Symantec CEO Says Customers are His Most Valuable Asset
Competitive Intelligence from Customers and Employees Provide the Best Leg Up on the Competition
Cambridge, MA - September 1, 2000 - The market insight and "competitive intelligence" you can gain from your customers is more valuable than what you gain about a competitor, according to Symantec CEO John Thompson. As a world leader in the hot field of Internet security and privacy, Symantec is more focused on the value of what it delivers to customers than on its value in the marketplace.
In an exclusive interview with competitive intelligence guru Leonard Fuld on the Fuld Competitive Intelligence Center (www.factiva.com) during the month of September, Thompson contends that your company must strike a balance between watching the market and your relevant competitors vs. listening attentively to your customers. One of his customers gave him feedback on a problem that has resulted in the idea for a new software product currently under review.
The Fuld Competitive Intelligence Center provides business professionals, from managers to CEOs, with powerful company, industry and trend analysis tools that help them efficiently compile, evaluate and act on competitive intelligence and make timely, strategic decisions.
Rather than traditional competitors, Thompson has focused on small, early stage, venture-backed companies to bring Symantec into the top ranks of Internet security companies during the past year. He has also created an environment in which employees and managers believe that their insight and intelligence about what is going on within the company will be viewed in a positive way and not pose a threat to their careers. Both his product management organization and sales force are key to gaining insight into the marketplace and competition.
"CEOs who feel most uninformed feel that way because they have not created an environment where their people feel least threatened about bubbling up the trust," he said.
Since the world is becoming increasingly connected through technology, Symantec will be challenged by the need to accelerate the development of constructive, thought-provoking security solutions, Thompson said.
"More and more people will have to feel confident that they can operate in this connected world and not be threatened by either loss of information or unnecessary prying of their behavior or their attitudes over the Net," he said.
Factivaä, a leader in delivering and integrating global news and business information on corporate desktops around the world, launched Fuld's groundbreaking competitive intelligence resource in the award-winning Ask Dow Jones section of Dow Jones Interactive.
Each month, the site features an exclusive interview with a top CEO or other well known executive. The interviews, all conducted by Fuld, uncover each executive's competitive strategies, challenges and successes. Already featured have been Robert Crandall, the former chairman & CEO of American Airlines, Herb Baum, president of Hasbro Inc., oil magnate T. Boone Pickens, Monster.com CEO Jeff Taylor and Pitney Bowes CEO Michael Critelli.
Besides exclusive CEO interviews, the Fuld Competitive Intelligence Center
offers a Competitive Intelligence Primer and an interactive introduction
to competitive intelligence basics - covering topics such as information
analysis, research techniques, global information interpretation and competitive
intelligence program organization. In addition, the site's Strategic Intelligence
Organizer provides a complete checklist of information revealing the best
competitive practices used by successful companies.
Fuld & Company
Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., with offices in London and Geneva,
Fuld & Company is an international leader and pioneer in the field
of competitive intelligence. The company specializes in providing research
and analysis to the financial services, utility/energy, manufacturing,
high technology, telecommunications, healthcare and consumer product sectors.
In addition, across all of these industry sectors, Fuld & Company assists
corporations in the development of robust strategic intelligence programs
and processes. Leonard Fuld, often regarded as the father of competitive
intelligence, is a worldwide recognized expert and author in the field
of competitive intelligence. Since founding Fuld & Co. in 1979, the
firm has completed more than 3,000 competitive intelligence assignments
and count more than half the Fortune 500 as its clients.
Additional information can be found at http://www.fuld.com