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2009
June
- Competitive intelligence: check your sparkplugs — June 30, 2009
Suppose we forget to check on what the competition is doing or we poorly understand the overall competitive environment. When this happens, the organization begins to misfire. There are 10 signs to look for that indicates such misfires. (blog) Tom Hawes, June 30, 2009
- Older C-level execs avoud Twitter, blogs — June 30, 2009
The top three research topics that C-level executives seek are competitor analysis (53 percent), customer trends (41 percent), and corporate developments (39 percent). However, information priorities vary by job function: of those executives in sales and marketing, 76 percent say they seek customer trends; of those executives in finance, 63 percent said they seek competitor analysis; of those executives in IT, 59 percent seek technology trends. (article) Anna Maria Virzi, June 30, 2009
- CI in innovation — June 26, 2009
Our knowledge within specific markets and industry of mega trends, external influencers, new technologies, unmet customer and consumer needs, and comprehensive sources of information across functions/boundaries gives CI professionals perhaps a unique role. (blog) Stan Dyck, June 26, 2009
- Don't let the recovery catch you by surprise — June 26, 2009
Trying to predict precisely when the economic recovery will begin, how resilient it will be, and how competitors, customers, and other players will behave when it starts is foolish. A scenario planning mindset to the recovery will most likely better position your company to benefit when it occurs. (blog) Ken Sawka, June 26, 2009
- Competitive intelligence: keeps you ahead of the competition — June 25, 2009
Competitive intelligence is an absolute must for developing a profitable business with quality products and efficient services that constantly outperform those of your competitors. It should be included in your small business marketing plans and given serious consideration when writing a business plan. (blog) N.A. June 25, 2009
- Should salespersons be expeted to do more than sell? — June 24, 2009
Salespersons are centrally involved in the competitive marketplace and thus could obtain valuable information about emerging trends in the given industry, current and imminent developments in competitors' organizations, customers' unmet needs, etc. However, it is unreasonable to expect salespersons to obtain this information unless they are involved in strategic planning and understand why such information is needed. (blog) Bob Morris, June 24, 2009
- Strategic secrecy and excellence — June 24, 2009
Cross-post a forum discussion topic that I posted in the Competitive Intelligence community on Ning that explores the concept of Apple's strategic secrecy. My hypothesis is that Apple and other companies earn the privilege to be strategically secret (note: not completely opaque) by delivering customer value and excellent products or services. (blog) August Jackson, June 24, 2009
- Business intelligence vs. competitive intelligence — June 22, 2009
From the outset it is crucially important to understand that BI can not replace CI and visa versa. Both has its place and both is of the utmost importance for the success of any organization. Business Intelligence is the management of a company's internal data. Competitive Intelligence is the gathering and analysing of intelligence about the behaviour of the market you deal in, in order to make certain decisions based on market trends. (blog) Jan Steyl, June 22, 2009
- CI series 9: secure the budget — June 22, 2009
CI investments should be justified based on the value produced compared to the resources invested. This is a financial calculation but it determines the level of respect that the function (and its advocates) will receive. Management values what they count and they count nothing as precisely as they count money. (blog) Tom Hawes, June 22, 2009
- Poll results: social media and competitive intelligence — June 22, 2009
We ran a little poll on the Hoover's front page asking "Does your business use social media for competitive intelligence?" It's heartening that the largest category here is of people who do use social media for competitive intelligence. People are out there on blogs and Twitter and forums and whatnot, talking about you and your competitors and your industry - so why not listen to them and harness the information and opinions they're sharing? (blog/article) Tim Walker, June 22, 2009
- The moral compass — June 22, 2009
Generating and using competitive intelligence is a key strategic activity in the highly competitive world in which we all work. Most mature companies have guidelines for executives, management and staff that integrate the need for gathering and protecting competitive intelligence into a corporate code of conduct. (blog) Ian Graham, June 22, 2009
- Secrets stolen, fortunes lost, part 1 — June 21, 2009
We have found two profound misconceptions common among CEOs. One of the great misconceptions is that the threat of economic espionage or trade secret theft is a limited concern-that it is only an issue if you are holding on to something like the formula for Coca-Cola or the design of the next Intel microprocessor. The case studies included here illustrate the fallacy of thinking that this threat is someone else's problem. (e-book chapter/ blog) Richard Power, June 21, 2009
- Investigating your competition at tradeshows — June 19, 2009
If you're wondering how you can effectively investigate your competition, including their new products and services, marketing strategies, and upcoming changes that could affect your business, you should consider participating in a tradeshow. Also known as competitive intelligence, knowing what your competitors are up to is good for your business and can make a huge difference in your profitability. (blog) n.a. June 19, 2009
- SCIP Past President Named Fulbright Scholar — June 17, 2009
Dr. Paul Dishman, long-time member and Past President of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, has been awarded a Fulbright Scholar grant to lecture and research at the University of Donja Gorica (UDG) in Montenegro during the 2010 academic year.
