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Competitive Intelligence

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Competitive Intelligence

A Framework for Web-Based Analysis and Decision Making

Thomson South-Western,

15 min read
10 take-aways
Audio & text

What's inside?

Thoroughness and analysis separate the wheat from the chaff in competitive intelligence – not sneakiness or subterfuge.

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Editorial Rating

8

Qualities

  • Innovative
  • Applicable

Recommendation

The bad news is that many imaginative competitive intelligence techniques - those worthy of the movies and TV - are illegal or unethical. The good news is that you don’t need to violate laws or ethics to gather proprietary, sensitive information about your competitors. This book offers a somewhat scholarly but decidedly useful set of tips, tools and techniques. These resources belong in the arsenal of any competitive intelligence officer, or any businessperson - from a marketing researcher to a salesperson - who is interested in using the Web to learn what the competition could be doing. At a minimum, getAbstract.com highly recommends reading this to learn about all you can easily, legally discover on the Web. It may open your eyes to the value of information and the need to protect your data. Of course, the Web changes quickly and some of the specific listings about search engines and techniques may be out of date already - but the general thrust of competitive intelligence is unlikely to change.

Summary

The Nature of Competitive Intelligence

Dumpster diving, conducting interviews while misrepresenting one’s identity, planting concealed microphones and other questionable practices are not professional competitive intelligence techniques. Not only are such mechanisms illegal and unethical, they are risky and often unnecessary. The Internet contains a wealth of accessible information. Security procedures at many companies are so lax that you easily can collect even secret, proprietary and competitively sensitive knowledge without breaking laws or violating ethical codes.

A competitive intelligence program has five elements:

  1. Design - The design of your intelligence program depends on the kind of information your organization needs. Twenty years ago, competitive intelligence was a high-level strategic function and only senior executives saw intelligence reports. More recently, recognizing that competitive intelligence can enhance competitiveness and performance throughout the organization, intelligence programs designers have expanded the scope and distribution of their analyses.
  2. Information gathering - The techniques...

About the Author

Conor Vibert is an associate professor for business strategy at the Fred C. Manning School of Business at Acadia University in Wolfville, Nova Scotia.

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