Company Ownership Who owns and is driving the company is another important element in competitive analysis. Understanding their background and the backgrounds of the key executives is key to anticipating how they will execute their mission statement. Many companies in the school and library market are headed by people from other industry backgrounds. Besides reviewing the backgrounds of the executives, also take a look at their board members and advisory boards. These are also people who can influence the future of the company.
Many educational companies have ex-superintendents on their boards.
This is a key to where the company will be concentrating their sales and marketing efforts. And, if these markets are important to your company as well, you might think about how your company could co-op the assistance from other influential people in this market. Relatively new players in the education and library markets are the venture capital groups who are funding many start-ups. But these groups also have investments in other companies as well. And, they can leverage one investment with another by helping the companies provide synergies together.