The most innovative and successful organizations are led by leaders who are informed by real-time external data. They find opportunities to steer an industry in a certain direction and achieve great success. Take for example an organization that is trying to acquire a ' thought leadership ' position in the market. In order to be seen as a leader in the market, it is necessary to know what information the market is looking for. External data can alert everyone to the direction the organization should take. Based on external insights, an organization positions itself in this way as a specialist in what the market needs.
Competitor information
In addition to market intelligence, competitive intelligence is just as important. Leaders can use real-time intelligence to learn more about competitors. For example, consider a marketing department that has a goal of increasing brand awareness by 20 percent within a year. After a year, brand awareness has improved by 25 percent. That’s cause for celebration in the department. Not only has the goal been achieved, it has even been exceeded by 5 percent.
But suppose external data shows that the biggest competitor had the same goal in the same period and increased its brand awareness by no less than 30 percent. In that case, you have actually gone backwards, despite achieving the goal. What seemed like an indicator of growth suddenly turns into a warning signal.
Using data in the team
Anticipating threats
External data is also a way for leaders to anticipate threats before they can negatively impact the organization. For example, artificial intelligence can help detect messages from dissatisfied customers on social media, so organizations can immediately prevent a message from going viral.
There are several educational institutions that proactively address potential threats on campus in this way. Due to the high number of messages about educational institutions on social media, it is impossible to monitor them all manually. With the help of artificial intelligence and machine learning, they track down potentially harmful messages.
These examples illustrate that navel-gazing has us phone number list a negative connotation for a reason. If you only look at internal data, there is a big chance that you will miss important developments or information, for example that your competitor is doing better than you. By looking outside as an organization, you create a more realistic view of the world. Looking outside makes it possible to benchmark the competition and only then can you define realistic goals. With insights from outside, leaders can gather relevant information that allows them to do what they are good at: making decisions.
With the development of technologies such as artificial intelligence and machine learning, we can analyze and track more and more data in real time. In the coming years, a new category of services will develop, making the analysis of external data accessible to all companies. 'Outside Insight' will be for external data what 'business intelligence' is today for internal data. It is therefore crucial for organizations to take the step towards external data now.
re you planning a series of new product introductions or is a campaign being launched to highlight a repositioning of your brand? These are developments that impact the brand experience of consumers. How do you deal with them.