Oak Tree Press develops and delivers information, advice and resources for entrepreneurs and managers. It is Ireland’s leading business book publisher, with an unrivalled reputation for quality titles across business, management, HR, law, marketing and enterprise topics.
In addition, through its founder and managing director, Brian O’Kane, Oak Tree Press occupies a unique position in start-up and small business support in Ireland through its standard-setting titles, as well training courses, mentoring and advisory services. Oak Tree Press is comfortable across a range of communication media – print, web and training, focusing always on the effective communication of business information.
NuBooks is Oak Tree’s new imprint for short, focused and relevant ebooks for busy entrepreneurs and managers.
Oak Tree Press, 19 Rutland Street, Cork, Ireland.
T: + 353 21 4313855 F: + 353 21 4313496.
E: info@oaktreepress.com W: www.oaktreepress.com .
From a graduate background in law and business, Carol Tallon became the managing director of Buyers Broker Ltd., Ireland’s only property buyers’ agency franchise, in 2006.
Carol is best known for her regular articles, media and radio features as the Irish property buyers’ champion and is the author of the Irish Property Buyer’s Handbook 2011, the essential guide to buying residential property in Ireland.
Carol’s passion is for niche businesses and she is a speaker and panellist on the topics of entrepreneurship, competitive intelligence and business strategy.
The first introduction most businesses have to their competitors is at the planning stages of setting up a new venture. Businesses tend to start up because of, or in spite of, competitors – either no-one else currently offers the product or service in the way a new business owner envisages or perhaps the market is so buoyant that it encourages more entrants.
Although every business plan should feature a competitor analysis, most give details that rarely exceed website or promotional blurb together with any recent press or media coverage. Even where deeper research has been conducted, this information rarely is used effectively to influence the strategy of the business going forward, which is the very purpose of its inclusion.
The aim of competitive intelligence (CI) is to enable and encourage business owners to take this research further, through the standard SWOT analysis right through to the formulation of a relevant, market-specific strategy in the short, medium and long term.
Business owners must find out what information is legally and ethically available to them through a variety of sources and what this information actually means. The next step is to turn that information into intelligence that can be used to influence the strategic direction of their own business with the sole aim of achieving a position of advantage over competitors. The key to successful CI is the business’s ability to manage that CI going forward and to integrate it into all aspects of planning.