- CI series 7: Accumulate the tools — June 16, 2009
In competitive intelligence, it is also true that there are common tools that should be identified and acquired early. Although you don't have to have all of these tools on day, it is useful to know that you will need them. Here is a partial list by category of some tools that you will likely need. (blog/article) Tom Hawes, June 16, 2009
- Competitive intelligence and the government librarian — June 16, 2009
This was a very informative session given by Roberta Shaffer, Director of FLICC/Fedlink. Competitive Intelligence is a process used to gather data – same as what librarians have called Information Analytics. CI is morphing into business intelligence or in the government – strategic intelligence. (blog) ‘David’ June 19, 2009 http://dmcbee.weblts.com/?p=224
- It's the people, stupid — June 14, 2009
Strategists and competitive intelligence professionals have become enamored with their tools and techniques to an extent that excludes consideration of the impact on people that matter to the success or failure of their effort. The relationships that are required have not been established or nurtured, the requisite trust is not present and the everyday communication is neglected. What would happen if we spent as much time learning about and applying good relationship skills as we did on web search techniques (or whatever favorite tools that you use)? (blog/article) Tom Hawes, June 14, 2009
- Drug firms gain edge copying James Bond — June 12, 2009
Over the last decade or so competitive intelligence in pharma was aimed at in-licensing opportunities. The focus has changed and broadened, It now includes looking at rivals' research and development spending, successes and failures, marketing and branding strategies, financial health - even human resources. (article) Peter Benesh, June 12, 2009
- The great comeback part 7: competitive intelligence — June 10, 2009
Do you know how your competition is reacting to the Great Recession and what they are planning to do after it ends? Understanding your current positioning versus your competitors', and how they will respond to your Comeback Plan, are important considerations.The Competitive Intelligence process requires you to answer these questions in order to see if you really know how to categorize and label your competition's actions. (blog) Jim Tompkins, June 10, 2009,
- Between goal and result, project management to the rescue — June 9, 2009
There is no way you can talk about success in an organisation without talking about strategy. It has to have it unique. You will not talk about an organisation without talking about competitive intelligence. An organisation must be able to look around itself; watch what is happening around it and know how to craft out its own niche in that particular field. Also you cannot talk about an organisation without talking about research.. (article) Philip Okafor, June 9, 2009
- Never cross the line — June 9, 2009
Competitive intelligence from public sources, customers, and third parties can help businesses anticipate market opportunities, trends, and strengths and weaknesses. However, intelligence gathering must be done in an ethical and reasonable way. These guidelines from MarketingScoop.com provide a step-by-step way to acquire the information you need without crossing the line. (blog/article) Ken Beaulieu, June 9, 2009
- CI series 6: introduce the brand — June 8, 2009
It is also important when starting a new Competitive Intelligence program. The CI brand that you develop will empower you to accomplish great things. In previous entries in this series, we have already talked about Setting Some Standards and hinted at branding elements at the Tease The Vision step. Now it is time to make the critical branding elements explicit. So, here they are. (blog/article) Tom Hawes, June 8, 2009
- Never underestimate intelligence — June 8, 2009
New York's Westchester County Business Journal, in its weekly business advice column, has just run an article entitled ‘keeping abreast of the competition'. For us, as market research and competitive intelligence experts, we can never read enough articles that encourage organizations large and small to recognize the importance of quality, up-to-date business intelligence. (blog)n.a., June 8, 2009
- How do I get sales to make use of the marketing materials I create? — June 7, 2009
I am a product marketing professional. I work day and night on competitive intelligence, product positioning and messaging and other tools. I store everything on our company intranet and I send notification e-mails out to the sales teams, with detailed instructions on how to use the tools. Unfortunately I still get the same questions over and over again and it seems like no one is reading my e-mails or using the material I created. What am I doing wrong? (blog/article) Mark Eteer, June 7, 2009
- My RSS presentation for the SLA conference — June 6, 2009
I will be reprising my presentation on how competitive intelligence professionals can best use RSS as a low-cost method to cast a wide research network. I've tried to update the material to discuss the potential of Twitter to track sentiment, issues and breaking events in near real-time. (blog) August Jackson, June 6, 2009
- Producing intelligence analysis from patents — June 5, 2009
Jack Sandeen's exploration of patent analysis was a very interesting project. The really interesting stuff he discovered had to do with the process of patent analysis itself. His report, built using Google Sites, provides a concise, useful overview of patents and patent analysis. He also provides a good strengths, weaknesses and how-to section and some very valuable resource pages. Some of the more interesting aspects of his case-study are the different ways he was able to visualize and analyze the data he collected. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, June 5, 2009
- The power of a company's ‘invisible balance sheet' — June 5, 2009
