monkey Traps

 The term blind spot is well known in Competitive Intelligence, but I would like to introduce a new term which better describes the behaviour and mindset  of many executives:  the monkey trap. In some tropical areas, the locals make heavy pots with a hole large enough for a monkey to put in an open hand but too small for it to pull out a clenched fist. Monkey food is put in the pot. The monkey puts in its hand to grab the food, but can’t take it out. Even when the he sees the humans approaching, the monkey refuses to let go of the food and his hand remains stuck in the heavy pot, and so he is easily caught, killed and eaten.  

That is a perfect description of how executives behave when they refuse to drop set assumptions, myths and taboos about their company’s place in the competitive environment  

Any CI professional who has conducted internal interviews of company personnel will likely find numerous monkey traps that are sustained by assumptions, myths and taboos which make up the company’s view of the competitive arena.  Lower and mid- level employees are usually the ones that are most aware of the myths and taboos of the company, since they are ones most vulnerable to being fired if they speak up and challenge them. The objective of the CI professional is to systematically gather all the information and present it in a way that is palatable to the decision makers and will give them a chance to change the company’s direction.  

One question to be answered is the company’s knowledge of its competitive environment. The main competitors may be known, but what about smaller competitors? Do they know about technological developments that could be game changers? Do they know of any innovative products that are being developed or tested? Are demographic and economic factors affecting the domestic and foreign markets? If the company has been benchmarking other companies, have they been benchmarking their weaknesses as well as their strengths?  

Answers to these questions may reveal a series of monkey traps the company has set for itself.

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