Leveraging International Business Intelligence For Success

By Ruthie Livingston


International business is more than just producing and selling goods and services. A business needs to be informed on what the customers need and what its rivals are up to. This prevents the erosion of a business competitive advantage to its rivals together with its profits. Business intelligence keeps a firm on top of its game. A competent international business intelligence service provider can be of help in assisting the firm in several areas.

The intelligence firms collect and analyze data to come up with statistics that accurately portray a firms position when compared against several industry-wide factors. They also extract facts by which the firm can improve its ratings in the industry. The business uses the report to plan for its future, serve its customers better, and compete effectively against the competition.

In nearly all multinational markets, the firm is not the only firm offering the market with certain types of solutions, there are of course many others offering similar goods and competing for the same customers. To succeed the enterprise must serve the customers better than its competition. This requires the company to be ahead of competition in innovation and adopting the latest technologies that assist it lower costs while producing better products. Using intelligence, it is able to know what is about to be introduced in the market and what new ideas the rivals are implementing.

Managing a crisis make the difference between staying afloat after a disaster or going down. There are several challenges that are a threat to a company survival owing to the different political and social economic regions it serves. Such disasters may be poor judgment that makes their goods unusable, attempts to blackmail the business, attacks from political and firm rivals and many others. With market intelligence, the company can identify authorities to lobby, counter the rivals, and handle crises in its plants or distribution points.

The best business approach is to deliver products and services that the customers want. A company may not be familiar with tastes, preferences, and needs of clients in certain regions. The enterprise requires doing a market research and learning what the market needs. International business research companies assist in doing survey, strategizing on new market entries, and assisting in development of credible marketing plans. This way, the company is able to meet the needs of the customers head on, better than the competitors do.

There are several risks that a company has to deal with in different international markets. Such risks include risk of brand or reputation damage, energy issues in its production plants, damage to a plant or other assets, lack of qualified personnel or even lack of raw materials. With the intelligence collected in the market, the company can come up with credible risk mitigation strategies and set up backups for critical enterprise areas.

Businesses have to cope with legal challenges at some point in their existence. Some may be with their own clients, rival firms, or authorities. For example, a customer may sue for a defective good, or some government official may ask for a bribe to release some license. These cases require the firm to do thorough private research to defends its interests. A business intelligence consultant can help unravel the truth to save the company at the floor of the court.

If the business worked like human beings, the CEO would be its eyes, the workers its hands and shareholders its legs. Business intelligence would be the brain. Doing entrepreneurship without the right information is like being without the brain and may lead serious errors, loss of customers and eventual closing down of the company.




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