When an individual, team or business unit shares and collaborates what they know, trust increases, cooperation is spread and the value of the company increases. It's a line on the "invisible balance sheet" called competitive intelligence. (blog) Jim Sellner, June 5, 2009
- Competitive intelligence: getting past impossible — June 4, 2009
In competitive intelligence there is an article of faith that almost every question has an answer that can be discovered ethically, albeit with some uncertainty. That is, evidence can be assembled, primary sources queried, data correlated and so on to produce credible and actionable answers. Smart people sometimes doubt that this can be done because they have previously tried for the same answers or relied on someone that tried and failed. (blog/article) Tom Hawes, June 4, 2009
- Just how social is social networking? — June 4, 2009
I like to weave cooperative intelligence into my social networking practices. Cooperative intelligence assumes that you are a giving person without strings attached and that you don't just give to get. (blog) Ellen Naylor, June 4, 2009
- Your time, my time — June 4, 2009
In most law firms, the library is a part of the Competitive Intelligence department and thus participates with the strategic planning of the firm's vision and goals. This supportive visibility has in many instances assisted with maintaining library staffing levels and justified ancillary business resource costs. (blog) Linda Will, June 4, 2009
- The prime directive of competitive intelligence — June 2, 2009
It is time for there to be a prime directive for competitive intelligence. The directive is specifically aimed at those that profess to practice competitive intelligence in service of others. The directive is meant to be helpful by defining a standard or goal against which one's activities can be compared. Indeed, sometimes we will fall short but that should not obviate the directive. (blog/article) Tom Hawes, June 2, 2009
- Five reasons companies don't improve competitive intelligence — June 1, 2009
In meeting with leaders from multiple companies, there is a common thread that I observe about the need for and lack of competitive intelligence in their businesses. Given the dearth of competitive intelligence insight, why don't companies spend more time and money getting better at this function? There are five common reasons that I hear from companies. (blog/article) Tom Hawes, June 1, 2009
- Performing research in a difficult economy — June 1, 2009
If your research team doesn't manage the competitive intelligence function formally, now is the time to build it. In these economically-challenged times, staying too insular and taking your eyes off the competition could prove catastrophic. Historically, downturned economies have ignited rivalry, inspired price wars and fueled other competitive actions. It is imperative to closely monitor the competition during these times, which is also an activity that can often be accomplished with little monetary investment. (article) n.a. June 1, 2009
- The many faces of Google for business intelligence — June 1, 2009
Too often, individuals searching business related information turn to Google and surfing through the listing of results from a general search. It is important to remember that Google offers more than a general search tool for users. Ian Smith, (PowerPoint) June 2009
- Three senior management pleas for competitive intelligence — June 1, 2009
Senior management desperately needs effective competitive intelligence. CI professionals can easily damage their reputations and hinder their effectiveness when they ignore the common pleas from senior management. (blog) Tom Hawes June 1, 2009
May
- CI series 5: setting some standards — May 29, 2009
Where you set the bar for competitive intelligence is exceedingly important. Why? Because you will find that you are touching on important subjects involving important people that might drive important changes in the organization. By definition, this requires high expectations of you. There are 3 areas where you need to decide on high expectations: Integrity, value and work quality, (blog) Tom Hawes, May 29, 2009
- Introduction to pivot tables in intelligence analysis — May 29, 2009
Pivot tables are a handy but under-utilized feature of Microsoft Excel's program. Crime analyst's, in particular, make good use of these in their work but they are largely unknown to the wider community of intel analysts. Brent Pearson, explored this particular tool as part of my Advanced Analytic Techniques class last term. He put together a couple of useful videos to introduce the novice to this particular tool. (blog/article) Kristan Wheaton, May 29, 2009
- Resolving the 80/20 dilemma — May 29, 2009
End users are spending less time on gathering the information they need - but their search failure rate is going up. Competitor information is their top unmet specific requirement - and certain categories of information figure so strongly in their wish list that information managers could invoke the 80/20 rule, satisfying large swathes of need by concentrating on just a few categories. (blog) Tim Buckley Owen, May 29, 2009
- Tools to channel the information deluge — May 28, 2009
We can tap the same tools and skills we use to promote ideas to transform the glut of information into valuable, actionable knowledge and perhaps even competitive intelligence with only a modest investment of time or capital. Here are some proven shortcuts that will help you channel the flood of information. (article) Nicholas Gaffney, May 28, 2009
- Using competitive intelligence concepts to protect business and increase revenue part 2 — May 28, 2009
We looked at how competitive intelligence can help you drive and even increase top-line revenue. Benchmarking clients against their key competitors or entire industry is one of the best business development uses of competitive intelligence. In the webinar example, we looked at the labor and employment for Continental Airlines. (blog) Patrick Fuller, May 28, 2009
- It's 10am, do you know who's talking to your clients? — May 27, 2009
