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For owners of terminals Market Intelligence (MI) can be the key factor to unlock pathways to cost reductions, smarter investments and growth. If the management team succeeds in predominantly making well-informed choices based on easily digestible structured information the whole outlook for the company could change. With strong MI it is also possible to zoom in on currently underperforming terminals where market adjustment and optimization will lead to better performance and profitability.

In the world of Market Intelligence there is a best practice developed by the Global Intelligence Alliance or GIA (currently active under the new company name M-Brain). It’s widely known as the GIA Framework for developing World Class Market Intelligence. The company published it in 2009 in a whitepaper titled World Class Market Intelligence – From Firefighters to Futurists.

Basically, it thoroughly explains a matrix with on the vertical axis 6 Key Success Factors (KSF) and on the horizontal axis 5 Stages of Market Maturity.

The 5 Stages of Market Intelligence Maturity

GIA gave the 5 stages frivolous yet insightful names like firefighters for the poorest, informal, last minute, ad hoc intelligence gathering and futurists for the world class MI of truly visionary companies.

1. Informal Market Intelligence – “Firefighters”
2. Basic Market Intelligence – “Beginners”
3. Intermediate Market Intelligence – “Coordinators”
4. Advanced Market Intelligence – “Directors”
5. Word Class Market Intelligence – “Futurists”

Let’s look at each stage individually:

Informal Market Intelligence:

Any tank terminal operation, and any company for that matter, handles various sources and streams of information of course. At this stage of maturity companies will probably not even use the label “market intelligence” for their information gathering and sharing activities. There is no predefined scope to these activities that will typically be done ad hoc when needed with little coordination and with little or no tools and resources.

Basic Market Intelligence:

Companies that have at least heard about Market Intelligence and its benefits may also be on a path with some “basic” first steps toward an actual MI program. Such a tank terminal operation might already engage an external service provider for some of their information needs. The activities are still mostly done ad hoc, like while preparing for a merger or an acquisition. There is however already some structure to how the intelligence is gathered, stored and shared.

Intermediate Market Intelligence:

At the intermediate stage a company is well aware of the benefits of market intelligence, has maybe seen some good case studies and is motivated to do better themselves. It is likely such a company will allocate some budget for services of external providers and a first set of software tools. At this stage the scope and the level of analysis of the MI remains rather limited, partly because the intelligence operation is only loosely integrated to business processes, if at all.

Advanced Market Intelligence:

Once a company has really internalized the need for the most insightful intelligence for its business processes, once it has assigned a network of employees who can spend a certain percentage of their time on MI and once it has established an external network of information sources and vendors such a company reaches the advanced stage of MI. A tank terminal operation in this stage will have defined concrete deliverables of the MI process that actually match the needs articulated by decision-makers. True and obvious benefits ensue, further deepening the commitment of the management to treat MI as a vital part of the organization.

World-Class Market Intelligence:

Beyond the advanced stage and benefits clearly translate into growth and profitability there is a route to move on to the “World-Class” level, where Market Intelligence will be established as an integral part of all corporate business processes and there is a deep focus on future topics and issues. The market leader in the tank terminal business has gone this route starting the implementation already back in 2007. The case study in the Handbook of Market Intelligence (describing the status in 2009) demonstrates that there is always room for improvement. But exactly that is where the greatness lies: once a true MI culture permeates an organization, remaining humble and continuing to improve becomes a second nature.

Let’s now look at the 6 Key Success Factors of Market Intelligence one by one.

The 6 Key Success Factors of Market Intelligence

Scope

In order to not drown in an ocean of information, it is important to limit the MI by clearly defining the scope of the intelligence. In principle a deep and wide scope is desirable, but in the beginning, you can juggle only so many balls. Scope then limits the specific intelligence topics that will be researched at all.

Process

So, with the defined scope, that may become ever wider and deeper, a tank terminal operation knows what information to dig for and who to deliver it to. The process aspect of the information flow looks at how information is gathered and delivered.

Deliverables

Market intelligence projects need to determine at the outset how the output of the information gathered will be delivered and shared. Think of deliverables like internal newsletters, documents, spreadsheets and presentations. They can also include workshops and seminars.

Tools

A corporate intranet is typically the first big company-wide tool that companies implement, and that allows for a basic level of MI in their organization. With that a tank terminal operation has at least moved away from the informal spaghetti of email threads. Beyond the basic level, there are more advanced generic or custom-built MI software tools that thoroughly and specifically embed the MI in the organization.

Organization

Putting someone at the helm of the MI operation is the logical starting point of allocating people and their time to the intelligence activity. Without that the MI naturally stays informal and ad hoc. With that first person appointed the MI can start to grow and internal and external networks can be built.

