Whether you’re in sales, executive leadership, or working as\r\na junior IT analyst, keeping up with competitive companies is a great idea.\r\nMost industries will have innovators, cost-cutters, vanguards, and upstarts, and\r\nwatching these companies and comparing them to your own will give you a sense\r\nof where your company sits on the spectrum, as well as where the industry is\r\nheaded.
Mobile devices are great tools for competitive analysis,\r\nallowing you to get a quick read on your industry during a morning commute or a\r\nsales call on a customer, where your chair might still be warm from a\r\ncompetitor making a similar visit. Here are five apps that will help you\r\nanalyze your competitor’s performance.
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If you want to keep up with competitors, suppliers, or\r\nindustry peers, add a few key executives from each to your Newsle list, and you\r\ncan easily keep up with the press about those companies.
There are heaps of stock tracker applications, but the free Bing Finance that’s included in the default installation of Windows 8 is not\r\nonly pretty but seems to pull from a broad array of news sources, from finance\r\nblogs to major newspapers around the world. I like that Bing\r\nprovides a general market view with some key stories and, for each company you\r\nadd, provides basic stock performance information, relevant news, and several\r\npages of financial performance information, starting with a nice summary of\r\nfinancial metrics that includes an industry comparison.
Like all services that allow public reviews, do be aware\r\nthat reviews tend to represent the extreme rather than the norm. People who are\r\ngenerally happy with their car, restaurant or, in this case, employer,\r\ngenerally don’t go out of their way to post an online review. Temper the\r\ninsights you get from Glassdoor, especially the horribly negative ones, with a\r\nhealthy grain of salt.
I also like following general industry blogs. With the\r\nconsumerization trend in IT, a quick scan of feeds from sites like Engadget\r\nkeeps me up to date on board trends along with specific company news.
Crunchbase also lists a company’s\r\nprimary products and provides contact information. If you want to get the\r\ndetails on that hot new startup, CrunchBase is the right place to start.
Patrick Gray works for a leading global professional services firm, where he helps companies rapidly invent and launch new businesses. He is the author of Breakthrough IT: Supercharging Organizational Value through Technology as well as the companion e-book The Breakthrough CIO's Companion. He has spent over two decades providing strategy consulting services to Fortune 500 Companies and the world's top brands across the globe. Patrick can be reached at patrick.gray@prevoyancegroup.com. All opinions are his and may not represent those of his employer.
