Transcript Competitive Intelligence

Competitive Intelligence
Enterprise Excellence Series
© 2009 Factory Strategies Group LLC. All rights reserved.
Outline
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What is Competitive Intelligence?
Goals and Benefits
The CI Process
Characteristics of CI
Prevention of Counter-CI
12 Applications of Competitive Intelligence
Sources of CI
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Print
Phone
Internet
Websites
• Ethical Considerations
© 2009 Factory Strategies Group LLC. All rights reserved.
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What is Competitive Intelligence?
• Competitive Intelligence is about Strategic Business
Analysis.
• Strategic Business Analysis answers all types of
questions confronted by business.
• In order to answer strategic business questions, we
need “intelligence” and not information.
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Why Competitive Intelligence?
• The only company’s that don’t need competitive
intelligence are those with no competition. In a world
of hyper-competition (lower barriers to entry, global
marketplace, customer focus, etc.), few companies can
abstain from some form of competitive intelligence.
Even if you don’t have competition, competitive
intelligence will generate numerous benefits: early
warning systems, more accurate forecasting, business
development, market research, due diligence, etc.
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Major Goal of Competitive Intelligence
• The main objective behind competitive intelligence is
to create and / or maintain a competitive advantage
against the competition.
• By using “intelligence” we can anticipate what will
happen in the future and this helps us create /
maintain a competitive advantage and ultimately
allows us to become a market leader in our industry.
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CI Project Management
• For the most part, competitive intelligence is executed
as a project. And most projects are very fast and tight
since management needs answers quickly.
• Example: On September 12, 2001, almost every
American Corporation with operations in Pakistan went
to their CI Departments and asked: Do we need to pull
out of Pakistan and what financial impact will this have
on our company? And I need an answer by the end of
the week.
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The CI Analytical Process
Competitive Intelligence Projects follow the
scientific approach to problem solving:
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Define the Question
Gather Data
Organize the Data
Synthesize and Filter the Data
Analyze appropriate data
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The CI Analytical Process (continued)
6. Prepare your findings
7. Draw meaningful insights
8. Prepare recommendations
9. Draft CI Report
10.Review and Approve Report
11.Issue Report
12.Follow-up and correct process.
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12 Applications of Competitive Intelligence
1. Current Competitor Activities and Strategy Monitoring
2. Customers, Vendors and Other External Allies Monitoring
3. Operational Performance Benchmarking
4. Product/Service Sales and Marketing Support
5. Strategic Probabilities and Possible Futures
6. Internal Knowledge Management
7. Intellectual Property Exploitation and Protection
8. Mergers, Acquisitions, Alliance and Investment Support
9. Long-Term Market Prospects
10. Counter-Intelligence & Information Security
11. Legislative and Regulatory Activity and Impact on Business
Issues
12. Executive Decision-Support and Competitive Strategy
Planning
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Sources for CI
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Most sources (70%-80%) for CI are secondary (not first
hand), such as newspapers, journals, press releases,
ads, web sites, etc. Primary sources (first hand) include
interviews, surveys, and other direct research
techniques.
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CI should try to enlist in-house experts. Larger
companies should create and maintain a Yellow Pages
of in-house experts.
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CI Professionals live by their rolodexes – the contacts
and sources for completing their CI Projects.
© 2009 Factory Strategies Group LLC. All rights reserved.
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Basic CI Tools
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Local newspapers & biz journals
Trade press, especially newsletters
NewsIsFree.com, other web-based news aggregators
CorporateInformation.com
▫ Requires free registration
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Ethical considerations
• If you wouldn’t want your actions reported on the front
page of the newspaper your mother or your child reads,
don’t do it.
• SCIP says:
▫ Over 95% of information that is required is publicly available
from open sources. If managers plan ahead and maintain best
practice CI systems, it is not necessary to undertake illegal or
unethical activity.
• Never lie
• Manage your clients’ expectations
• Outsource to third-party if appropriate
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