Culture

At the low end of MI maturity, a tank terminal operator has no “Intelligence culture”. There may be some intelligence gathering and sharing activity, but if the management or the employees don’t really cherish it, it will probably not go very far. Towards an advanced maturity level more and more employees are engaged via courses and training and see the benefits of strong MI. What may still be lacking then is the support of senior management or even the CEO. The high mark is when the CEO becomes the biggest internal promoter of MI.

The important thing to remember when trying to reach the next MI level is to assess what you need and what you want to accomplish. You have to assess your current level of Market Intelligence Maturity first and set a timeframe of progress towards the advanced stage. It is probably worthwhile to focus on some quick fixes and wins first if one or more of the 6 KSF’s are dramatically worse than others. Yet it’s also valuable to further strengthen the ones that are already at a high level. 

World class MI might be out of reach for many smaller tank terminal operations, yet it is still a good idea to know about it. At the world class maturity level, a company has a broad, deep focus on future topics and a systematic process that continuously produces insights into the company’s operating environment. That company will also have a dedicated Chief Data Officer who’s in charge of structuring all intelligence activities across the company. This manager would typically be responsible for the annual “Intelligence plan” that is updated year by year with vision and metrics on dimensions such as sales, business development, operations and finance and management.

Advanced or world class MI for tank terminal operators specifically entails:

• A profound knowledge of the market of liquid bulk shipping and storage
• An in-depth knowledge of the current and future competitive environment
• Essential knowledge of regional and global trade flows and trends 

In an ideal situation MI will not remain an isolated function in the company but may rather inspire the whole company to become a learning organization open to and embracing new trends and ideas. In the end management can make better decisions at a quicker pace which increases revenue and reduces costs. Valuable new customers will be attracted and facilities will be built that are future proof.

This blog post is a shortened version of a chapter in the whitepaper “Market Intelligence for tank terminal operators” that can be downloaded via the banner below.

Whitepaper: Market Intelligence for Tank Terminal Operators Explained

What is the key factor, the bottom-line that determines the success of a terminal operator? Of course it is the percentage of tanks that are rented out over a given period of time and the fee or rate that these tanks generate. The people realizing this bottom-line day in day out are your sales and account managers. What can Market Intelligence do to help them reach their targets? And what can Market Intelligence do to secure future growth?

Market Intelligence helps establish three pillars of your success, by:

1: Continuously investigating market trends and price movements

2: Investigating what mix of customer sizes and their desires and what mix of liquid bulk products will make the terminal operation run most smoothly over time

3: Via competitive intelligence giving each sales and account manager the right information at his or her fingertips when entering price negotiations

The first pillar lays the groundwork for all strategic decision making. It will guide your commercial team to where growth and value can be found. The second means that a company will not let sales managers just blindly hunt for any customer. It will guide them towards the right deals that will strengthen the terminal’s position and competitiveness and at the same time will guard against having a portfolio of clients that does not match with logistical capabilities and constraints. For instance part of the terminal can be reserved for customers who need strategic storage, like governments. The staff responsible for Market Intelligence can make calculations and show exactly why it could be beneficial to reserve a given percentage of the terminal for such a customer who pays a somewhat lower price but signs a long term contract and does not require a lot of throughput capacity.

Price negotiations

The third pillar with which Market Intelligence helps sales and account management is literally hands-on as a staff department giving the sales or account manager all key numbers, prices, competitor intelligence and other metrics needed to negotiate good contracts. A sales manager can only make good deals when they have superior market and customer information at their fingertips. A customer will notice when their negotiating partner is well informed and be more likely to accept an offer.

Logistics

When making such optimal sales strategy plans, a big consideration is the effective use of terminal installations like jetty’s and pipelines. It makes no sense to do a lot of sales for a certain product in certain volumes only then to note that logistically it’s impossible to service these customers without long and expensive waiting times. On the other hand with proper market intelligence it becomes possible to even plan investments in new installations when for instance it is known that a new customer, or a new product, will very likely grow strongly in the years to come.    

Avoid chaos

Market Intelligence can “design” an optimal mix of good (i.e. growing) customers where you have enough diversity to respond to short term demand fluctuations, but still create a stable business with a hub function for certain preferred liquid bulk products and a number of larger dedicated customers. In this way day to day chaos at the jetties, caused by a multitude of hyper-active customers, can be avoided. And the customer benefits too from this smart planning since they hate to pay demurrage. Market Intelligence is there to make sure that everything in the terminal operation happens in the smartest way possible with the largest economies of scale!

Counter-intuitive

Sometimes good market intelligence can help a business spot counter-intuitive opportunities. For instance when globally investments in oil facilities go down, at the terminal level the effect might be contrary. Decreasing funding may lead to the phasing out of local refineries which in turn increases global shipping of refined products. So less investment in fossil fuels can in certain cases lead to increased demand for tank capacity. Without good Market Intelligence it is practically impossible to instruct sales and account management to look into such changing opportunities.

