L6, Tools for company, technology and market analysis Flashcards
Describe and use the established tools (PEST, SWOT, Benchmarking) for carrying out an analysis of the market trends and conclude on the business implications of the analysis
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Compile information about and assess the state-of-the-art in a particular technological domain or application area
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Why SWOT?
To gain understandning of the strengths and weaknesses ofbyour company and its products
What is a swot?
- an analysis of strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats
—> could be applied to the company
—> could be applied to the product idea - First you make an INTERNAL analysis focusing on the strengths and weaknesses at the business (company, organisation, product)
- You then review the EXTERNAL business environment and identify opportunities and threats n that environment.
Typical questions when analyzing strengths?
- what does the company do well?
- is the company strong in its market?
- Does the company have a strong sense of purpose and the culture to support the purpose?
Typical questions when analyzing weaknesses?
- what does the company do poorly?
- What problems could be avoided?
- Does the company have serious financial liabilities?
Typical questions when analyzing opportunities?
- are industry trends moving upward?
- Do new markets exist for the company’s products/services?
- Are there new technologies that the company can exploit?
Typical questions when analyzing threats?
- what are competitors doing well?
- what obstacles does the company face?
- Are there troubling changes in the company’s business environment (technology, laws and regulations)
- If thorough swot, you can also make a smaller one with “selected observations”.
What is benchmarking?
— Provides a standard or point of reference to measure and judge product quality, value or performance
— The continuous process of measuring products, practices and services against the toughest competitors or those recognized and industry leaders
— It is a systematic and repeatable process for continuous improvement to take inspiration from others
— can concern processes as well as products
What could benchmarking be useful for?
Useful for:
1. Identifying customer needs
—> what are other satisfying?
- improving concept generation
—> What sub-solutions do others use?
—> can we prove our concept better? - For embodiment design
—> can we adapt or improve used design features? - Establishing product specifications
—> how can we secure that we set goals that lead to a competitive product? - Detail design
—> what supplier can we use for components?
Describe the step by step procedure for benchmarking!
- Form a list of relevant design issues and properties
- Identify competing or related products
- Conduct an information search
- If possible, buy exemplars of competing products
—> test, take apart, document - Systemize the product information
—> e.g.excel - Analyze the information e.g. for:
—> best in class per property
—> identifying clusters of properties or competitors
—> identifying opportunities for obtaining unique selling points
—> predicting industry trends
Describe the first step of the benchmark, Form a list of relevant design issues and properties?
You could benchmark almost everything:
- Different parts/features of the design
2. Product properties —> price —> noice —> capacity —> etc.
- Product design
—> design features
—> details
—> materials
4. Company level —> factory infrastructure —> patent portfolio —> market share —> financial status
- Suppliers
- Materials etc.
Describe the second step identify competing or related products?
— Identify competitors through secondary information —> search the web —> patent search —> publications —> etc.
Technical competitor?
Market competitor?
Direct/indirect competitor`
Describe the third step, conduct an information search?
- written sources
- market research databases
- other
Describe the fourth step, analyze competing products
First-hand experience of the competing product is essential for understanding:
- the customers’ situation and needs
- the own product
- obtaining ideas and inspiration from competitors
— Companies that are serious about customer orientation shortcut the distance between customer-designer