The Compete Clarity Podcast Competitive Intelligence Alliance

Sometimes in competitive intelligence, your stakeholders don't want to hear difficult truths about the state of the industry, their business, or their products.

But having the courage and the savvy to deliver bad news well can mean the difference between your CI program's success and its failure.

Fouad Benyoub returns to the show one year on from his first appearance to discuss how being a contrarian has helped his career, and how adopting that same attitude could help yours, too.

Key talking points:
• How being a contrarian opens the door for both opportunities and scrutiny, and how to deal with that scrutiny to best benefit your career.
• The difference between giving stakeholders what they want, and what they need, and how to strike just the right balance between the two.
• The spoken and unspoken challenges facing CI pros today, and which you can face and fix.

Key talking points
🚀 Discover the two AI-driven techniques Adobe employs to monitor competitors effectively.🕵️‍♂️ We reveal a unique approach to using AI to distilling actionable insights from mountains of data.🤝 Uncover how Adobe's CI expert harnesses AI to enhance his day-to-day output and impact.
Episode summary
In this episode of the Complete Clarity Podcast, Alex Walton chats with Ben Hoffman, Senior Manager of Competitive Intelligence at Adobe, exploring the transformative impact of AI on competitive intelligence (CI).

Hoffman shares insights on how AI not only streamlines the immense task of data analysis but also serves as a vital tool for strategic planning, without overshadowing the irreplaceable value of human intuition and decision-making. 

They delve into the nuances of AI's application in CI, the importance of security in its deployment, and Adobe's forward-looking approach to leveraging AI for future innovations in competitive strategy.

No one goes to school for competitive intelligence.
If you’ve hung out with other CI pros, you’ll know that, despite their diverse professional backgrounds, most end up saying the same thing: “Well, I kinda just fell into it.”

But what if that’s not you? If you’ve got your sights set on CI, do you have to hope and pray you ‘fall into it’ too?

Not according to today’s guest.

Farhan Manjiyani is Senior Manager of Commercialization and Pricing at Grafana Labs, a tech company with over 1200 employees responsible for a lot of popular open source projects, including its namesake, the Grafana data visualization platform.

Today we discuss:
Farhan’s transition from product marketing manager to full-time competitive intelligence pro.His advice for those looking to make a similar transition.What it’s like working on open source projects.The impact having the very DNA of your products open for the world to see has on your competitive intelligence efforts.
...and much more.

Grab this year's edition of the Competitive Intelligence Trends Report: https://pmmalliance.co/47XJabi

Back when the Competitive Intelligence Alliance first launched, one of the first topics we explored was Competitive Positioning. Now, a year later, we wanted to revisit the topic, and brought an expert on board to help: today’s guest, Fiona Finn.

In a previous role at Unbounce, Fiona oversaw the platform’s repositioning from landing page builder, to conversion intelligence platform, while navigating two pricing changes in one and a half years. Now Director of Product Marketing at Jane App, Fiona joins us on the show to talk us through how competitive intelligence fits into the very important puzzle that is positioning.

Expect to learn:
What role competitive intelligence should play in your positioning campaigns.How dedicated CI folks can best support their product marketing colleagues with positioning-related intel.How to use SEO and SEM data to exploit unique competitive advantages.The advantages of your positioning being a set of values that permeates your company culture, rather than just a strategy.
…and much more

Want to be a guest on the show? If you've more than five years of CI experience and nothing to sell, email contribute@competitiveintelligencealliance.io and we'll be in touch to discuss next steps.

Building a competitive program from scratch is a topic that’s been covered before. But what about rebuilding one? Coming into a business with the remnants of a failed CI program and turning that situation around is something that poses unique challenges. You’re walking into something where people are jaded, where their expectations of you and your program aren’t necessarily positive. David D’Aprile, VP of Global Product Marketing at Onapsis, joins us to share how he does it.

Expect to learn:
The five step process for rebuilding a CI program from scratch.The biggest challenge you’ll face when doing so.Which three pieces of content are foundational, reliable, and essential in any competitive program.Why it might not be the best idea to try to build out a tech stack while doing a rebuild.How to build momentum by getting wins early.
…and much more

Want to be a guest on the show? If you've more than five years of CI experience and nothing to sell, email contribute@competitiveintelligencealliance.io and we'll be in touch to discuss next steps.

Jayde Phillips is Senior Strategy and Market Intelligence Manager at Egencia, part of American Express GBT (Global Business Travel).
With eight solid years of experience in product marketing, CI and strategy behind her, Jayde is well-placed to lead the competitive intelligence function as a solo practitioner in a business with a headcount in the thousands. Jayde joins us on the show to chat insights, past wins, and best practices.

Key talking points:
The practical differences between competitive and market intelligence.The easy, quick way to identify your top three threats amongst your primary competitors.How to use a win/loss initiative to drive win rates higher, and how Jayde implements this herself.
Check out the CI-by-Industry eBook.

Interested in being a guest on the show? Click here.

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