In any business, accurate and timely intelligence is vital. Whether you are looking at preparing a business plan, marketing strategy, choosing a partner, launching a new product, restructuring your business - or any type of strategic or tactical move, you need reliable information.
Unfortunately, in the heat of battle, many executives look for quick-fix solutions. They view research as merely surfing the web, or glancing through publicly available secondary information. This superficial data is then used as the basis for strategic decisions. But corporate warfare is never that simple! Strategies based on insufficient or inaccurate information can lead to expensive mistakes, sometimes threatening the survival of the company itself. As they say, penny-wise can be pound-foolish.
Today, leading corporations the world over, realise the value of quality research and information. They know that being better-informed gives them an edge in the increasingly competitive marketplace. Not only can this help increase profits, but also avoid costly losses due to mistakes.
Case Study I
Company A, an Asian giant in the consumer sector was setting up a joint venture in India. The terms of the project were already finalised and they were on the verge of signing a deal with a local partner. As usual, they were in a hurry to get moving - after all, they wanted to get a foothold into India's large consumer market. However, one of the senior members of their management was uncomfortable with the haste, and insisted on bringing in an external agency to perform a due diligence of their proposed local partner. Reluctantly, the others agreed and ValueNotes was called in.
Within an extremely tight deadline, ValueNotes discovered several interesting facts about the potential JV partner:
They had misrepresented the size of their Indian business interests.
They were embroiled in several legal (criminal) cases.
All their earlier JV and alliance partners had parted ways with them under unhappy circumstances.
The Result: Company A was saved from potential losses of millions of dollars, as well as the negative impact of allying with an unsatisfactory local partner.
Case Study II
Company B, based in Europe, had been working with an IT services company in India for several months. They were now looking at strengthening the relationship by picking up an equity stake in the local company. Though they were very comfortable with their partner, as a measure of prudence they decided to get a second opinion - from an unbiased source, based on ground level research.
ValueNotes took on the assignment. We found that the company and its management were highly competent and well regarded. However, we also discovered that they already had a relationship with another international services firm - a possible conflict of interest.
The Result: The deal finally went through, but their inside information enabled them to bargain more effectively, and draft legal provisions that eliminated possible future conflicts of interest.
Case Study III
Company C was looking for opportunities to diversify out of its traditional businesses, which were showing declining growth and profitability. Their consultants had prepared feasibility and market research studies, and recommended they enter a "hot" new sunrise industry. The potential, projections and future profits were fantastic, in fact, almost too good to be true.
A chance meeting between the CEO of Company C and ValueNotes led them to commission a small "competitive analysis" study. We found that though the future potential was huge, there were several problems:
The capital requirements were larger than earlier anticipated.
Too many others had the same idea, and competition was likely to be intense.
The market would take much longer to develop than had been assumed.
Company C had no real strengths or advantages to be able to compete effectively in the chosen market.
The Result: Company C pulled out of the project, and today is laughing at the scores of other entrants that have burnt themselves slugging it out in the "hot" sector.
These are just a few instances of the value of quality "business intelligence", and how an independent and unbiased research firm can help save millions.
Don't play Blind! Give us a call.
We can help you with any kind of corporate research and business intelligence. Some of our recent assignments have included:
Market assessment
Industry studies
Competitive analysis
Due diligence
Market research
Equity research/ valuation
Investor/ user perception studies
Market segmentation
Our team is flexible and we're confident of working on any sector or industry. Some of the areas we've tackled lately are:
Tea / Coffee
Pharmaceuticals/ Diagnostics
Tobacco / Cigarettes
Real estate
Television programming
Insurance
Venture capital / Private equity
Telecommunications
Financial services
Software services
IT enabled services
By now, we're sure you've got the picture. If this is not enough to convince you, a partial list (confidentiality clauses preclude us from revealing the complete list) of recent clients is given below:
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or sell securities. The information and views contained on this site are believed
to be reliable, but no responsibility (or liability) is accepted for errors of
fact or opinion. Writers and contributors may be trading in, or have positions
in the securities mentioned in their articles. Neither ValueNotes nor any of the
contributors accepts any liability arising out of use of the above information/article.
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