Great military leaders know the importance of gathering intelligence on the enemy and the strategic advantage that intelligence can give them going into battle.

In business, it is no less important to know our competition.

Adapted from the book entitled Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim and Renee Mauborgne, across the bottom of the matrix, you write in each small box a factor that is used to compete in your industry (i.e. price, delivery speed, customer services, etc.).Then in the lower half of the matrix you’ll score your own company on that factor (from low to high), and in the upper half you’ll score one of your competitors.  You’ll complete one of these forms for each competitor.The goal according to the book Blue Ocean Strategy is to continue developing key factors in the lowest most boxes in whitch you excel with no competition from anyone else in your industry.  Hence you have now entered “blue water” in which the blood from others fighting you no longer exists.Probably the most important components of this chart can be found in the bullet statements at the bottom.  Taking time to conduct a careful assessment of the answers will help a leader truly move his/her company or department to new levels of competitive advantage.