Conducting Competitive Analysis of U.S. Energy Institutes

At Carnegie Mellon's Scott Institute for Energy Innovation, I recently conducted a competitive benchmark analysis of U.S. energy institute's annual reports. At CMU, we are producing our first impact report. My first step in creating the document was to look at competitor and partner institutes to see what content they included, the design of the report, page length and style. 

In "Competitor Analysis: Understand Your Opponents," an expert from the Marketer's Toolkit: 10 Strategies You Need to Succeed, the author instructs how to develop a competitive analysis:

Step 1 - Identify Your Competitors

A key takeaway from this first step is that an organization not only needs to examine its existing competitors, but its potential competitors as well. While I analyzed our competitors, I did not determine possible competitors. I know that existing energy institutes at universities are competitors since they are conducting similar research and employing talented graduate students and postdoctoral scholars who may be applying to CMU as well. In thinking of identifying potential competitors, the author made me realize that AlphaLab, a nationally ranked software accelerator in Pittsburgh, is a potential competitor. The following statement helped me identify this competitor: "...you must consider companies that offer substitutes for your products or services" [1]. For instance, the Scott Institute, working closely with CMU's Center for Technology Transfer and Enterprise Creation and the Swartz Center for Entrepreneurship, helps mentor and support start-ups.

Step 2 - Determine The Strategies and Objectives of Your Competitors

This was an important step I took next during my competitive analysis. While most energy institutes or centers at universities have similar objectives (research, create innovations, educate and advocate), some institutes focus more of their strategy on one of those particular areas. For instance, the Consortium for Energy Policy Research at Harvard University "is dedicated to advancing Harvard’s energy policy research and fostering collaboration across the University.” [2] So, it made sense to review their impact report, but it wouldn’t be a direct comparison for our purposes since policy outreach is only one of our main activities.

Step 3 – Create a Positioning Map

The author’s points on positioning were really helpful. While I’ve signed up to receive e-newsletters from the competitor institutes/centers to get a sense of their marketing efforts and overall work, I think creating a positioning map would be really helpful to see how the institutes have positioned themselves in the market.

Step 4 - Develop a Relative Strengths Table

My competitive analysis did not have this list of strengths, but I think it would be very helpful not just for marketing purposes, but also when leadership is deciding “moon shot” initiatives and other strategic measures.

Step 5 – Determine Key Competitors’ Reactions

This section was really insightful—I’ve never heard of tracking how your competitors reactions to threats and opportunities. I could see this being helpful in tracking national grant awards and other’s tactics in attracting top students into its graduate and postdoc programs.

[1] Competitor Analysis: Understand Your Opponents. Harvard Business School Press, 

2006.

[2] “About Us.” Consortium for Energy Policy Research. President and Fellows of Harvard College, 17 Oct. 2017. 3 June Web. 2018.