In June 2020, Asif lost his job – thanks to the cost cutting and downsizing triggered by the pandemic. Asif as a young hotel management graduate was employed in one of the leading hotel chains catering to the business travelers. To Asif’s dismay, he realized that the hospitality sector – in general – was reporting loss of revenues and occupancy rates were down by more than 60%.
What started as a dream career five years back stared in Asif’s face as he was not able to meet his two ends meet. Asif realized that he needs to shift to an industry that is doing well in the troubled business times while wanting to remain in people-oriented service business.
With some suggestions from friends and colleagues, Asif narrowed down his search on the emerging healthcare sector. While this sector presented an opportunity for rapid growth, Asif was acutely aware that most of his colleagues, college batchmates and seniors that he trusted were mostly working in the hospitality, travel and tourism sectors. Not only were they going through their own struggles, they were not in a position to guide him well in the healthcare sector. Asif’s own knowledge was restricted to a couple of articles he had read in the business press.
It was evident that Asif required a fresh start. What was required was a thorough study of the healthcare sector. He needed to conduct an industry analysis at the macro level. What were some of the industry insights he should gather before leaning completely to the health care sector?
At a minimum, Asif needs to know the following about the target sector:
- Who are the market leaders?
- What are the key business drivers?
- What are the enablers for success?
- What customer needs does this business meet?
- What are the typical products/services offered by the organizations?
- Which customer segments are targeted?
- Who are the market regulators?
- What is the impact of regulation on the products/services?
- How is technology impacting the growth of business? Etc. etc.
This would require Asif to do a lot of fact finding from reliable and credible sources and this can be a tall order. Plus, he needs to follow a structured approach so that critical information is not missed.
Alternatively, Asif could reach out to the team of career counsellors and professional coaches at Korporate Ladders to give strength and accuracy to his effort. These professionals are experienced industry veterans and have done similar exercises extensively in their earlier work assignments.
Usually, for conducting a thorough industry analysis of the target sector, you will be required to:
- Do a SWOT Analysis. Identify:
- the strengths and weaknesses
- the opportunities and threats
- Do a PESTEL Analysis to examine specifically the Opportunities and Threats offered by the immediate business environment. PESTEL would include factors and issues arising from the following sources:
- Political
- Economic
- Social
- Technological
- Environmental and
- Legal
- Check for and search industry specific reports prepared by consulting and professional services firms and/or industry associations.
This analysis will help you develop valuable insights about the current state of the sector, its growth prospects, future trends and broad strategic direction it is likely to witness in the near future. In Asif’s case, a thorough industry analysis could possibly reveal a lot of information about the healthcare sector and also possible opportunities to build a career within.
Are you like Asif contemplating a change of industry to revive your career prospects?
Seek out the experienced professionals from the industry at Korporate Ladders for expert advice and customised guidance relevant to your context. We can help you do specific industry analysis, generate industry insights and prepare you well for making a switch from one sector to another. Cover all the bases well, prepare smartly and most importantly, do not rely entirely on your own effort. This strategy helps you minimize the unknown risks and reduce the element of uncertainty.
Korporate Ladders is a career progression platform that aims to help working professionals realise their true potential. Our goal is to help and assist early and mid-career stage corporate executives – like you – achieve your career aspirations.
We offer a bouquet of services such as professional resume creation, personality – skill assessment, interview preparation to corporate coaching, career progression plan and job search assistance that can surely help you expand your horizon and make you stand out from your peers and competitors.
