At Competitive Directions, we are committed to servicing your specific needs. We are here to help you meet your most demanding challenges.
Our practice is anchored by our founder and principal, Ed O'Brien, who has over two decades of Marketing, Market Research, Strategy, Market and Competitive Intelligence, and Training experience solving challenging business problems in a wide variety of industries.
Ed has authored over 150 reports, research notes, and other thought leadership pieces on such topics as omnichannel and digital banking, data management and analytics, profitability factors, and customer experience.
Additionally, our work has been cited in numerous newspapers, magazines, and websites. Noteworthy examples include American Banker, Bloomberg BusinessWeek, CNBC, Fortune, The Boston Globe, The Chicago Tribune, Charlotte Observer, The LA Times, The New York Times, and other national media outlets. We have also presented at numberous industry and customer events.
Our experience includes senior-level positions in Industry Analysis, Enterprise Software, Banking and Financial Services, Management Consulting, Transportation, and Manufacturing. Ed also has both graduate and undergraduate business degrees (an MBA from the Bentley University McCallum Graduate School of Management, and a BS degree in Business from Boston University).
We encourage you to consider us your partner - a trusted and valued advisor who is ready, willing, and able to assist you when called upon. We are committed to meeting, and exceeding, your expectations.
We are also intimately familiar with consultative and solution selling techniques and articulation of value propositions and ROI in various industries, which allows us to weave these important management techniques into our deliverables.
Our experience spans such industries as Banking and Financial Services (Bank of America Global Wealth and Investment Management, Fidelity Investments); Software (MRO Software, Mincom Software, Datastream Systems, Microsoft, SAP, and PTC); Automotive (Ford, Lincoln-Mercury, and Volvo); and Manufacturing, Trucking, and Transportation (Ford Trucks, Peterbilt, Pepsi-Cola, and Laidlaw Waste Systems). Brien, whose experience includes Marketing, Market Research, and Graphic Arts, both working with clients and in his studies at the University of Massachusetts - Lowell business school.