By Ruthie Livingston


Businesses cannot afford to conduct international business blindly. They need to know what their rivals are doing and what the customers actually need. This way, they are able to maintain a competitive edge by serving their customers better than their competitors. It is a noble idea for businesses to hire international business intelligence service providers to assist in the areas detailed below.

The intelligence firms collect and analyze data to come up with statistics that accurately portray a firms position when compared against several industry-wide factors. They also extract facts by which the firm can improve its ratings in the industry. The business uses the report to plan for its future, serve its customers better, and compete effectively against the competition.

In nearly all multinational markets, the firm is not the only firm offering the market with certain types of solutions, there are of course many others offering similar goods and competing for the same customers. To succeed the enterprise must serve the customers better than its competition. This requires the company to be ahead of competition in innovation and adopting the latest technologies that assist it lower costs while producing better products. Using intelligence, it is able to know what is about to be introduced in the market and what new ideas the rivals are implementing.

Managing a crisis make the difference between staying afloat after a disaster or going down. There are several challenges that are a threat to a company survival owing to the different political and social economic regions it serves. Such disasters may be poor judgment that makes their goods unusable, attempts to blackmail the business, attacks from political and firm rivals and many others. With market intelligence, the company can identify authorities to lobby, counter the rivals, and handle crises in its plants or distribution points.

A business must always provide the right solutions to customer needs. When getting into new markets, the enterprise may not be familiar with customer preferences, tastes, and unique needs of its clients. Research is required to ensure that the market is served with the right solutions. The firm can seek assistance from international entrepreneurship intelligence firms in determining customer needs, planning on market entry, and developing effective marketing plans. This helps the firm grow its market share and beat its rivals at the marketplace.

Serving a large market exposes the firm to bigger risks. The risks may be damage done to assets, energy issues, damage to its reputation or brands and inability to get enough raw materials, and lack of the required expertise among others. To mitigate such risks, the firm can work with market intelligence firms in coming up with credible risk management plans and developing backups to vital processes.

A growing firm is likely to face legal battle at a point in its lifetime. Such battles could be with the clients, rival firms. An example is the case where a customer sues for defective goods, or a government official soliciting for bribes among many others. Such claims require proper private investigation so that the company does not end up paying for unwarranted claims. Intelligent investigations may come in handy is solving such issues.

If the business worked like human beings, the CEO would be its eyes, the workers its hands and shareholders its legs. Business intelligence would be the brain. Doing entrepreneurship without the right information is like being without the brain and may lead serious errors, loss of customers and eventual closing down of the company.




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