After examining Economic Indicators to understand the
country or countries, which are under consideration to locate productive operations,
and to select targeted markets. Investors of
personal or business time, skills or funds, next must engage in competitive
intelligence (CI). Defining, gathering, analyzing data into information and
testing, disseminating and distributing the resulting intelligence, on and about jobs, products,
suppliers, customers, competitors
and any aspect of the environment; geographical, political, cultural, civil society
and legal jurisdiction, is needed to support strategic decision-making. Such
intelligence is key in formulating the operation’s dynamic Strategic Plan,
which is used to produce fund raising extracts, such as; a Prospectus to
attract equity investors and a Business Plan to raise debt.
Decisions on, investing
personal time, applying and taking education and employment in this geographic location,
will require intelligence about training institutions and industrial operators,
and their track records. Training, much needed, has become, like finance,
mostly borderless. It is the practical experience, which still requires travel
to produce the resulting skill. Skills, which offers sustained employment, are
highly competitive and need certification and endorsement from the most
respected organizations, in that particular field of discipline. Employment,
with its widest meaning, is crucial to improving standards of living, economic
growth and sustainable development. The individual mission is to better self,
family and others, hence, the constant need for further intelligence.
Decisions on,
investing business time, applying to regulators, for legal registration, to
operate bank accounts in local and foreign currencies, to understand and participate
in cultures and communities, will require intelligence on Government Policies,
laws and regulations. Regulations and the many regulators, which can cripple business
activities, must be constantly monitored and the business must always be found
to be compliant. Legal Registration offers protection to all stakeholders’
interest and properties. Banking and Currencies data is gathered and forecasted
by the nation’s monetary reserve agency or central bank. The business constantly
requires intelligence on Cultures in the markets in which it serves and
Communities in which it operates, to best win and grow market share.
People and Property to
execute the idea into industry. People with the essential Skills and Property
with assigned Values, are merge through processes into operations to produce
products, which offer benefits to the targeted market. The Market, in return,
pays to maintain the operation and benefit all its stakeholders. The product’s
price, therefore, must always cover salaries and wages, supplies, promotional
cost and all other expenses, to remain relevant, feasible and competitive.
Hence, it is the industry’s current relevant measured data, calculated for
feasibility and analyzed into information, and presented to shareholders,
directors, management and all other stakeholders as Competitive Intelligence, which
must drive decisions, at all levels.
The Strategic Plan
is a dynamic document, constantly changing along with current input data and
processed intelligence. Both internal and external data flows into the
strategic plan to project five to ten years going forward, based on historical
trends. Internal
information, such as, on each and every transaction, fixed asset registry,
Human Resource files, Loans and Debt records. Externally
sourced information from market research, product improvement, sector and
country news, region and world economic indicators. So, most progressive organizations
can now use such Business Intelligence to produce, up-to-the-minute management
accounts for their external auditors, for Security and Exchange Commission and
other sector and industry regulators filings, and for bankers and shareholders’
Annual Reports.
Rationale
T.A.J & Associates Company Limited
uses this occasion to comment on topics that have been covered, both academically
and by the mainstream media, to add its opinion and point out investment
opportunity, not to invoke any social action.
