Case Study: Relationship-based, competitive intelligence techniques applied to the engineering and construction industry

Maxine Scheer
Scheer Intelligence

Most leaders in the engineering and construction industry (E&C) will tell you that theirs is a relationship-based business. However, many late nights are spent by project managers and marketing staff, putting together last minute proposals because decision makers can't pass up responding to solicitations that sound like something the company does or could do. In many cases, the first time they meet the prospective client is after the solicitation has been published and the relationship making opportunities are, to say the least, fairly limited.

Another common problem is that E&C organizations tend to be structured so that specific geographic offices, disciplines or sectors work fairly autonomously, catering to a specific group of customers (aka "their clients"). This often leads to missed opportunities because of a variety of issues such as fear, poor communication, lack of incentives, and lack of knowledge of other parts of the organization interferes with collaboration and cross-selling.

Many AEC organizations recognize that they are not effectively maximizing existing client relationships. They are starting to invest more heavily in strategic planning processes, customer relationship management (CRM) systems, and are hiring former clients to strengthen their understanding of industry trends and secure more work from others in their former clients' industry.

There are, however, many problems that exist in the effective use of these investments not least of which are the underlying gaps in decision makers' understanding of what other parts of the company do and where others' expertise could be applied in solving existing and future clients' problems.

This presentation is going to focus on the methods used for collecting and disseminating competitive intelligence, and applying information extracted from various internal systems to a Plan used by a middle-manager to identify and prioritize potential clients and to communicate cross-selling opportunities to other parts of the organization. The methods include the extensive use of a relationship mapping technique called mind-mapping, used as a tool for integrating business intelligence gathered in an environmental scanning process into an "intrapreneurial" effort to build a new sector focused on the aviation industry.

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