1 st Answer

Introduction: Competitive intelligence refers to an important aspect of strategic

management. It enables to make decisions and the management is in a position
to measure their performance against the rivals in order to ensure that they
come up with effective future strategies. However, in the age of surplus
information, sifting through the right sources to meet specific goals and
objectives are often challenging. If the executive is responsible to drive the
strategy of the organization, here are some of the top external sources of
competitive intelligence that must be on the radar:

Competitor websites
The website is the window to the world. So, it will go without saying that to study a
competitor’s website ensures that the brand has tremendous insights into the way they
are operating. Apart from the corporate information such as their products, leadership
team and geographic presence, websites often tell a lot about their marketing
strategies. For instance, a press release would reveal the latest news about the
company like market expansion, partnership and changes in the product. Analyzing
their website content and user experience with the help of tools like Google Analytics
provides insights into their positioning, traffic, keywords and search rankings. Job
descriptions posted on the careers page often provide an inside-view on the current
projects, areas of investment and their organizational structure.
Annual Reports: These reports refer to a reliable source of company data like revenues,
numbers of the employees, history, strategies of business growth, stakeholders,
subsiadiaries and so on.
They provide an all-inclusive view of the activities and their financial health.
Premium database: In scenarios where the freely-available information is limited, paid
databases such as Capital IQ and Factiva are useful sources of competitive intelligence.
These databases provide in-depth information on companies, products, pricing,
investments, and innovation among other information of the business.

Syndicated reports: When it comes to uncovering industry benchmarks and best

practices, research reports are extremely valuable. They provide viable information on
each and everything from the numbers of trends related to the market, forecasts of
growth to profiles which are industry-specific.

This provides an overview of the focus market, and this includes the important players
in the industry, how they can differentiate themselves and how their services can map
with the needs of the market, and provide greater clarity of the competitive landscape.
Primary Research: Companies that look for granular insight on their competition often
conduct primary research, like surveys, interviews or mystery shopping. Primary
information that is gathered from suppliers, distributors customers and even industry
thought leaders provide insight on the products and services of the competitor that may
not be available elsewhere. Data that is collected via primary sources enable to
understand the purchase behavior towards the products versus the competition, and
enable to refine the marketing strategy as per the evolving needs of the customer.

6. Social media: Platforms of social media as well as online forums are considered to a
gold mine of customer as well as competitive intelligence. Analyzing social media
conversations often reveal how the brand can compare to the competition in terms of
the sentiment of the customer and share-of-voice that enables to inform about the brand
strategy. Honest, unfiltered feedback regarding the competition often provides an insight
to the products and services of the company seeking a new strategy. Additionally,
tracking the social profile of the rival often helps you to stay informed on their latest
development, events that they are sponsoring or participating in collaborations,
messaging among others.

7. Patent databases: When the brand analyzes the patent portfolio of the
competitor it helps to reveal the products that they are building, the direction of
their R&D and enables to devise effective innovation strategy accordingly.
Addressing the gaps in the IP often helps you to stay better prepared for a
potential disruption in the industry because of the technological innovation.

Conclusion: So, it can be concluded that in order to ensure that there are various
sources of information of the strategies of competitors, the brand needs to be alert to be
updated on places like Competitor websites, Annual Reports, Premium database,
Patent databases, Social media and primary research.
Syndicated reports
2 nd Answer:
Introduction: PESTEL analysis is a strategic management tool to identify and list the
political, economic, social, technological, environmental and legal factors prevailing in
the general environment of country/region/markets. In the above case, since the
software company wants to enter the retail sector in India, it needs to do a PESTLE
analysis. By identifying how all the elements of PESTLE influence their bakery
business the company can look for solutions to problems develop marketing strategies,
and you can get ahead of your competition. You can even use PESTLE to evaluate the
risks associated with states and countries you're interested in expanding your company
into.
1. Political Factors: Various legal and political macro-environmental factors affect the
brands in the clothing industry. The industry has constantly been affected by concerns
of workers' rights and child labor laws. Union workers in the apparel manufacturing
plants may picket their employers, especially if their wages or medical benefits are
less favorable than workers in other industries.

FDI and GST: Under the all categories, any piece of apparel or any electronic product
would be taxed below 5% GST if the taxable value of the goods does not exceed Rs.
200 per piece. All types of food condiment products value exceeding Rs. 200 per
piece will be taxed at 5% GST. This may make apparel products expensive for the
customers as the burden of GST is indirectly transferred to them.

