Rodenberg Tillman & Associates

Providing a framework for a focussed competitive intelligence service

The Tillman Strategic Audit®

Introduction

The Strategic Audit is a systematic process to define the requirements of the competitive intelligence process. The challenge is to develop a competitive intelligence process that accomplishes the major objectives of avoiding surprises, identifying market opportunities and minimising threats.

During a Strategic Audit we will do a competitive intelligence needs assessment which will:

Identify which markets, competitors, products, technologies and issues have to be monitored;
Determine which events will have a potential strategic impact on the company;
Identify the strategic input which is needed and expected by the management;
Help to define the responsibilities of the competitive intelligence group versus other groups in the company.

The Benefits

The main benefit is to create a framework to focus the company's intelligence efforts in the right direction, providing real understanding about the competitive arena and its dynamics. Specifically the Strategic Audit will be used to:

Avoid information overload by prioritising the potential information, which has to be collected;
Avoid ineffectiveness by focussing the analytical efforts on the strategic information needs;
Setting competitive intelligence goals consistent with the strategic plan;
To act rather than react to events at the marketplace;
Capitalise on market opportunities.

Our Approach

It is important to understand the overall mission of the company as well as specific strategies of individual business units. We will start to identify the strategic plans of the organisation as a whole as well as the plans of the specific business unit(s) involved in the competitive intelligence process. In addition, we will interview senior management and business unit executives. We will ask them to describe the markets in which the company competes, the company's overall strategy for each market, the key success factors and competition in those markets.

Based upon the interviews and the review of internal publications, we will provide a framework for designing a competitive intelligence process that will satisfy the high priority needs of primary internal customers.

The Strategic Audit can be complemented with workshops to test the conclusions and explore particular issues and challenges.

Our Approach

A Strategic Audit is not meant to be a "one-time" process. The business environment changes, the organisation changes and so strategy changes. Your framework for the competitive intelligence process has to be kept up-to-date and linked to the strategic plan. When we have executed a Strategic Audit at your company, we can offer you a two day training course on strategic auditing. This enables you to up-date the results on a regular basis.

Combining with an Information Audit

In addition to the Strategic Audit, Rodenberg,Tillman & Associates also offers an Information Audit, which makes the information needs, availability, flows and gaps within your organisation transparent. To integrate and optimise the information processes with the strategy process, we recommend to execute a Competitive Intelligence Audit, which is a combination of the Strategic Audit and the Information Audit.