Key Events and Business Highlights You Should Monitor on Your Competitors

Maintaining a competitive edge in business is incredibly difficult, no matter what industry your company operates in. It is not enough to offer great products or services as there are many things around your competitors that could undermine your advantages including similar offerings, price destruction, innovative technology, stronger alliance, improvement of the balance sheet and new leadership. 

By monitoring your competitors, you will gain a good understanding of how well they are performing and what direction they are heading in. This will help your company form an effective strategy that will maintain a healthy competitive advantage.

In this article, we will be looking at some of the key events and business highlights you should keep an eye on in order to better understand your competitors.  

Competitor Events You Should Track

1. Mergers & Acquisitions, Joint Ventures, and Company Investments
   If your target company is looking to buy a controlling stake in another firm, enter into a joint venture, or purchase new equipment or facilities, it may be about to increase capacity, expand market share or launch new products or services.
   It is wise to pay attention to news about any major company investments initiated by your competitor. Similarly, any significant changes in your target company’s shareholder structure could have important implications for the future of the company. If an investor, either an individual or an organisation, acquires a majority stake in the firm, you would be keen to know who they are, how it’s happened and what matters to your business or the industry.

2. Initial Public Offerings and Other Fundraising Activities
   Fundraising events such as initial public offerings (IPOs), private placements, and the issuance of corporate debt instruments like bonds and notes are often a sign that the company is preparing to expand its operations. Information on fundraising activities can usually be found in company press releases or stock exchange filings.

3. Management Changes
   Any changes in the top leadership could have profound implications for the company’s vision and strategy. Keep an eye out for official announcements or rumours about leadership changes and gather as much information as you can on the professional histories of any new or incoming leaders.

4. Corporate Events
   Looking at the corporate events that your target company is hosting or participating in can give you insights into things like the company’s financial performance, target customers, and business strategy. Such events include:

• •  Annual general meetings
  •  Releases of quarterly and annual earnings reports
  • Product launches
  • Trade shows or conferences which the company is sponsoring, attending or spearheading
  • Press events

You will likely find details about any events your target company is involved in on the company’s official website.

5. Scandals
   If a competitor is implicated in a scandal, you will need to keep abreast of any developments. A scandal can have severe consequences for the company involved, including reputational damage and financial penalties. Look out for news about corruption, fraud, health and safety violations, and other legal and ethical failings.

The Most Effective Way to Monitor Competitor Events and Milestones

Information on the above events can be found via a range of sources. Some of them can be unforeseen events. However, it should be difficult to monitor numerous separate sources at all times.

With ScoutAsia, you can actually monitor many newspapers & websites across Asia on most of the events & topics mentioned above.  The platform comes with more than 30 pre-trained AI topics called “Scout AI” which read thousands of articles a day and pick up the right content for you on each topic. The topics include Management Changes, Mergers and Acquisitions, Business Expansion, Upsizing/Layoffs, Regulatory Actions, Severe Business Disruption, Fundraising, and more.

ScoutAsia also allows you to create watchlists of specific companies or topics and receive important updates via the app or email.

Sign up for a free trial if you would like to see how ScoutAsia can help you keep abreast of news about your competitors.