PRINT
EMAIL
COMMENT
BUZZ UP
DIGG
OUR PREMIUM CONTENT
The Kiplinger Agriculture Letter
The Kiplinger California Letter
Kiplinger's Biofuels Market Alert
Kiplinger's Retirement Report
SUBSCRIBER HELP
CURRENT LETTER
2009: A Rough Start
But a Better Finish
PREVIOUS ISSUES
Kenneth A. Sawka is the managing partner of competitive intelligence and strategy consulting firm Outward Insights in suburban Boston. Outward Insights contributes a monthly column on competitive intelligence issues to Kiplinger Recommends. Sawka has more than 20 years' of business and government intelligence experience and has appeared on CNBC's Squawk Box and in publications such as Time and Investor's Business Daily.
Companies are simply small cultures. They have their own quirks, politics and social norms. And most have their own folklore -- beliefs about their industry, the market and the competition. These shared beliefs can serve a purpose, such as being an assumption so commonly held that it is a given when strategies are discussed and drawn up.
But when they are wrong, these legends can cause havoc and hinder a company's competitive ability. "When executives place too much stock in grossly incorrect beliefs or perceptions of competitors, companies may adopt an incorrect basis for competitive strategy that can lead to bad decisions and misaligned resources," writes Ken Sawka of the competitive intelligence consulting firm Outward Insights. "Deeply held incorrect beliefs about competitors can blind an organization to the emergence of new competitive threats, or to fundamental shifts in industry structures and relationships."
So pity the poor underlings or consultants who discover the fallacy in these long-held beliefs and try to impress the problem upon senior management. "Challenging their perspective can be dangerous if not done in a logical and systematic manner," Sawka cautions. He spells out methods for using public information and human intelligence to verify or disprove these various beliefs. Using a hypothetical software firm facing a seemingly erratic competitor that always seems to land the big contract, Sawka shows how various beliefs can be wrong, how they can be disproved and how they can be presented in a way likely to meet the least resistance -- not to mention pose the least threat to the job security of the messengers.
POSTED BY: Al D Jones (December 02, 2008 06:55 AM)
Wow! A how to article that really reveals how to! Does it work with graduates of the George W Bush School of Management?
POSTED BY: Rodger Mitchell (December 03, 2008 08:36 AM)
The same "urban myths" exist regarding our economy, the classic being that federal surpluses are good for the economy and deficits are bad.
Some of the "sub-myths: are:
--Our children and grandchildren will have to pay for the federal debt.
--Deficits cause inflation.
--Surpluses are prudent.
--Deficits mean taxes will need to be raised.
--The government's deficit spending uses taxpayers' money.
The facts are:
--Our children and grandchildren never have and never will pay for the federal debt.
--Deficits never have caused inflation. (See Carter and Reagan)
--"Prudent" federal surpluses have led to every depression in U.S. history. The Clinton surpluses caused the 2000 recession.
--Deficits do not cause tax increases when they increase debt. Tax increases never are necessary.
--Taxpayers' money pays for taxes, not for federal deficit spending.
Despite the obvious and easy historical proofs existing for all of the facts, the legends persist.
Rodger Malcolm Mitchell
rmmadvertising@yahoo.com
www.rodgermitchell.com
E-Mail Article
Print Article
