Your ability to make investments and raise capital is affected by... everyone else’s. So finance professionals – both inside and outside your company – need to understand where the members of your peer group stand in relation to you.

That understanding can come from the same tools i.d gives you already – information in context and your message matrix – applied to your competitors, even beyond your sector. Just think what you could do with quantified proof that a competitor’s new acquisition is causing a resource shortage that worries its investors. Conversely, how would you deal with an issue exposed in the media to which you know you’re vulnerable? Answer: by knowing about it soon enough.

A situational analysis focussed on the finance function’s drivers can act as both early warning system and proof of results. i.d lets you follow the money.