Great questions are the best way to create great intelligence

Great questions are the best way to create great intelligence. However, it’s not just a case thinking up a smart question to catch all about a competitor or market. You have to guide the decision maker to take action.

What do I mean? Well, rather than asking:

What are competitor X’s main strengths?

Ask it like this:

What can we do about competitor X’s strengths?

Arguably, given time and a greater situational understanding, you will be able to come up with an even better question. But you will see how a subtle change in the question transforms a concerning situation to proactive decision focused intelligence environment. And that’s the power of Intelligence. We have a saying at Octopus “Intelligence is just knowing” so, we offer a daily short and sharp intelligence based thought with an aim to help your day to day work.

Here are some other questions:

• How committed are our competitors to achieving their declared strategy objective?
• How and where might our competitors objectives conflict with ours?
• What is the range of options open to us for dealing with unfolding new realities?
• What vulnerabilities in our competitors can we exploit?
• Where do we not want to compete with our competitors?
• Who are our competitor’s key suppliers?
• Who are our competitors biggest customers?
• What brands are in our competitors portfolio?
• What is our competitors preferred advertising route they prefer an agency to pursue?
• And what is our competitors social media footprint?
• Who are our competitors key customers?
• What is our competitors International Customer Base?
• Also, what is our competitors real Financial Position?
• What is our competitors supply chain?
• Are our competitors supply chain ethical?
• Who manufactures our competitors range of products?
• Who owns our competitors IP?

Route to market

• What is our route to a market?
• And what products do our competitors offer?
• What products do our competitors not offer?
• And what clients do our competitors prospect?
• Which prospective clients are our competitors not interested in?
• What have our competitors stopped doing over the last few years and why?
• What gives our competitors distinctiveness?
• Where do our competitors compete, which customers and niches?
• What kind of demand is there for our product or service?

Great questions are the best way to create great intelligence. It’s not just a case thinking up a smart question to catch all about a competitor or market. You have to guide the decision maker to take action.