Competitive edge

To conclude we can say that, starting from current awareness, through strategy and business development, it is crucial that Market Intelligence extends deeply into the sales and account management. Only then the benefits of all the labor in the prior stages can be reaped. Only in this way a terminal operator will get the competitive edge over the competition, that will lead to sustained excellence, growth and profitability.

Whitepaper: Market Intelligence for Tank Terminal Operators Explained

Business development is what comes next in line from current awareness and strategic planning. It is basically the moment when a company says: “Let’s do it!” One would almost assume that all necessary research for this execution of the strategic plan has already been done and that now it’s just a matter pushing ahead come hell or high water. In reality Market Intelligence remains important in this phase too!

If we recap quickly we have seen that without market intelligence there can be no current awareness. Then we have seen that this current awareness can be expanded upon by applying further market intelligence to create well-founded scenarios and predictions. Only with those scenarios and predictions at hand strategic planning starts to make sense. In this blog post we will look at the next phase when the strategic plan needs to be decided upon and get executed.

Let’s look at an example. Currently, the terminal world experiences a shift towards sustainable fuel sources. Many terminal operators want to get clout in new fuels such as hydrogen (at minus 250 degrees Celsius), ammonia (transporting hydrogen chemically bound to nitrogen at temperatures and pressures comparable to LPG), and also SAF (sustainable aviation fuel). Lastly there is a growing demand for LNG due to the war in Ukraine and other geopolitical factors. Current awareness means to at least be aware of these trends and having current data at hand. Strategy means having a plan on how to capitalize on these trends under various scenarios. Business development then, is the stage where a desired position in these fuel supply chains is going to be built up.

In this new phase a good and constant intelligence flow remains critical for success. Market intelligence will now provide detailed knowledge and information about which concrete players would need what amounts of storage capacity. There can be absolutely no surprises regarding rules and regulations for these new fuels. Price movements need to be current at all times. These factors will then be taken into consideration when constructing of new tanks, jetties or pipelines. As in any construction project, these stages are feasibility study, design, licensing and permits and (preliminary) contract negotiations.

Investments in terminals are huge and therefore go hand in hand with long term contracts. Time spans of such contracts are usually between 5 and 15 years. So obviously most terminals and installations will not be built without a signed contract to cover a part of the lifespan of the asset. However, it is rarely the case that a client will be prepared to sign a deal for the whole lifespan of an asset. So there will always be a risk associated with such a project and market intelligence will enable you to estimate this risk and factor that into your decision. If the risk is acceptable you can go ahead, if too large then either you walk away from the deal or try to negotiate better terms. We can conclude that Market Intelligence continues to play a large role all the way into the  business development phase.

And as we will see in another blog post it remains important up until the final stage of the asset’s lifecycle: the operational phase. In this phase the objective is to get a good return on investment by attracting and retaining valuable customers that pay premium rates for your terminal. With excellent market intelligence for marketing, sales and account management you can achieve these results.

We don’t deny it: some entrepreneurs keep getting lucky just basing their decisions on gut feeling. At the same time we claim that even these entrepreneurs and their companies would fare even better if they had ongoing smart and structured intelligence gathering about all aspects of their market. Let’s take a look why market intelligence is an equally vital support activity within a company just as IT, human resource management or accounting are.

Tank terminals are capital goods. Strategic decisions in the terminal business often result in investments worth millions of dollars. And these investments determine to a large extent the capabilities of a terminal for years to come. So obviously any reduction of long-term investment risk is welcome. Market intelligence, the systematic gathering and analysis of information about all things concerning your current and future business, is the way to do this.

The important of current awareness before strategy

In a first blog on current awareness we have explained that a company simply must have sufficient understanding of what’s currently happening in your industry. What are clients looking for? What are competitors doing? Which tech trends influence the market? How is the pricing of services changing? Which mergers and acquisitions are taking place? Is there news on the regulation front in any of the relevant geographic areas? Are there important changes in the political landscape?

The current awareness can be structured using a PEST-factor (macro-level: political, economic, societal, technological) analysis, competitive environment (industry-level: customers and competitors) analysis and SWOT (segment-level: strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats) analysis.

The next stage should offer a clear view on various realistic future scenarios for industry and market developments. Most often there is one strong trend dominating the market, but it would be foolish to always just follow the pack jumping on such a new trend. If you come in early it could prove demand is not yet as predicted. If you come in late you can’t win either.

Market intelligence allows a business to stand on its own two feet and make specific decisions independently. Better decisions. Quicker decisions. Better timing. The right partners. That’s what makes the difference!

