A leading chemical manufacturer wanted to confirm their competitor’s activities

A leading multinational speciality chemicals manufacturer, with major operations in India, wanted to confirm rumours on the activity of one of their main competitors in the country. The competitor was said to have developed a particular speciality chemical and was planning to start commercial production of the same.

The client is a major manufacturer for this particular chemical and is one of the few companies in the world capable of manufacturing it. Independent confirmation of this rumour was of immense strategic value to the client.

– If the rumours were true, it would have meant new competition for the client

– The client could lose their dominant position for the product in India, which is expected to witness a huge increase in demand for this particular chemical

Innovative methods to tackle unique challenges

The speciality chemicals industry is very niche and closely guarded. The main challenge facing the client was that while they wanted to know their competitor’s plans, they could not make overt inquiries in the market without alerting the competitor. Also, because of the strategic nature of the competitor’s plans, very few people were actually aware of the details.

In this scenario, ValueNotes employed some unique techniques to piece together what was going on. Our in-house industry expertise combined with our research expertise was invaluable in obtaining the information required.

ValueNotes was successful in finding out the required information, and more, by:

• Working in close consultation with external industry experts.
• Breaking the information required into small pieces and going to a variety of sources for each of these. We then made sense of the bits and pieces of information that were coming through, by joining the dots to form a larger picture.
• Using some innovative methods to gain and cross-check information. These included checking for various clearances and certificates required for such projects from different regulatory authorities.

Early warning provided by ValueNotes helps client maintain their dominant position

The comprehensive CI provided by ValueNotes was able to confirm the rumours and also provide fairly accurate information on the plans of the client’s competitor. Insights provided by ValueNotes, especially helped the client gauge the exact nature of the development and its implication on their business.

With the critical information provided by ValueNotes, the client was able to make proactive strategic plans including:

– Making changes to its marketing and pricing strategy

– Aggressive penetration of the Indian market before the competitor can build scale, in order to maintain its market dominance

– Gain first mover advantage in supplying the speciality chemical at a local level