Economic Factors: Economic factors can have both positive and negative impacts
on the retail clothing industry for children. During the periods of economic boom, the
middle-class income group parents have more salaries and more disposable income
and can afford to spend more money for lifestyle of their children. Hence, they may
spend more on may buy more such products, increasing sales for lifestyle-product
manufacturers, wholesalers and retailers. However, the situation in the current times
may have a worse effect as due to lockdown, many people lost their jobs, industries
have crippled and many people don’t have disposable income in hand. So, a L1
technologies may see a fall in sales as it is not a necessity for consumers. Also,
many retailers are stuck with large amounts of inventory. And they may have to sell of
their stock at extremely low prices, which is again uncertain. Consumers in the current
scenario don’t prefer to spend money on products which aren’t really required as
buying these products is not a necessity or they would opt for cheaper domestic
brands as have less disposable income.

Recession due to pandemic and its impact: Globalization, a universal phenomenon

affects each and every industry. This serves as an opportunity to expand the business
to a global level, but on the other hand, due to the recent Covid-19, lockdown, hard hit
Indian brands which indirectly led to a loss to the government of India, the government
has encouraged the Indian consumers to opt for products that are ‘’Made in India’’ and
the anti-foreign sentiment among the people of India is rising. This is because due to
pandemic, many domestic brands have suffered which ultimately has had a negative
impact on our economy. So, the consumers in India have been encouraged to support
and purchase from Indian brands and avoid relying on foreign brands. Go vocal for local
is something that is a huge threat to foreign brands.

Social

Need for specific raw materials: While selecting the raw material, it is important to
choose healthy and organic raw material components. Since the brand sells is into
softwares, the parts should usually involve different kind of chips.

Technological Factors: Technological factors which affect the lifestyle industry

involve availability of resources, demand and production. For example, the scarcity of
certain raw ingredients, such as micro-chip may force the manufacturers to use
alternatives.
.Agriculturists may enhance the prices of major chip for softwares and other such raw
material if they encounter shortages of this raw material, as they must pay their
manufacturers more. Introduction of new organic ingredients by a competitor helps to
shift demand away from older ingredients. Hence, a small lifestyle product fulfills the
needs of the consumer. Moreover, lifestyle product manufacturing companies may add
more advanced equipment in their plants like robots, which may force companies to
fire some workers.

Strict food and safety standards for food and condiment manufacturers: Lifestyle
is an important part of everyday life for some segment of consumers. Condiments
such as soya sauce keep the food items tasty and always delicious. Surprisingly, there
are certain raw ingredients such as MSG which can also be dangerous for children.
Proper supervision, safe environments, hazard awareness, and participating in age-
appropriate activities all enable to reduce the health risk of food and condiment related
injury to the customers.

The following characteristics of quality clothing are important for children:

• Good workmanship: It is the only way to ensure that the customers will enjoy their
favorite food items with soya sauce. The parts used should be hygienic materials:
Because these products are to be used on a regular basis. To avoid any kind of health
problems, organic and natural materials must be used in these parts.

Functional safety (with proper use): The bottles should be easy to open and not
made of harmful materials or long chords. There must be no possibility of fingers or
hands getting caught while opening the bottles. Durable and safe attachment of
accessories and parts, to ensure that they cannot be swallowed by small children, etc
Conclusion: Hence, I would suggest L1 technologies to avoid entering Indian retail
sector as most of the above factors aren’t favorable.
3rd Answer

3a.

Introduction: a) Stakeholder Analysis is a significant strategy for partner distinguishing

proof and investigating their necessities. It can distinguish all the (essential and
auxiliary) partners having a personal stake in the business concerns regarding which
the undertaking is concerned.

Coming up next is the procedure to perform partner investigation:

Recognize your partners: For this, an organization needs to pen down the name of all
the essential and optional partners. These include workers, financial specialists, clients,
providers, investors, and banks. The optional partners comprise of nongovernmental
associations, activists, neighborhood networks, exchange affiliations, contenders, and
the legal authorities.

Arranging the partners utilizing power/grid:

A partner's register is a rundown of individuals engaged with the task. Henceforth, the
partners are not constrained to the undertaking group however it might likewise allude
to anybody that may impact the arrangement of a processing plant. The force levels and
intrigue level of various partners are gathered by 4 unique quadrants where first
quadrant is overseeing intently, the second quadrant is keep fulfilled, the third quadrant
is screen and the fourth quadrant is keep educated.

