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Spying
. Spying implies illegal or unethical activities. While spying does take
place, it is a rare activity. Think about it; corporations do not want
to find themselves in court, nor do they want to upset shareholders. For
the most part, you will find spies in espionage novels, not in the executive
suite. |
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| A tool to
alert management to early warning of both threats and opportunities. |
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A crystal
ball. There is no such thing as a true forecasting tool. Intelligence
does give corporations good approximations of reality, near- and long-term.
It does not predict the future. |
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| A means to
deliver reasonable assessments. Competitive intelligence offers approximations
and best views of the market and the competition. It is not a peek at the
rival's financial books. Reasonable assessments are what modern entrepreneurs
such as Richard Branson, Bill Gates, and Michael Dell need, want, and use
on a regular basis. They don't expect every detail, just the best assessment
at the time. |
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Database
search. Databases offer just that — data. Of course it is wonderful
to have these remarkable tools. Nevertheless, databases do not massage
or analyze the data. They certainly do not replace human beings who need
to make decisions by examining the data and applying their common sense,
experience, analytical tools, and intuition. |
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| Comes in
many flavors. Competitive intelligence can mean many things to many
people. A research scientist sees it as a heads-up on a competitor's new
R&D initiatives. A salesperson considers it insight on how his or her
company should bid against another firm in order to win a contract. A senior
manager believes intelligence to be a long-term view on a marketplace and
its rivals. See our Strategic Intelligence Organizer tool on fuld.com for
examples of the many flavors of competitive intelligence and tips on how
to develop it. |
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The Internet
or rumor chasing. The Net is primarily a communications vehicle, not
a deliverer of intelligence. You can find hints at competitive strategy,
but you will also uncover rumors disguised as fact, or speculation dressed
up as reality. Be wary of how you use or misuse the Net. Its reach is
great, but you need to sift, sort, and be selective on its content.
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| A way for
companies to improve their bottom line. Companies, such as NutraSweet,
have attributed many millions of dollars in earned revenue to their intelligence
usage. See our CI Success Stories on fuld.com for over 100 excerpts telling
how companies have used CI successfully. |
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Paper
. Paper is the death of good intelligence. Think face-to-face discussion
or a quick phone call if you can, rather than paper delivery. Never equate
paper with competitive intelligence. Yes, you must have a way to convey
critical intelligence. Unfortunately, many managers think that by spending
countless hours on computer-generated slides, charts and graphs, and footnoted
reports, they have delivered intelligence. All they have managed to do is
to slow down the delivery of critical intelligence. In the process, they
have likely hidden the intelligence by over-analyzing it. Remember: Paper
cannot argue a point — you can. |
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| A way of
life, a process. If a company uses CI correctly, it becomes a way
of life for everyone in the corporation — not just the strategic planning
or marketing staff. It is a process by which critical information is available
for anyone who needs it. That process might be helped by computerization,
but its success rests upon the people and their ability to use it. |
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A job for
one, smart person. A CEO might appoint one individual to oversee the
CI process, but that one person cannot do it all. At best, the CI Ringmaster,
the coordinator of the program, keeps management informed and ensures that
others in the organization become trained in ways to apply this tool within
each of their SBUs. |
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| Part of all
best-in-class companies. In my 20 years of consulting in this arena,
I have witnessed that high-quality, best-in-class corporations apply competitive
intelligence consistently. The Malcolm Baldridge Quality Award, the most
prestigious total quality award for American corporations, includes the
gathering and use of external market information (a.k.a. CI) as one of its
winning qualifications. |
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An invention
of the 20th century. CI has been around as long as business itself.
It may have operated under a different name, or under no name at all, but
it was always present. Just review the story surrounding 19th century British
financier Nathan Rothschild, who managed to corner the market on British
government securities by receiving early warning of Napoleon's defeat at
Waterloo. He used carrier pigeons, the E-mail of his day. He knew the
information to watch and how to make sense of it; in the end, he used this
intelligence to make a killing in the market. |
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| Directed
from the executive suite. The best-in-class intelligence efforts receive
their direction and impetus from the CEO. While the CEO may not run the
program, he dedicates budget and personnel; most important, he promotes
its use. |
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Software.
Software does not in and of itself yield intelligence. The CI market
is hot, and numerous software houses are producing products for the intelligence
marketplace. Many more are repositioning existing software — in particular,
data warehousing and data mining packages — for use in intelligence. Software
has become an important weapon in the CI arsenal, but it does not truly
analyze. It collects, contrasts, and compares. True analysis is a process
of people reviewing and making sense of the information. |
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| Seeing outside
yourself. Companies that successfully apply competitive intelligence
gain an ability to see outside themselves. CI pushes the not-invented-here
syndrome out the window. |
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A news story.
Newspaper or television reports are very broad and are not timely enough
for managers concerned with specific competitors and competitive issues.
If a manager first learns of an industry event from a newspaper or magazine
report, chances are others in the industry already learned of the news through
other channels. While media reports may yield interesting sources for the
CI analyst to interview, they are not always the most timely, or specific
enough for critical business decisions. |
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| Both short-
and long-term. A company can use intelligence for many immediate decisions,
such as how to price a product or place an advertisement. At the same time,
you can use the same set of data to decide on long-term product development
or market positioning. |
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A spreadsheet.
"If it's not a number, it's not intelligence." This is an unspoken, but
often thought of, refrain among managers. "If you can't multiply it, then
it is not valid." Intelligence comes in many forms, only one of which is
a spreadsheet or some quantifiable result. My firm has completed numerous
strategic assessments, where the numbers only address one aspect of the
problem. Management thinking, marketing strategy, and ability to innovate
are only three among a host of issues that rely on a wide range of subjective,
non-numeric intelligence. |