In a competitive marketplace law, accounting and consulting firms need to proactively gather competitive intelligence and respond to the marketing and relationship development moves of their competitors. Begin by asking some of the following questions. (blog) Paul Gladen, May 27, 2009
- Research: just do it (right) — May 27, 2009
Competitor intelligence is the analytical process that transforms disaggregated competitor intelligence into relevant, accurate and usable strategic knowledge about competitors, position, performance, capabilities and intentions. If your organization doesn't have a formal process for gathering, analyzing and developing strategic action plans from BI and CI, I strongly suggest you start focusing some resources in these areas - it's easier than you think. (blog) Pat McGraw, May 27, 2009
- Cut now, lose later — May 26, 2009
Companies, unsurprisingly, are slashing budgets for market research and competitive intelligence even though the insight from research can dramatically improve the return from larger expenditures on new products or services and marketing programs. In a recession, it's essential to get a clear read on existing core customers, including those who are most loyal to the brand and those who are most profitable. (Blog) Parmelee Eastman, May 26, 2009
- Ours is to reason why — May 26, 2009
Many companies employ people whose job it is to gather information on competitors. This typically results in the development documents that summarize data points such as company size, profitability, products, features, locations and the like. While these activities are typically described as "competitive intelligence," what they really are is reporting. Analysis is the piece that is often missing, and it is a critical to transforming information into insights that can offer relevant guidance to the business. (article) Amelia Young, May 26, 2009
- Competitive analysis for startups: being better, not just different — May 25, 2009
I'd like to see more startups openly talk about direct competition and how they're designed to win that kind of competition. When you think about it, saying you're unique is just another way of saying your R&D and product development is better than your rivals. In the end there's a lot more direct competition than startups like to think. (blog) May 25, 2009
- Competitive analysis for startups: the goal — May 22, 2009
Whether you're preparing a VC pitch deck or just strategizing about your business, remember that your real goal is to be an expert about your competitive landscape (and a paranoid one at that). The real goal of the Competition section of your business plan is to impress the reader that you are a) an expert about your competition and b) more paranoid than the reader (since the reader isn't the one running the business). (blog) May 22, 2009
- Going to trade shows like it matters, part 2 — May 22, 2009
Unless you are at the wrong show your competitors will be there as well. Someone from your company has to be designated the official competitive intelligence officer for this show. They are in charge of coordinating collection of competitive data, and preparing a summary report which contains facts as well as analysis. (blog) Steve Blank, May 22, 2009
- Brining customers into the company — May 21, 2009
What is perceived as a competitive intelligence tool by some is regarded as a collaboration tool by others. In the world which our users inhabit, collaboration and competition are two sides of the same coin. (blog) Yukun Harsono, May 21, 2009
- CI series 4: Frame the foundation — May 21, 2009
The next step is to frame your CI foundation for all that is to come. There are three things to do to make sure that your foundation is what is needed for long term success. (blog/article) Tom Hawes, May 21, 2009.
- Larry King would have been great in CI — May 21, 2009
This instinct for asking questions and a real desire to know the answers is also extremely useful in competitive intelligence and is why some journalists move into CI. (blog) Parmelee Eastman, May 21, 2009
- French Chinese CI cooperation — May 20, 2009
After several cooperative efforts between the ACFCI, the Shanghai Library and various French experts in Competitive Intelligence (all these events are available in this site), a delegation of the Hunan Provincial Competitive Intelligence Center has been received at the ACFCI (Assembly of the French Chambers of Commerce and Industry) in Paris for a seminar and various conferences about Competitive Intelligence the 19th of May 2009. (blog) May 20, 2009
- Effective competitive intelligence — May 19, 2009
A seven step framework for competitor intel: choose the ‘right' competition (it may not always be obvious); distinguish between the nice-to-have and need-to-know; focus on the environment around which you and your customers fit; determine the inference and action sought; consider the entire process, from collection to analysis; also understand what storage needs and share mechanisms you need; know where you stand on the ethics of your project. (blog) Jason Figg, May 19, 2009
- Forty-seven awesome Twitter tools you should be using — May 19, 2009
Twitter has already become an integral part of many of our online experiences. As the volume of users rise, so does the number of third party sites, tools, and services that all serve to make Twitter more dynamic, meaningful, and useful. Here's some of the best Twitter sites and services the Net has to offer. (blog) Deontee Gordon, May 19, 2009
- Getting into your competitor's head — May 19, 2009
So if you want to anticipate rather than react to strategic moves, you must analyze a competitor at two levels: organizational and individual.This approach moves you beyond the data-gathering efforts of most competitive-intelligence functions, toward a thought process that helps turn competitive intelligence into competitive insights. (article) Hugh Courtney, May 19, 2009
- Intelligence analysis in virtual worlds — May 19, 2009
Presentation by Dr. Jeffrey Morrison, US Navy, from the Federal Consortium on Virtual Worlds on the use of Virtual Worlds for Intelligence Analysis. Discusses two virtual world programs specifically designed for intelligence analysis, Time Machine and Mind Snaps.
