Oracle Analytics: Business Intelligence and Analytic Applications - The CIO's Guide to Oracle Products and Solutions - page 64

to entry. This includes forming an alliance with an outside company
to pursue the phantom strategy itself.
Hruby's “missing-piece analysis” (1989) also attempts to anticipate
competitor moves, but it does this by identifying key weaknesses in
the competitor. By concentrating on the competitor's weaknesses,
the great wealth of information on that competitor can be turned
into usable, action-oriented intelligence.
The methodology for performing Hruby's missing-piece analysis
is to analyze the strengths and weaknesses of the competitor in six
areas. In each of these areas, the competitor is compared to the com-
pany doing the analysis:
1. Product : Compare the strength of the competitor's product from
a consumer point of view.
2. Manufacturing : Compare capabilities, cost, and capacity.
3. Sales and marketing : How well does the competitor sell a prod-
uct? Compare positioning, advertising, sales force, and so on.
4. Finance : Compare financial resources and performance. How
strong are these relative to requirements for launching a strong
competitive thrust?
5. Management : How effective, aggressive, and qualified are the
competitor's managers?
6. Corporate culture : Examine values and history to determine
whether the competitor is likely to enter or to attempt to domi-
nate a market.
The goal of this exercise is to identify weaknesses in each of these areas,
as well as to see whether any one of these weaknesses stands out as a major
vulnerability. According to Hruby, most companies have a key weak-
ness—or missing piece—that can be exploited.
To perform this technique requires that the competitor be rated in
each of the six areas listed. Ratings are done on a scale of 1 to 5, with 1
being very weak, 2 being weak/uncompetitive, 3 being adequate/aver-
age, 4 being very strong/competitive, and 5 being excellent/superior.
Hruby recommends summarizing the scores in a competitive-
strengths matrix, as shown in Table 2.2. This matrix lists the names
of the competitors down the left-hand side and the competitive areas
of interest across the top. Scores are entered into the appropriate