To complete a comprehensive industry analysis, you must know the industry landscape. You must know who your competitors are. Prepare an overview of your competitors, their strengths and weaknesses. Position each competitor’s product against your products. Understand the customer needs and preferences that are you competing to meet.
Consulting firms are a portfolio of skills and capabilities all wrapped up in their talent – the individuals that make up their firm. The key to being an in demand candidate at the top of the list of a consulting firm’s recruitment agenda is having relevant skills to the growth areas in this portfolio. So, your job is to investigate which areas of consulting firms are growing and which are declining. For this you may interview consultants at firms, browse consulting boards to see what they are talking about, look at the marketing white papers of consultancies.
The other important part of industry analysis is seasonality and sensitivity to economic changes. Do people in your area of the country buy more concessions, or donuts, in the winter or summer? In beach towns or at fairs and festivals? What you learn after accumulating all this data may surprise you. It may seem tedious, but it really is important to you. Are there more sales over holidays? This knowledge will help you put your financial information together later on. Is there any way to use the Internet to your advantage? Have there been any recent technological innovations in the machinery used for production?
Finally, those involved in industry analysis look that a company fits in to make predictions. Not every industry is affected by the current political and economical-situation. For example, the housing industry has suffered since 2007 but the company you are looking at may be impacted little by its demise.
Information used for industry analysis includes trends related to its typical business cycle. A simple example here deals with seasonal performance such as when retailers experience an increase in sales during the Christmas season. On the other hand, there are some industries that perform consistently throughout their business cycles.
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