- SCIP Merges With Frost & Sullivan Institute — May 19, 2009
The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals has agreed upon a merger with the Frost & Sullivan Institute, another nonprofit organization. The SCIP membership concluded its vote on the opportunity to partner with the Frost & Sullivan Institute on May 15. The merger was approved by 94 percent of voting members.
- Collecting information on your competitors — May 18, 2009
Collecting information about your competitors makes good business sense. However, you must do so in an ethical and reasonable way. Competitive intelligence from public sources, customers, and third parties can help businesses anticipate market opportunities, trends and competitive strengths and weaknesses. (blog) n.a., May 18, 2009
- CI series 3: Tease the vision — May 15, 2009
You goal is to begin establishing a pattern that will characterize all of the competitive intelligence things that are to come. The pattern will eventually lay the foundation for your personal competitive intelligence brand. (blog/article) Tom Hawes, May 15, 2009
- Mining social networking sites — May 15, 2009
With social networking growing in leaps and bounds, and ranging from broad-based options like Facebook and Twitter, as well as niche-oriented resources, expect to see more marketers using the resource to find out everything they can about their target markets and competitors. The process may be time-consuming and could yield more information that you know what to do with, but in the end even the tiniest nugget of competitive intelligence gleaned online could pay off. (blog) DeeDee Banks, May 15, 2009
- CI series 2: Get the job — May 13, 2009
Because of your interests, skills and initiatives, you convince someone to assign to you what you wanted all along. What does it take to get the job? There are two important points to remember. (blog/article) Tom Hawes, May 13, 2009
- Competitive data acquisition and analysis — May 13, 2009
Competitive intelligence is a marketing tactic and it is imperative that businesses incorporate it in their strategic marketing plans. It mandates a data gathering system, a process to verify the credibility of data, analysis of data collected, and formulation of action plans based on this information. (blog) Saurav Kneoteric, May 13, 2009
- 2009 text analytics survey — May 12, 2009
I asked those respondents that were deploying text analytics, what kinds of applications they were using it for. The results were not surprising. The top three responses: Voice of the Customer (VoC), Competitive Intelligence, and eDiscovery, were also in the top three the last time I asked the question. (blog/article) Fern Halper, May 12, 2009
- CI series 1: Find the pain — May 12, 2009
Competitive intelligence is more important in hard times though the methods employed may be different. So, what is the absolute first step that is critical for the eventual success of a CI program? (blog/article) Tom Hawes, May 12, 2009
- Just how important is product lifecycle management? — May 12, 2009
Competitive intelligence will play a big role here. As you see competitive products stealing volume, you need to act quickly. Depending on how well the product is solving a problem and delivering unique and relevant value to your consumer, competitive barriers to entry will help with this. But over time, they will find a way to deliver a "me too" product or probably something even better. (blog) Julie Abraham, May 12, 2009
- Stocks of CCOs rise during downturn — May 12, 2009
According to findings from The Rising CCO, an annual survey, the volatile economic climate has seen global corporate communications officers stock rise in the workplace over the last year while social media/blogging is the most frequently added function to their departments. In Asia Pacific, CCOs pinpointed competitive intelligence and risk management tools along with the company website as communications resources that will increase most dramatically in importance. (blog) Ben Burrowes, May 12, 2009
- LeadTail and Ureeekah - what's the difference? — May 11, 2009
Yureekah appears to focus on serving media professionals primarily as a competitive intelligence tool enabling agencies, advertisers, business owners, and publishers to: identify what their competitors' ad creative looks like; understand where their competitors are advertising online; find out where top brands and other large advertisers are advertising online. (blog) Carter Hostelley, May 11, 2009
- Research on competitors — May 11, 2009
Competitor intelligence is very important, and you are right to expand beyond their new products and features. Price is a key issue to get competitive intelligence on: a) what do customers really pay for your competitive products and how does the perceived cost of ownership compares with yours? b) how do your competitors react when you change your price? (blog) Koen Pauwels, May 11, 2009
- Competitive intel and the social media footprint — May 10, 2009
In the capital intensive world of technology and telecom millions of dollars are at risk when it comes to decisions related to product development and to-market strategies. For this reason, companies invest considerable resources to gather intelligence about competitors. Here are how social networks and online communities can be appropriately leveraged as part of an intelligence gathering initiative. (blog) Marc Hausman, May 10, 2009
- Fifteen effective tools for visual knowledge management — May 10, 2009
For visual learners and information visualization fans, having a graphical representation of knowledge and seeing how things relate is a must have feature. Luckily, in the past few years there has been a rise in the number of knowledge management applications that offer this capability. The following is a list of interesting /unique / effective tools for knowledge management and information visualization (not listed in any particular order) (blog) Eric Blue, May 10, 2009
