Chicago, US- April 3, 2019 – MarketsandMarkets recently interviewed William Chamberlin, Distinguished Market Intelligence Professional, IBM regarding MarketsandMarkets Competitive and Market Intelligence Summit taking place on June 13-14, 2019 in Chicago, USA.
William has been awarded the IBM Distinguished Market Intelligence Professional (DMIP) award, the highest award for an analyst in IBM. He is a member of the IBM Academy of Technology and leads the Technology Team for the Academy.
1) What is the significance of Market and Competitive Intelligence role in an organization in today’s era?
A – The Market and Competitive Intelligence role provides a market perspective to any organization investing in that capability. Otherwise, the organization might be compelled to believe they know what is best for the market. The Market and Competitive Intelligence role can provide management with a clear, unbiased view of the market, the trends, and the impact on both the organization and its clients. This allows the organization the ability to position product offerings, marketing campaigns, and perhaps most importantly, the brand, strategically in the marketplace.
2) What role does Market and Competitive Intelligence team play in your organization?
A – The Market Intelligence and Competitive Intelligence role within IBM is organized on a team called Market Development & Insights (MD&I). This team provides a trusted and unbiased view of what is happening in the marketplace both at a macro level (trends) and at a micro level (specific vendors and customers). We digest all the market information we can, synthesize that information, analyze it and then develop strategic insights and recommendations. We share those insights and recommendations within the broad IBM organization, so we can focus on what will grow the business.
Specifically, the IBM Market Development & Insights team focuses on three main areas.
1) Our Clients The team performs research to understand how our clients and buyers think, what they think about us, and how they respond to the experience we deliver. This is done through primary research, client satisfaction/Net Promoter Score analysis, specific account analysis, and sales analysis.
2) Markets MD&I practitioners look at the state of the market so we can size the opportunity and segment the opportunity into relevant markets that we choose to serve. For each of those markets, we identify emerging trends, technologies and business issues our clients are experiencing. Within the markets we choose to serve we also analyze investment activity, start-ups and patents, social media activity and trends, and industry and regional trends to develop a full understanding of each market. We also perform specific product offering sales analysis and feature/function requirements research within the offering markets we choose to serve.
3) Vendor Landscape The team analyzes how we stack up in comparison to our competitors. This is done through key competitor analysis, benchmarking, battle cards, and a dive into competitor financial operating models. Primary research with analysts, alumni and sellers complement this work.
3) How important is Market and Competitive Intelligence support from executives and managers?
A – It is very important. However, I would turn the question around. It is more critical that executives and managers invest in and support the deveolopment of a Market and Competitive Intelligence function within their companies. The survival of their company might just depend on their having a world class Market Intelligence function.
30-40 years ago executives made business decisions based on gut feel, qualitative information and hearsay. Those executives who had a good feel for the market tended to make good decisions. Today, just having a feel is not enough. Today, the world is exploding with data. Those executives that know how to use that information are going to be the winners. Smart executives know they can make better business decisions if they have access to the right data, analysis and insights. Those executives that invest in and support the Market and Competitive Intelligence within their organization will be rewarded with better information. That will lead to better business decisions about what markets to invest in, which products to develop for those markets, which customers are likely to by those products, who to partner with, how to position the brand and more.
4) How do successful companies employ Marketing insights to identify trends, develop products and innovate?
A – Unsuccessful companies make decisions in a vacuum. They develop products and services that may be well engineered or designed, but are not what customers want or need.
Successful companies invest in Market and Competitive Intelligence capabilities to provide a clear, unbiased view of the market, the trends, and the impact on both the organization and its clients. These Market and Competitive Intelligence capabilities include investments in processes, tools and skills. Processes are developed to embed market and competitive insights into key activities of management decision flows. Tools investments include primary research capabilities, secondary research sources (market and competitive reports from external analysts) and skill development activities for the Market and Competitive professionals in the organization.
5) What are your views on the agenda and how helpful it is to the targeted audience?
A – This conference agenda will benefit anyone in a Market or Competitive Intelligence role or a Management role that is thinking about investing in developing improved Market and Competitive Intelligence capability within their organization. The agenda has a number of educational and case study presentations that allow professionals the opportunity to learn new Market and Competitive Intelligence techniques. In addition, there are important times during the conference where attendees are provided with the opportunity to network with other Market and Competitive Intelligence professionals and Solution Vendors. It is during these times that new relationships can be formed that can provide new and exciting opportunities during the course of one’s career .