1. Oversee carefully: There are 3 partners who are arranged in this category involving
main executing officer (the proprietor of the undertaking), obtainment supervisor, and
the main financial officer who look after the finances. They are the essential and most
remarkable partners who can without much of a stretch end, postponement and drop
the arrangement of the production line/venture. They have a solid impact to the project
being carried out in Khalapur. In this manner, their advantage ought to fundamentally be
satisfied. Obtainment administrator has a marginally equivalent situation to the task
chief since he is master in the agreement condition. The venture administrator imparts
equivalent capacity to acquirement director.

The partners who stay in "Oversaw Closely" quadrant will affect on triple requirements
of degree, asset and quality. On the off chance that there is no consideration towards
their prerequisites for the undertaking or in case there is any miscommunication and
they aren’t taken seriously in significant gatherings, the task might be in a tough
situation.
2. Ensure satisfaction: It involves five partners arranged in this category involving
urban town head, neighborhood pioneer, villa boss, locale head, and town seniors.
Each territory and area has their agent that is open or the individuals are allowed to ask
anything to them. This partner gives the grant advantageous for continuous and after
task. In the event that the organization skirts this progression, there might be a few
issues later on causing legitimate issues.

Urban town head, neighborhood pioneer, village boss, sub-region head are the partners
who should be consulted as one of the prerequisites for the license proposed. The
license here alludes to the grant to manufacture industrial facility in Khalapur. The
procedure in getting some endorsement from the partners is obviously straightforward
however muddled. The organization needs to make an arrangement particularly for
neighborhood pioneer and village boss. Some of them are ranchers work in the wee
hours of morning.

3b.

The partners who stay in "Keep fulfilled" quadrant and generally originate from outer
partner that impacts the degree, time, correspondence and hazard. As referenced
before, these partners don't put high intrigue however they have a major force. On the
off chance that we don't assemble some correspondence with them relating to the
venture they may have a capacity to end it. Then, again there is no standard
correspondence with them as these run of the mill partners are generally met in the
starting task. It is okay to proceed to the following stage on the off chance that we skirt
these partners' affirmation.

3. Update them: Six partners are grouped in this category, which are mostly involved
by the venture group. The partners are consultants, seller, on-field director,
Administration and Finance Manager, Plant Assistant Manager, HR manager, and
Procurement Deputy Manager. These partners generate the outcome the venture. A
portion of the individuals are from neighborhood place and the remaining work under
the instruction of temporary workers.

Partners in "keep educated" group should be reliably educated and recognized with the
current status regarding the venture every day as they come from inward partners. Then
again, these partners ought to be told with respect to the standard gatherings, solicited
to give prerequisites from intermittent report identified with the real-time update on the
current task progress, casual exercises, for example, eating together, get-away or any
caring casual gathering for building solid clinging to the undertaking. This is on the
grounds that they run, extend and guarantee deliverability. Their dedication and
inspiration can be kept up and to keep them roused, the undertaking chief may gain
from hierarchical hypotheses, for example, Maslow's hypothesis, Herzberg hypothesis,
etc.

4. Screen: There are 2 partners ordered in this class including nearby networks and
rancher affiliation. Since the task is situated in Khalapur, a humble community
encompassed by towns at Raigad region about sixty kilometers from Mumbai, the
undertaking ought to have acknowledged from the nearby individuals. In spite of the fact
that, they should be expressed by the villa boss and neighborhood pioneer, they ought
to be educated that the venture creates some bother circumstance, for example, clamor
and stacking process just as large vehicles moving to and fro.

Nearby people group improvement Godrej can lead exercises coordinated towards the
advancement of neighborhood networks. This is on the grounds that these networks
have their homes in nearness to the plants, and because of assembling tasks these
networks are influenced by the negative creation externalities discharged from plants

Subsequently, the organization should direct country wellbeing camps and give free
wellbeing registration and spend on school training of kids living close to their plants
and in the nearby surrounding areas. This empowers them to pick up help from the
neighborhood networks and evade fight developments and further government
guidelines.

Summary: Hence, Godrej and Boyce ought to guarantee that all the partners in
question and influenced through the plant are distinguished, and the advantages to all
the partners ought to be conveyed as this is a success win circumstance; as the
organisational methodology will be in arrangement with the partner's advantages,
Godrej can satisfy its obligation while balancing out its benefits.