- On Twittering or not — May 10, 2009
Process the information and you have a pretty good idea of where your competition is, and even what they are soon capable of. Raw data is everywhere and when analyzed well you have a nearly perfect picture of what your competition is up to. So writing Twitter snippets pretty much reveals where you are on your business plan. (blog/article) Bob Arno, May 10, 2009
- Change and innovation — May 8, 2009
Creativity and innovation are corporate assets that can't be taken away, either by competitors or tough economic conditions. You cannot hope to succeed without being open to change. (blog) Ken Sawka, May 8, 2009
- Competitive Technical Intelligence (CTI) released at SCIP09 — May 8, 2009
This book fills a void as a current, comprehensive CTI resource. Competitive Technical Intelligence focuses on science and technology (S&T) and provides methods and tools to help companies, labs and governments maintain a technical competitive edge. The book is divided into 5 areas: CTI Today; CTI Organizations and Operations; CTI Tools and Methods; CTI Company and Industry Case Studies and Outlook for CTI. There are 20 chapters each written by a CTI expert. Ellen Naylor, May 8, 2009
- Merger SCIP/ Frost & Sullivan Institute — May 8, 2009
As the SCIP members have been informed and a wide spread discussion is in full swing at the various intelligence blogs I would like to inform my blog visitors about the merger between SCIP and the Frost & Sullivan Institute (FSI). (blog) Jens Thieme, May 8, 2009
- The human side of competitive intelligence — May 8, 2009
Establishing an effective competitive intelligence system to deliver significant results is not a fast process. Aside from the knowledge and techniques that are required, there are many human elements that affect progress. People and their response to change are probably the largest determinants for the success of a new competitive intelligence program. (blog) Tom Hawes, May 8, 2009
- Tips for entrepreneurs in tough times — May 8, 2009
In a recession, competition accelerates because more businesses are chasing less demand. Analyze who your competitors are in the marketplace and what they're doing to capture business. Competitive intelligence can go a long way in determining how to structure your business model to succeed in the long-term. N.a. May 8, 2009
- Canadian charities — May 7, 2009
Researching Canadian charities is a difficult and frustrating undertaking. Here is the short course in starting an investigation of a Canadian charity. Richard McEachin, May 7, 2009
- Competitive intelligence: don't play blind — May 6, 2009
This is where business development and competitive intelligence in the real world comes into play. Knowing how to gain insight from the massive budgets of your competitors is the key to spending wisely, knowing that when you take your shot that you a significantly higher chance of putting the ball exactly where you want. N.a. May 6, 2009
- How real is the risk of corporate espionage today? — May 6, 2009
Businesses also should be careful of foreign-government spying and U.S. companies that outsource data to India should be mindful of industrial espionage by the country's businesses. Many more competitive intelligence units have been created in order to spy on competitors, especially because it is now much easier to do so. Kevin Murray, May 6, 2009
- Patents analytics and intelligence: a helping hand for strategic decision making — May 6, 2009
Patent and technology intelligence is very crucial in today competitive environment directing the innovation process. Tracking of patent can help in providing directions for the innovation portfolio, perfecting the design of the product under development and avoid in re-inventing. Detailed analysis of patents could be used to assess the competitive position and expected competitive moves. Vinod Singh, May 6, 2009
- Sustainability vs ISO 14001: seeking the edge in a competitive world — May 6, 2009
Be keenly aware of your external business drivers and what will stimulate business growth. Know what your supply chain is requiring - what are the critical success factors to keeping their business. Update the competitive intelligence of your competitors to know what is guiding their capture strategies and tactics. Develop a formula for success that addresses business, environmental and stakeholder factors that leads to tangible, real results. Dave Meyer, May 6, 2009
- Turing information into strategic tools to achieve competitive advantage — May 6, 2009
Competitive intelligence is an important tool for organizations to use during times of rapid change and economic downturn. It facilitates competitive benchmarking to identify risks and opportunities in their markets, pressure-tests their plans against market responses and provides insights into what their competitors are doing to ensure they make informed decisions. (blog) May 6, 2009
- Using social media for competitive intelligence — May 6, 2009
I gave a presentation titled "CI in a Web 2.0 World" at the 2009 annual meeting of SCIP. I came away with a much better idea of the opportunities that await CI professionals as they become more familiar with the social media and the information that can be gleaned from them. Tim Walker, May 6, 2009
- iSessions in the cloud — May 6, 2009
Since it's over the public Internet, the data going to the cloud provider should be encrypted in some manner. You'd be surprised what information can be surmised about your organization just by watching non-critical unencrypted traffic, and in some industries you'd be surprised who's looking (insurance, for example, has long had competitive intelligence teams that are very Internet savvy). Don, May 6, 2009
