How Competitive Intelligence Helps With Strategic Inflexion Points

by Octopus Intelligence Octopus Competitive Intelligence

How Competitive Intelligence helps with Strategic inflexion points?

This article is called how Competitive Intelligence helps with Strategic inflexion points? Strategic inflexion points have many causes. And not just changes in technology or something one of your competitors is doing. They are the strategic changes. The ones that will blow your boat out of the water. Changes that can’t be countered by introducing something new and hoping for the best. And keeping an eye out by using Competitive Intelligence is vital.

What is an Inflexion Point?

An inflexion point (or inflection point if you take your English from the US) is an event resulting in a change. A change affecting the progress of a company, sector, economy, or geopolitical situation. It can be considered a turning point with either positive or negative results. (Investopedia) Companies, industries, sectors, and economies are dynamic and constantly evolving. Inflexion points are more significant than the small day-to-day progress typically made. And the effects of the change are often well known and widespread.

Change that creates momentum and is hard to see. Never mind, grab hold of it and do something about it. But if you want to survive, you have to do something about it, or it will kill you. These will kill your business if you don’t change the way you do things. But what happens, the way you do business again will never be the same again. Also, expect new faces entering your market to take advantage of any new opportunities.

Examples of strategic inflexion

Examples of strategic inflexion points include

Blockbuster didn’t move its business model in response to online competitors. Despite seeing it and turning down the offer to buy Netflix in their early days.
Blackberry and Nokia were unable to respond to smartphones like Apple and Android devices. They dug in and carried on with their own operating system. Yes, they still produce decent kit but on the Android operating system. But the consumer has moved on.
Kodak was too slow in responding to the digital camera. Despite the fact, they had developed the technology. They thought and still do believe that they are a chemical company.

You don’t have to sit and take a Strategic Inflexion. You can, of course, make one of them happen. Here are some companies that saw the inflexion point early and did something about it.

Heard of these companies?

Do you know American Express? The leader in express mail services focusing on goods, currency and stock certificates?
The 1930s wallpaper cleaner Play-Doh
IBM the computer manufacturer
Slack the computer game builder
Starbucks the coffee bean importer and coffee-making equipment seller
Hygiene and cosmetics products Lak-Hui Chemical Industrial Company, now known as LG
The antique shop specialising in decorative shells now called Royal Dutch Shell
The telecom company called Western Union
Nokia, the Norwegian Papermill
Gun powder manufacturer DuPont
3M the Mining company
and of course, the dating site called YouTube

Rapid change

Strategic inflexion points are not just associated with technological industries. They can change any business sector. We live in an ever-increasing world of change. And as technology gets better, these changes can affect (or you can affect) globally. Creating new competitors from the new ways of doing stuff and from anywhere in the world. Distance is no longer a barrier to entry. It’s only a matter of time before you experience a Strategic Inflexion point. It’s going to happen, and tech will make it even more rapid, and you can’t hide from it.

Forward-looking Competitive Intelligence

What is Competitive Intelligence?
Competitive intelligence is the finding, sorting and critical analysis of information. To make sense of what’s happening and why. Predict what’s going to happen and give the options to help you control the outcome. Competitive intelligence offers certainty, competitive advantage, insight, growth & security.

Competitive Intelligence is forward-looking and will help you with your future planning. The earlier you see the change coming or the quicker you can create the change, the easier it will be. It’s like crime. Police forces don’t know when a crime will happen. But they use Intelligence and look for patterns in offending. And plot crime locations on a map. They can anticipate where things will happen. But to a point. They still need to be about to be capable of responding to unanticipated events. And so do you. Sooner or later, you will be affected by a strategic inflexion point. Without Competitive Intelligence, you may not see it coming until it’s too late. Understanding the structure of any strategic inflexion points. And, most importantly, what to do about them will help you protect your company’s future.

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