2. What is Competitive Intelligence?
Competitive Intelligence (CI) is
the Core of a Competitive Strategy
• Companies and industries prosper through
improvements in competitiveness,
leveraging core competencies
• Competitive Intelligence is at the core of the
objective to improve an organization’s
competitive advantage
• Competitive advantage has a lot to do with
leveraging the knowledge assets of a firm,
while at the same time determining how
competitors are likely to leverage theirs
3. What is Competitive Intelligence?
Competitive Intelligence (CI) is the
Core of a Competitive Strategy
• Whatever strategic framework a
company chooses to embrace, no one
element remains more fundamental to
competitive strategy than competitive
intelligence
• Competitive Intelligence should have
a single-minded objective: to develop
the strategies and tactics necessary to
transfer market share profitably and
consistently from specific competitors
to your company
4. What Is Its Value?
CI Provides A Competitive
Advantage
• Competitive Intelligence revolves
around decisions made by managers
about the positioning of a business
to maximize the value of the
capabilities that distinguish it from
its competitors.
• Failure to collect, analyze and act
upon this competitive information
can lead to poor company
performance and perhaps failure of
the company itself.
5. What is the CI Process?
The CI Process is Usually Composed of Five Main Areas:
1. Assessment of Strategies
2. Competitor Perceptions
3. Effectiveness of Current Operations
4. Competitor Capabilities
5. Long-Term Marketing Prospects
6. What is the CI Process?
It Is Performed Under Three Main
Approaches:
1. Strategic Intelligence
– Concerned with competitive analysis and
gaining an understanding of a competitor’s
future goals, current strategy, assumptions held
about itself and the industry, and their
capabilities
2. Tactical Intelligence
– Concerned with tactical issues including
competitors’ terms of sale, pricing policies, and
plans they have to differentiate their products
from yours
3. Counter Intelligence
– Concerned about defending your company’s
secrets
7. What is the CI Process?
And, It Includes the 4 “C’s” for
Monitoring Competitors:
– Collecting the information (decide
what to collect)
– Converting information into
intelligence
• Collate and catalogue
• Integrate it with other pieces of
information
• Analyze and interpret
– Communicating the intelligence
– Countering any adverse competitor
actions (using the intelligence)
8. How Do You Collect Info?
Information Comes from a Variety of Sources:
• Within the organization – sales reps, R&D departments,
purchasing, market research with existing customers
• The Internet
– Most companies now advertise their services online
– D&B (Dun & Bradstreet) for both private and
public companies
– Hoovers ( a D&B subsidiary) for public companies
– Thompson Scientific’s Patent Service for patent
information
– LexisNexis and Dialog (from the Thompson group)
for global press
• Trade shows and conferences
• Interviews with industry experts
• Competitors’ customers and supplies via primary market
research
9. How Do You Convert Info Into
Intelligence?
All Information Needs to Be Filtered,
Indexed and Catalogued
• Like a jigsaw puzzle, each piece of
information can help build a complete
picture of the competitive environment
• Even if some pieces are missing, you can
often get a good idea of what the
competitive situation looks like
• And, each piece of information needs to be
interpreted and analyzed – on its own and
in conjunction with other information – to
become actionable intelligence
10. How Do You Get Started?
You Need to Answer the Following
Seven Questions Before Beginning a
CI Engagement:
1. What do we need to know?
2. What do we already know?
3. Why do we need to know it?
4. When do we need to know it?
5. What will we do with the intelligence once
we have it?
6. What will it cost to get it?
7. What could it cost not to get it?
11. Want To Know More?
Contact Me and I will be happy to assist you:
Judy Willis
President & CEO
Judy Willis Marketing, LLC
D: 678-613-2096
jswillis2011@live.com
www.linkedin/in/judyswillis
www.judywillismarketing.com
