How Competitors Analysis
Leads you to Take
Right Decisions

Competitors Analysis:
One of the basic steps the sewer contractor in Saudi Arabia must take in strategic planning is to analyze his key competitors, as well as the feasibility studies that are interested to identify the potential competitors and their goals.
The results of the feasibility study are affected sometimes, because we may build our calculations on a specific market demand assuming there are no competitors, while there is a competitor that has the skills and the objectives to compete with us. Therefore, the demand size will be divided between us and him.

Assessing the competitor's data, helps you to understand the following matters?

1) Strategy: Does he aim to provide a high or low quality service? Does he aim to expand?

2) Objectives: The competitors analysis purpose is to know if the rival aims to achieve a quick profit or a great profit, on the long run? Does he aim to profit or the rival is a state-owned company that aims to increase production and sales at first? Is he a family foundation that aims to exploit the time at work and do not bother much to achieve high profit? Does he aim to achieve technological advancement over all competitors?

3) The competitors analysis aims to know the contractor opinion about the industry (his assumptions or beliefs about the contracting business) he may be a competitor that cannot believe in using information technology in this field? Or maybe he thinks the sewer contracting is not profitable? Or maybe he believes the market is declining?

4) The competitors analysis objective is to explore the rivals resources and capabilities, auch as:

A) What're the limits of his financial resources?

B) What are his human resources (number - efficiency - educational level - experience - age - loyalty - training)?

C) What are the physical resources (equipment - tools - offices - sites - stores)?

D)Does he have a great brand name? What is the people's loyalty to his services?

E) What're his implementation skills? Is it successful in reducing the cost? Or does it have the flexibility to change (specifications of achievement).

F) Does he have the ability to develop? Does he have a research capacity?

G) What is his speed in response to the customers? What is the service type given to the customers?

H) What're his marketing abilities? What're his reactions to market changes?

I) What's his administrative capacity? How much flexibility does he have in the business?

Example:
If you want to open a small construction company in a small city. What do you want to know about the competitors, and how do you benefit from the competitors analysis?

A) It is important to know the level of service they have.
B) What're the price's leveling?
C) The quality of the customers and do they have the ability and willingness to expand?
E) If they have, will they expand in the same place or in other places?
F) Is the entity owned by a person or a group?
G) What is the ambition of the owner or the manager?
H) Is the entity is owned by a family that lives from its income?
I) Is the entity is a state-owned or owned by an investor who is interested in profit?
J) What are the resources of the entity?
K) How is the entity relation with the suppliers of materials?
L) What's the entity market share?

How to benefit from the competitors analysis precious information?

1) The level of service and prices:
You may find twenty entities, but all or most of them provide excellent service and costly, or we may find that most of them provide a modest service at low cost. This helps us to know our chances of investment in new projects. We can work in a level that other competitors do not work in. This of course depends on the presence of agents for these entities in that region. Second is to know who are the real competitors to us that provide the same level of service and prices?

2) The quality of work:
You may find some work either cannot be performed by the existing entities or by most of them or cannot be performed well (This status opens a room for us to specialize in this work).
Furthermore, by knowing the quality of work provided by every entity, we can know the competitors that can offer the same quality of work. Of course, there is a competition among enterprises that provide different quality of work, but it's more influential among those who provide the same quality of work.

3) The ability and ambition to expand:
This helps us to asses our chances in this competition. If they have a strong desire to expand in the same place and if the quality of their services approaches us, then their expansion means attracting a greater number of customers who will affect us.

4) The Owner's Nature:
If the owner is a modest person who lives from the income of his entity and spends his full-time in it, then reducing the prices by the rivals will be a fatal action against him. The owner is willing to continue in this competition until he dies (he can accept the least profit as long as he is spending his time in his company). However, he may not have the necessary administrative knowledge to provide an excellent and innovative service, and he may not have the ability to expand.

5) Resources:
If the rivals have enough financing and physical resources, then they have more chances to compete with us, and this leads to think to distinguish with them in the quality of the provided services to avoid their direct competition.

6) Relationship with the Suppliers of Materials:
By examining the market, we may find a strong relationship between the existing competitors and the suppliers of materials, resulting in not procuring of materials as needed.
On the other hand, we may find that our competitors did not invest much time in building a good relationship with the suppliers. This status allows us to build a strong relationship with them through building a supply method which helps us to achieve the needed savings and advantages not obtained by the competitors.

7) Market share:
If the competitor has a high market share, then he will have a big impact on the prices and on the market. Therefore, we should analyze this rival accurately.
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