What is the importance of knowing competitors' future goals for setting up your competitive strategy?

Knowledge of competitors' future goals will

- Allow predictions about whether or not each competitor is satisfied with its present position and financial results, and thereby, how likely the competitor is to change strategy and the vigor with which it will react to outside events (for instance, the business cycle) or to moves by other firms.

- Aid in predicting competitors' reactions to strategic changes.

- Help interpret the seriousness of initiatives the competitors take.

When competitors' goals are well understood, there may be a place where everyone is relatively happy.

Any organization shall set a strategy, either for the short term or long term spans. The strategy is meant to define certain goals (measured by certain criteria) within a defined time frames. This process is basically based on certain datum or referenced basis, always related to the market conditions.

One of the factors affecting the nature of the market conditions is the status and development of the competitors. Accordingly, the assumptions of the status and development of the competitors can affect the success of the internal strategy of our organization.

That is why it is very important to know the competitors’ future goals in order to estimate very close assumptions of the market conditions which are needed prior setting up the internal strategy.