- How to find conversations by tracking brand mentions — May 4, 2009
Don't forget to check which of your competitors' links are being tweeted the most. You may find some interesting competitive intelligence that way. Your name mentions aren't the only thing you should be monitoring on Twitter. You also want to watch for instances of people passing around your links. For this I like BackTweets. (blog) Lisa Barone, May 4, 2009
- Use social networks for competitive intelligence — May 4, 2009
CI departments rely on and use information about competitors -- external information about competitors and information within the department's own company that needs to be shared and assessed to be of value. One of the more difficult tasks of CI practitioners, however, is establishing networks of employees and external sources. Twitter, LinkedIn and other social networking Web sites and tools have enormous potential for making that job easier. Ken Sawka, May 2009,
- Improving sales and marketing effectiveness with social software — May 3, 2009
With marketing and sales teams distributed across borders it is hard for team members collaborate, and to learn from each other's findings and feedback. Learn how collaboration software is being used by sales and marketing to improve market and competitive intelligence, teamwork, and win rate. (webinar) May 2009
- Mining the Twitterverse for current awareness — May 1, 2009
The nature of current awareness is changing. The aim with any filter is to show you the useful chatter and minimize the noise. Filtering in Tweetdeck seems quite simple at the outset, but does take some getting used to. (blog) Wendy Reynolds, May 1, 2009
- Traffic and audience measurement - what free tools do you use? — May 1, 2009
Free tools and services people use to gauge levels of traffic and the nature of the audience to any website. Obviously this information is useful for competitive intelligence, media planning and buying, search optimisiation, online PR, affiliate marketing etc. (blog) Ashley Friedlein, May 1, 2009
April
- Defensive competitive intelligence in a web 2.0 environment — April 30, 2009
All firms (large and small) must set aside the time to execute some defensive competitive intelligence strategies. In short, defensive competitive intelligence addresses the availability of strategic information about companies and their activities in the public domain. A clear example is a company assessing the amount of strategic details made available in its respective corporate press releases. (blog) Ian Smith, April 30, 2009
- Web 2.0 social media update — April 30, 2009
Periodically I take stock of my web 2.0 efforts, to ensure that I continue to derive value from the tools that matter and discard the rest. Here's my latest appraisal. (blog) Altman Weil, April 30, 3009
- What's your company's competitive intelligence? — April 30, 2009
We all keep tabs on the marketplace to a greater or lesser extent. In casual terms, we call it "gossip." On a more serious level, it's referred to as "competitive intelligence." We all know that a challenging marketplace makes it essential that you stay sharp in every aspect of your business, and that applies equally to keep tabs on the competitive situation in your marketplace. (blog/article) Lee Distad, April 30, 2009
- Dialog on social networking in competitive intelligence — April 29, 2009
This continues my report from talks I attended at SCIP's annual conference in Chicago last week. Roger Phelps and Suki Fuller facilitated this open dialog on social networking. (blog) Ellen Naylor April 29, 2009
- Gap analysis — April 29, 2009
From an intelligence analysis perspective, "gap analysis" can be used as a tool to identify the likely pathway or pathways a target may take to arrive at a given endstate from a known position. Thus, "gap analysis" does not necessarily provide an estimate, but rather provides the analyst with a list of possible actions a target may likely take. Gap analysis as an analytic technique bears a striking resemblance to several other methods, such as Indicators & Warnings and Decision Trees. (blog/article) Kristan Wheaton, April 29, 2009
- Ireland knows how to support growing companies — April 29, 2009
I continue to be amazed by Enterprise Ireland-Ireland's Department of Commerce. The support it provides startups and high-potential Irish companies is something we can all learn a lot from. EI provides funding, programs, advisers, resources, introductions to key decision makers, market research, competitive intelligence, advice on market entry strategies, partnering and acquisition strategies, and what appears to be endless support. (blog) April 29, 2009
- Competitive intelligence in China — April 28, 2009
Awareness & use of CI is growing in China, especially in the interior regions & 2nd tier cities. The Chinese feel an urgent need to invest overseas, which creates a need for more CI. They recognize the need, but can't serve themselves, so they're looking outside for that expertise. (blog) Michael Muth, April 28, 2009
- Competitive intelligence: keeping your friends close and your enemies closer — April 28, 2009
Competitive intelligence, also called competitor analysis, is a process where information is collected, studied, evaluated, and eventually used for purposes of modern-day marketing planning for a product, service, or company. It is a vital component of marketing planning that is meant to determine the risks and opportunities in marketing. By knowing the market environment of a product, service, or company, the marketing planners can better map out a most suitable direction amidst market competition. (blog) G. Serrano, April 28, 2009
- Four reasons I'll use Twitter and more reasons others will — April 28, 2009
