Week 3 Post

This week we will look into how college football programs utilize competitive analysis in their everyday operations.  Before we jump into this, we must define two different scenarios in which college football programs operate.  The first scenario is performance, which refers to the on-field output of a team (ex. wins and losses).  The second scenario is recruiting.  Each scenario has its own specific customers.  In the performance scenario, the customers are the current players, while in the recruiting scenario, high school prospects are the customers.

Direct vs. Indirect Competitors

When considering performance operations for the Western New England University Football Team, our direct competitors are those teams on our schedule for a particular season.  Usually, our schedule consists of 7 conference games, and 3 out-of-conference games.  Therefore, all of the teams competing within our conference (which are pictured in the above image) are direct competitors of WNE Football.

Our indirect competitors regarding performance consists of all of the other NCAA Division III teams throughout the country (with the exception of the 3 on our current schedule).  These teams are defined as our indirect competitors because while we do not have to face them during the regular season, they factor into our regional and national rankings throughout the season, and considering we reach the NCAA Div. III Playoffs, we would have to face a team that we had not previously accounted for during the regular season.  In terms of performance, we limit our indirect competitors to Div. III teams because under no scenario would we ever have to face a team in a higher division.

When it comes to recruiting, our direct and indirect competitors differ.  Our direct competitors are all schools, with football programs, located within and around the Northeast section of the United States, with similar programs of study, with the exception of Football Bowl Subdivision schools (formally known as Div. 1A).  With the exception of FBS schools due to the fact that their budgets are higher and they have the ability to recruit nationally and offer the most full-academic scholarships, the division or conference of the schools does not matter because we all compete for the same type of prospects within the same area.  To put it simply, most schools located within the region recruit athletes in the same region.  We consider schools with similar programs of study as our direct competitors because we target high school prospects interested in the degrees of study we provide.

For recruiting purposes, we consider all FBS schools and schools that do not have our programs of study as our indirect competitors.  As mentioned before, we do not have the budgeting and scholarship capabilities as the FBS schools, as they usually recruit out of area, or go after the athletes that are too talented to play at the Div. III level.  We consider all local schools with different programs of study to be indirect competitors.  For example, WNE is known for its Business and Engineering programs of study, while Springfield College (which is very close in location) is known for its Physical Education and Exercise Science programs.  While the two schools are located very close to each other, if a prospect is interested in Exercise Science, WNE does not consider this prospect to be a targeted consumer because WNE does not offer Exercise Science.  Conversely, if a student is interested in Business, Springfield College does not consider the prospect because they do not offer the program.

Managing a Competitive Strategy in College Football

After reviewing "The Hypnotic Danger of Competitive Analysis", I realized that there is a fine line between an organization focusing too much on its competitors, and not enough on its customers.  The author of  suggests that a competitive analysis is not the basis or "cornerstone" for competitive strategy. When analyzing college football programs (specifically in terms of performance, where there is more of an emphasis on competitive analysis), I believe that there needs to be a balance between competitive analysis and focus on your consumer needs.

A typical weekly schedule for our coaching staff is as follows:
Sunday: Review the game film from the previous week of our own team, present the findings to our players, and introduce our opponent for the current week.
Monday: Compile all data from our competitor analysis and create a scouting report and game plan for the current opponent.
Tuesday: Present the scouting report/game plan to our players, introduce new schemes and depth chart adjustments for the week; Plan practice; Practice.
Wednesday: Review practice film from the night before, correct mistakes, present to players; Adjust game plan accordingly; Review opponent film with players; Plan practice; Practice.
Thursday: Review practice film from the night before, correct mistakes, present to players; Review opponent film with players; Plan practice; Practice; Begin breakdown of the opponent for the following week.
Friday: Review practice film from the night before, correct mistakes, present to players; Review opponent film with players; Plan practice; Practice; Continue breakdown of the opponent for the following week.
Saturday: Gameday; Review game film; begin correcting mistakes; Finish breakdown of next opponent.
Sunday: See above...
(Also factored into the in-seaon schedule is recruiting, but it is omitted above since we are just looking at performance operations)

As you can see from the above schedule, there is a strong emphasis on competitor analysis.  Sometimes I feel like there can be an over-emphasis on it at times.  There are times in which the players need more attention and it is more important to develop them instead of focusing on analyzing the upcoming competition.  If there is not a balance of the two, your team will falter because of it.  If you put too much emphasis on breaking down the opponent, your players will not as ready as they should be to play the game.  Consequently, if you focus too much on developing your players, you will be caught off guard on game day because your team will not know what to expect from the opponent, and will not be put in the best positions to succeed.  It is difficult, especially at the Div. II level, to have that balance between competition and consumers.  If we had ideal conditions and a larger budget, I would recommend that specific teams be incorporated to handle each specific task, meaning develop a team for the competitor analysis, and a team for developing players.  Obviously, the two teams must work together and be a cohesive, interdependent unit, but this would allow for the players and the competitive analysis to get the required attention.  Since most programs, other than the FBS schools, do not have this budget, I would recommend that a daily schedule be put in place for coaches, in which half of the day they focus on competitive analysis, and the other half focused towards player development.  This schedule can be flexible depending on the progress of your players and the opponent you are facing, but for the most part the scheduled time towards each task should remain equal.

Ethics when Considering Competitive Analysis in College Football 

Like with any organization, I believe you should obtain your information for your competitive analysis in an ethical way.  Any information that can be found publicly is acceptable.  With the advancement in technology, teams can exchange films with a clock of a button and share information with one-another very easily.  It is considered acceptable in the football world to even obtain film from another team that has played an opponent of yours, some tradeoff is usually utilized in this case.

Ethics come into play regarding private information about another team, or any other organization in general.  Any information that is not intended for your eyes should not be sought out.  Also, especially in the sport of football and the fast that opposing players know each other, it is important to be able to sort through all of the information and rumors that can be swirling around. Personally, I like to live by the saying: "Believe half of what you see, and nothing that you hear."  Players will tell us information that they hear opposing players they know.  We have to realize that all of this information could be false and just an attempt to throw us off, so it is safer to utilize the information you can ethically obtain and prepare your team accordingly.

Pharmasim Observations

"263.9 million people live in Pharmasim World"

It is important for any organization to create a market definition.  In this case, Allstar competes within the cold and allergy relief market.  In my personal opinion, I am finding it difficult to sort through all of the information on the Pharmasim Simulation, and being the perfectionist that I am, I keep progressing throughout the periods and restarting them because I don't like where my stock price is at.  I guess I have to learn that all markets and companies are not perfect, and they go through their ups and downs, whether I like it or not. That being said, I am not certain as to where to find the information regarding market potential.

To help control the ups and downs, it is important to consult and understand the various research reports available to you.  The one I decided to look at this week was "Sales Force $", since I personally feel like I do not put enough attention towards this when making decisions.  I like the fact that it compares Allstar to its direct competitors, so you can directly compare yourself and see how you stack up against the competition in terms of how much they are allocating to each specific sales force.  Also, the graphs make it easier to see your progress and the trends of your own company, as well as your competitors.  This information could help me in the future so I can start to model my company around those who are already encountering success within their ales force.  I understand that I can not automatically adapt their philosophies, and that I still have to tailor my plan towards the current and future status of the market, but it will help me know where to start allocating funds little by little to help aid in the effectiveness of Allstar's sales force.