Scope for Finnish Companies to Encourage More Internal Stakeholders to Contribute to Market Intelligence
October 6, 2011. Finnish companies have often been among the more advanced market intelligence practitioners, and the 2011 Global Market Intelligence Survey confirmed this. The prevalence of market intelligence programs is high in Finland, with 82% of companies reporting to have a market intelligence function in place. How do Finnish companies operate their market intelligence functions?
In the Global Market Intelligence Survey conducted in March 2011, GIA looked at the current state of market intelligence in 96 large and mid-sized Finnish companies, and compared the results with other European countries.
Budgets and value
Although average market intelligence budgets appear to be somewhat smaller in Finland than in other European countries, this can be largely explained by the fact that Finnish companies tend to be smaller on average. More specifically, Finland is not home to many of the world’s largest companies, which tend to have substantial market intelligence resources and which therefore make average budgets appear larger. When comparing median budgets however, Finnish companies are on the same level as their European peers.
Market intelligence programs in Finland seem to be delivering good value for their companies, as indicated by an 81% approval rate, higher than the global average. This may be due to the fact that market intelligence programs in Finland have been around for a while and they have had time to mature.
Source: 2011 Global Market Intelligence Survey by GIA
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Overall, market intelligence budgets and future plans appear to be quite stable for Finnish companies – a possible reflection of the fact that market intelligence programs in Finland are on average well-established.
Market Intelligence Set Up
While companies in other countries tend to have their market intelligence setup under either strategic planning or sales and marketing with a rather even split, Finnish companies tend to prefer an organization under strategic planning.
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Companies from Finland tend to have one or two layers between market intelligence and the CEO. Moreover, compared with other European regions, Finland companies prefer small to mid-size teams. These findings most likely reflect the fact that companies are somewhat smaller in size than in the other surveyed European countries.
But proximity to the CEO may also have to do with market intelligence being organized under strategic planning, which is often a function close to the CEO.
Source: 2011 Global Market Intelligence Survey by GIA
*Click on image to enlarge
On average, 39% of work is done in a regular fashion and 79% of requests are fulfilled. 45% of the deliverables are produced by centralized market intelligence resources. Based on these metrics, Finnish market intelligence teams are similar to their European and global peers.
Source: 2011 Global Market Intelligence Survey by GIA
*Click on image to enlarge
Market Intelligence Networks
The most striking feature of Finnish companies is the structure of the internal market intelligence network, meaning all the people who contribute to collecting and sharing intelligence even without a formal mandate.
Although Finnish market intelligence programs are otherwise quite advanced, they have less extensive networks of contributors than companies in other countries.
In addition to the core team, an average of 39 people contribute to market intelligence. Whereas ideally market intelligence would be a collaborative, company-wide activity with two-way communications, Finnish companies tend to focus the work to a small core team.
On average, Finnish companies have about 1,002 internal clients for market intelligence. It would appear that Finnish companies tend to see their internal stakeholders more as end-users rather than as contributors.
Overall, it therefore seems challenging for Finnish companies to make market intelligence a concerted effort within the organization.
For answers to how global companies run world class market intelligence functions, download the 2011 Global Market intelligence Survey white paper. Or request a presentation of the country results from the 2011 Global Market intelligence Survey by a GIA consultant today.
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