News Room

New York, NY. - April 12th, 2007 – Sedulo Group – On Friday announced its simultaneous acquisition of two international competitive intelligence and research firms. Sedulo Group, a New York based company will merge its practice with Sharp & Associates, of Shanghai and Perspicacité de Stratégie of Paris.

The three-way merger will more than triple the firm’s consulting capabilities which focus on competitive intelligence, market intelligence and competitive strategy development. Sedulo Group has worked closely with both firms in the past. According to John Story, a spokesperson for the company, “We were looking to formalize our presence in both Europe and Asia and because we knew and respected the capabilities of these two firms it seemed like the natural choice.”

Sharp & Associates, which already has a presence throughout China, Japan, Taiwan and S. Korea, will serve as the Sedulo Group, Asia Business Unit. The company specializes in competitive intelligence and market research in the technology and manufacturing sectors. The firm currently employees over a dozen consultants with backgrounds that vary from engineering and marketing to research and analytics. According to Story, “Sharp & Associates is one of China’s most highly respected boutique research firms; however up until now, their lack of a presence outside of Asia has hindered their ability to attract multinational corporate clients. This merger offers them the opportunity to work with both US based and European based multinational companies that have a need for competitive intelligence, market research and strategy development services in Asia.”

As if doubling the firm’s size and capabilities were not enough, Sedulo Group also announced the acquisition of the European consulting firm Perspicacité de Stratégie [translated: Strategy Insight]. With offices throughout Europe, the company leverages one of the most diverse and experienced management consulting talent pools in Europe. Led by a team of foresight strategy thought leaders and industry research veterans, Perspicacité de Stratégie has helped some of Europe’s largest companies develop long term strategies based on relevant, actionable intelligence and trend and probability analysis.

“We are very excited about the level of expertise that Perspicacité de Stratégie brings to Sedulo; not only their unparalleled expertise in foresight strategy, but their industry research capabilities and broad European reach.” stated Story.

Sedulo Group itself is a relatively young firm; formed in 2003 by a group of veteran competitive intelligence consultants. The group shared a vision for expanding the scope of competitive intelligence beyond its traditional framework. Initially the firm concentrated on applying the primary intelligence research methods used in competitive intelligence, to research focused on customer, industry and market intelligence. According to Story, “This was just the first step; at that point we weren’t really that different from our competitors.”

After a year of what Story refers to as “mediocre growth”, the firm again expanded its service scope; this time into the uncharted waters of Competitive Strategy and later Foresight Strategy consulting. “That is when things really took off,” says Story, “we found that most companies were operating in a bubble, forming their strategies in a virtual knowledge vacuum.” Story suggests that although many companies utilize competitive intelligence and market research, “they are only getting answers to the questions they ask, and while that may seem like common sense, the problem is; we find that many of them are asking the wrong questions.”

Story states that the firm’s unique holistic approach to Competitive and Foresight Strategy has positioned them as the leaders in this relatively new field. Over the last four years Sedulo Group has worked with dozens of Fortune 1000 companies and a number of start-ups and SMBs. As the company’s “A” list of clients has grown, so to have its needs for a greater international presence and increased capacity. “Fortunately”, states Story, “our substantial growth has enabled us to make the kind of expansion we are experiencing today.”