The consequences of strategic decisions and what to do with them

A helpful way to analyse consequences of strategic decisions is to always consciously run through three scenarios:

• worst case
• most likely
• best case

If your market intelligence is capable of providing this kind of “three-stage” realistic prognosis for each possible expansion or change of a terminal operation, then it is also likely that the management will be able to recalibrate the long-term corporate strategy and pick the best choices. The fact that various levels of management are involved in the information gathering, also ensures that strategic decisions are well supported by the whole organisation.           

In the end what counts is to move away from the intuitive and short-term approach towards a systematically organized long-term form of Market Intelligence (MI) preferably with concrete roles for key staff members and with a proper embedding in the company culture.

The handbook of Market Intelligence (2009) offers a good example of world-class market intelligence as it relates to strategy:

“We are future-oriented in our approach and frequently use scenario analysis in combination with forecasting as methods to understand the future dynamics of our industry. One example is that we have a project focusing on as far as the year 2050. We have an intelligence network in place and are producing deliverables that have been tied into our strategic and operational business processes.”

In the end, world-class companies have proven that ongoing smart and structured intelligence gathering about all aspects of their market will enhance profitability and reduce risk. In the highly fragmented tank terminal business, servicing an ever-changing liquid bulk market, it is not possible to survive without a clear strategy. Market Intelligence (MI) ensures that this strategy is well founded and recalibrated frequently. In this way it is a vital internal support function.

Whitepaper: Market Intelligence for Tank Terminal Operators Explained

Current awareness is the starting point of good market intelligence for any company operating in a competitive market. Entrepreneurs often make intuitive decisions, but when they are supported by hard facts and good data entrepreneurial risk taking is no longer a game of roulette but the smart and successful way to take calculated risks.

What do we mean by “current awareness”? Well, it simply means that as a company you have sufficient understanding of what’s happening in the terminal industry and the wider economy at this moment.

What are clients looking for? What are competitors doing? Which tech trends influence the market? How is the pricing of services changing? Which mergers and acquisitions are taking place? Is there news on the regulation front in any of the relevant geographic areas? Are there important changes in the political landscape?

Structure “current awareness” within your organization

In order to do this right “current awareness” shouldn’t remain a vague undefined asset floating around somewhere somehow in the organization, but it should be systematically structured to make sure that your organization is always up-to-date on what is happening in the terminal market and – importantly – where your company stands relative to that. Gathered information should be easily accessible to support each employee in their work and decision making.  

Setting this up could involve these measures:

• allocating some work hours of certain employees to spend on research activities
• structuring how employees write-up, report and store their findings
• creating an internal market intelligence network connecting all management levels
• subscribing to relevant periodical news sources
• outsourcing part of the intelligence work to an external market researcher

In the end this should lead to a situation where each manager feels supported by the best possible information. A well-informed manager who enters a (price) negotiation for instance will always fare better than a manager who comes across as uninformed. A director or management team eyeing a take-over will not just make a better decision, but they will make it faster, before the competition snatches it away. Research has proven that companies with good systemic market intelligence outperform the competition on all levels.

An example of a market trend that requires current awareness

So can we give an example of a market trend in the terminal industry, that requires good current awareness to understand it fully, to anticipate well and to position your company accordingly?

The energy transition is definitely a good example. Oil and gas are no longer the prime areas of investment. Alternative fuels are being developed and are growing in market share. One product in particular is looking for terminal space across the world and that is ammonia. This liquid bulk substance has two uses:

1: Acting as an intermediary carrier of hydrogen that’s produced in sunny parts of the globe and that needs to be transported to areas with less sun but high energy demand. So hydrogen is chemically bound in ammonia and shipped around the world and in destination countries it is decomposed again to free the pure sustainable hydrogen fuel source.

2: Acting directly as an alternative sustainable fuel for ships and tankers currently burning dirty marine fuel oil as their fuel source.

Both applications have different implications for required terminal space in ports around the globe. This trend will lead to substantially less investment in oil and gas terminals and high interest in tanks that can hold ammonia.

It also warrants a reorientation of the commercial acquisition process: you may want to get acquainted with a new group of potential customers who are entering this market. And if you talk to them you will want to come across as knowledgeable. So if your company at the moment has no detailed information on ammonia requirements, then you may want to invest time to get this knowledge.

An important aspect of current awareness is also the ability to think in scenarios and structure your information gathering accordingly.

Let’s take the above example of ammonia. You would not want to forget about oil and gas completely of course. You would want to continue to gather information about all product groups and customers that use them. You might however assign the task of following these trends to different people inside your organization and maybe ask an external consultant to write up a report about an area that you are currently less aware of. In this way your knowledge base for whatever may happen in the market grows in all dimensions.

Thinking in possible scenarios as a model for your current awareness, then leads over to the next important application of market intelligence: strategy. In a subsequent blog post we will delve into that and learn how market intelligence will support laying out a strategy and wisely choosing how to devote your company’s resources to it.   

Whitepaper: Market Intelligence for Tank Terminal Operators Explained