Michael Porter’s Four Corners Model is a great tool used for clarity of competitive intelligence (CI), compared to a SWOT analysis. Although the four corners model has been around for some time, it is only just beginning to be accepted as the gold standard for forecasting the next moves of the competition. As part of any large CI analysis process, using the four corners model will allow companies to gain actionable data on the direction their competition is headed. This is an advantage over the widely adopted snapshot or static view model that a SWOT analysis can provide; strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of competitors.

By linking a competitor’s capabilities to their underlying motivations for business success, the four corners model can provide the necessary and actionable IQ information with remarkable success. Unlike the SWOT analysis that only gives you a snapshot, albeit a very valuable glimpse, the four corners model can provide a trend or predictive value of your competition’s possible course of action. By extracting the data and analysis of financial goals, company culture, past business philosophies, current organizational structure, and all other relevant sources of CI, the model can generate trends of strengths, weaknesses, perceived culture, competitor’s values ​​and assumptions. current goals.

By looking at motivations, capabilities, and assumptions, the four corners model for CI analysis can provide organizations with actionable predictions of the future actions or reactions of one or more of their competitors. The accuracy of these predictions depends on the overall quality of the data that is included in the analysis, as well as the volume of data. As with any analysis, the key component to the accuracy of the final product is the accuracy of the input data. Using the four corners model in combination with SWOT analysis and a range of other IC analysis tools will give the best results and provide your company with a variety of actionable data regarding your competitors.

Working to develop a competitive intelligence process that includes the four corners model will ensure that you have at least one predictive tool available. While it’s great to know what your competition is doing right now, it’s even more valuable to have an idea of ​​what they’re going to do next and how they’ll react/react in the future. It’s important to iterate often with your CI process, so you have the best actionable information when you need it to make the most informed decisions.