What is Industry Analysis?

It is one of the primary tasks of equity research analysts. In some companies, there’re dedicated teams who primarily do industry analyses and write reports on the same. In simple terms, industry analysis reveals the industry dynamics to the stakeholders. So it’s an essential part of creating a competitive advantage for a companyCompetitive Advantage For A CompanyCompetitive advantage refers to an advantage availed by a company that has remained successful in outdoing its competitors belonging to the same industry by designing and implementing effective strategies that allow the same in offering quality goods or services, quoting reasonable prices to its customers, maximizing the wealth of its stakeholders and so on and as a result of which the company can make more profits, build a positive brand reputation, make more sales, maximize return on assets, etc.read more in the competitive market.

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How to do an industry analysis?

There’re many frameworks we can use to do industry analysis. But what’s more important is to follow a few steps and get to the point where one can use the frameworks to assess the correct picture of the industry.

First, we will look at the steps you can follow, and then we will talk about the frameworks economists/equity research analysts can use to analyze the market/ industry.

  • Review the available information: If you dive in, you will be able to find many available reports, white papers, analyses, research reports, and presentations. If you don’t have any idea about the industry you’re trying to analyze, first use these materials to get to know the industry. Read everything you need to know and identify the key factors to help you write the report after analysis. These reports and information can’t fully help you, but they will give you some idea about what to look for while analyzing the industry.Get an idea about the right industry: It may happen that you’re searching for the real estate industry. But real estate is a huge industry, and there are many sub-industries like household complexes, commercial properties, hotels, the amusement industry, etc. It would help if you got an idea about the right industry. If there’s no relevance in the industry you’re searching for, you’ll lose focus, and the analysis will not be able to pinpoint accurate data.Are you able to forecast future demand and supply? This is the key thing in any industry. Why? Because everything depends on the demand and supply of the industry. Here’s what you should do. Make a list of the competitors in the industry. Find out the financial health of each competitor. Please take account of the growth rate and the products they’re selling in the last five years. Then do a comparative analysis with your business. You’ll get an idea of what to work upon and what to leave alone. In simple terms, you’ll be able to recognize the key factors that are responsible for future demand and supply in the market.Competition: This is the most important thing to consider. A business can use three common frameworks to understand the micro and macro factors.

Examples

Let us apply some of the learning from the above step to industry analysis of the Automobile Sector, IT Services Sector, and Steel Sector, respectively.

How to write a report on Industry Analysis?

The simple way to write a report is to follow the steps you used in the previous section. Here’s how you can write a report on Industry Analysis effectively –

  • The income of Individuals affect the sale of Cars Industrial activities affect sales of Commercial vehicle Easy Loans and interest rate should help

  • IT Services thrive by providing Low-cost proposition for the same services

  • Labor/skill shortage in the long run

  • Demand supply mismatch due to excess supply can put pressure on margin

  • Infrastructure growth / Housing Construction demand, especially in higher urbanization areas

  • Performance of downstream companies such as Cars, White goods, etc

  • Steel prices Metal prices such as Aluminium, rubber, etc

  • Educated manpower at a reasonable cost

  • Continuous skill enhancement of employees

  • Price of iron ore

  • Low.

  • Strongly dependent on the business cycleBusiness CycleThe business cycle refers to the alternating phases of economic growth and decline.read more and demand-supply gaps

  • High.

  • Due to car buying by consumer and Commercial vehicle for Goods movement

  • Predictability is low due to fast technology changes.

  • The clock speed for the Business is high.

  • Changes in the environment every 2-3 years

  • Medium

  • Moderate for cars.

  • High for commercial vehicle

  • Not yet as the model is moving to offshore

  • High

  • Poor

  • Very moderate.

  • More demand-supply gap driven.

  • Commoditization at the lower end and moving up the value chain

  • Only if there is supply shortfall, else poor

  • Low in India.

  • High competitive intensity, especially in mid-segment

  • None at all – close to perfect competitionPerfect CompetitionPerfect competition is a market in which there are a large number of buyers and sellers, all of whom initiate the buying and selling mechanism. Furthermore, no restrictions apply in such markets, and there is no direct competition. It is assumed that all of the sellers sell identical or homogenous products.read more;

  • None

  • Yes. High-value purchase with long cycle

  • Yes

  • Yes.

  • Franchise/branding is strong in India.

  • Weak to the moderate brand.

  • No franchise.

  • Lock in due to Switching costsSwitching CostsSwitching cost is the cost suffered by a customer when switching a service, product, or supplier. It includes not only financial costs, but also psychological costs, time costs, and so on.read more

  • Commodity with poor brand/franchise value

  • Commercial vehicles are cyclical. Cars / personal vehicle have a much steadier trend

  • High growth currently due to model shifts. Looks likely for the next few years

  • Cyclical industryCyclical IndustryCyclical industries refer to those businesses whose performance efficiency is highly correlated with or sensitive to the economic cycles. These companies grow when the economy is in the growth or expansion stage and declines with an economic recession or depression—for instance, automobiles, aviation, construction industries.read more

  • Write an overview of the whole industry analysis – The purpose of writing the overview is to give a big picture to the readers (CEO/ top management professionals) quickly about your analysis. It’s important that you summarize important points and also your findings in a brief manner.Analytical Presentation: This is the most important part of the report. It would help if you used all your findings and analytical judgments to make this part effective. Use graphs, charts, images, and pointers to emphasize your points. Talk about the micro and macro factors of the business. Also include the competitors, their products and services, customer satisfaction, how much value the competitors are providing, what they’re missing out on, etc. Analyze the controllable and uncontrollable factors and also mention if there’re any recent developments in the industry.Forecast: In the next section, give your suggestions and forecast the industry’s possible future. Also, mention the long-term and short-term valuation of the industry and what could be the challenging issues in the future.Finally: Write a summary of the entire report in one-two paragraphs. Include the key factors of the report and your suggestions in brief.

While writing the report, it’s better if you use lucid language. If you would like to use any jargon, mention the meaning so that the readers don’t get stuck in between.

Conclusion

This is a comprehensive guide on how you can conduct an industry analysis. If you learn these skills and prepare yourself for equity research analystsEquity Research AnalystsAn equity research analyst is a qualified professional who interprets financial information and trends of an organization or industry to provide recommendations, opinions, reports, and projections on the corporate stocks to facilitate equity trading.read more profile (conducting industry analysis plus writing the report), you’ll certainly have better prospects than your peers.

The best way to learn is to do it in action. Just select an industry and follow the above steps to do the analysis in reality and write a report. If you happen to sit for an interview for an organization of the same industry, present the report along with your resume. You’ll see how much value addition would be for you during the interview and how it will help you uplift your candidature in front of the interviewers.

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