developing consumer channels in Japan or Mexico, or implications of changing margins in software. 3. 2 Competitive Comparison The competition comes in several forms: 1. The most significant competition is no consulting at all, companies choosing to do business development and channel development and market research in-house. Their own managers do this on their own, as part of their regular business functions. Our key advantage in competition with in-house development is that managers are already overloaded with responsibilities; they don't have time for additional responsibilities in new market development or new channel development. Also, Progressive can approach alliances, vendors, and channels on a confidential basis, gathering information and making initial contacts in ways that the corporate managers can't. 2. The high-level prestige management consulting: High-Tec, San Diego Consulting Group, etc. These are essentially generalists who take their name- brand management consulting into specialty areas. Their other very important weakness is the management structure that has the partners selling new jobs, and inexperienced associates delivering the work. We compete against them as experts in our specific fields, and with the guarantee that our clients will have the top-level people doing the actual work. 3. The third general kind of competitor is the international market research company: International Electronic Data Corporation (IEDC), Dataquest, Stanford Research Institute, etc. These companies are formidable competitors for published market research and market forums, but cannot provide the kind of high-level consulting that Triangle will provide. 4. The fourth kind of competition is the market-specific smaller house. For example: Nomura Research in Japan, Select S.A. de C.V. in Mexico (now affiliated with IEDC). 5. Sales representation, brokering, and deal catalysts are an ad-hoc business form that will be defined in detail by ...