Here are several reasons to use Twitter, including Competitive intelligence -- Don't just find out what people say about you and your company - check out the competition too. What are their customers saying and what does that mean to you? (blog) Cindy Butts, April 28, 2009
- The future role of business intelligence within the global financial community — April 28, 2009
In looking at the number of banks and businesses that failed, it is ironic that many of the participants had also invested millions of dollars in sophisticated business intelligence (BI) systems, processes and consulting firms. Decision makers at all levels were bombarded with conflicting and incomplete information from a wide variety of sources. The majority of BI deployments was biased toward the internal operations of the individual institutions and did not adequately address the interactions between members of the value chain. (blog/article) Michael Brooks, April 28, 2009
- Are we in a rut in CI innovation? — April 27, 2009
The innovation that people shared was around process which involved social networks and more sophisticated monitoring and analysis tools. The cost of information acquisition is really inexpensive today even compared to 10 years ago, so companies can afford to text mine and use tools that provide visualization at a reasonable cost. (blog) Ellen Naylor, April 27, 2009
- Four stealthy sources of powerful internet marketing intelligence — April 27, 2009
In online marketing it is critical that you keep up with what is going on in your industry. You do need to know who is doing what - and why they are doing it. You do need to take the time to research potential joint venture partners, products, and competing businesses. Here are four excellent tools and how to use them. (blog) Bharat Bhasha, April 28, 2009
- Practicing competitive intelligence — April 27, 2009
Today, with the mainstream acceptance of social media tools such as Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, information spreads in real time. Companies not only struggle to maintain control of their own messages but also to stay abreast of the ever-changing competitive landscape. One way to keep up is to apply competitive intelligence techniques that go beyond gathering and analyzing competitor moves to anticipate and uncover threats. Here are some tips for putting such strategies into practice. (blog) Kerry Walker, April 27, 2009
- TOR vs. TIVE — April 27, 2009
At SCIP09 my job was to moderate and guide a discussion ("Active Dialog") of the intelligence practitioners in the room. Our topic was the ROI (return on investment) of intelligence, and how to increase it. It really worked, almost everybody talked, there was a very free flow of conversation in the session, and we talked frankly about some sensitive topics. The session wasn't billed as "group therapy", but it had a similar effect. (blog) Tim Powell, April 27, 2009
- Twelve questions to test your competitive fact-finding skills — April 27, 2009
Clients will be needing help adjusting and prospering in this brave new world where technological advances are overhauling and significantly transforming the rules of the game. Is your firm ready to help? These 12 questions are designed to focus on testing knowledge of the use of technology, the ability to obtain competitive intelligence, and business development acumen. (blog) Howard Wolosky, April 28, 2009
- Useful approximations in CI — April 27, 2009
In competitive intelligence, we are often asked to assign a number to something a competitor is doing. For instance, our management might want to know how much research and development money has been spent on the latest product from our competitor. This isn't a number that most companies will report publicly. So what do we do? Give up? No, rather we fall back on the article of competitive intelligence faith that there is always an ethical way to give a good answer. (blog) Tom Hawes, April 27, 2009
- Three free great marketing tools you need to be using, but probably aren't — April 26, 2009
Most of the things you really need to effectively market your product, service or site can be found for free. The three tools below are just a few of those resources - I picked one from each major search engine to illustrate just how much competitive intelligence you can get - for nothing - if you know where to look. (blog) Ian Hollander, April 26, 2009
- Using competitive intelligence to drive business — April 25, 2009
The smart companies are thinking differently. They're integrating CI, landscape assessments, KOL research and highly technical analyses in one project via the market research or marketing departments that helps them understand the bigger strategic issues to enable smarter decision making. (blog) Sally Church, April 25, 2009
- Is the CI industry in a rut? — April 24, 2009
Different industry norms regarding the nature of competition, assumptions about how industry participants operate, and other factors seem to influence the openness of CI innovation. The experiences of many seasoned CI professionals, suggests that innovation is shared only among small, semi-formal networks, not in large conference sessions. To innovate, then, is to be a superior networker, making personal connections with other practitioners with whom you can share and learn innovative ideas and practices. (blog) Ken Sawka, April 24, 2009
- Luscious fruit: the competitive intelligence that hangs in a company's telephone tree — April 24, 2009
What kinds of things can you learn in a company's telephone directory? If you have a company you admire it might profit you immensely to spend some time doing some voice mail mining by tediously calling through each number of a company's internal dial system. Following are some other "tidbits" of valuable information that a directory might yield. (blog) Maureen Sharib, April 24, 2009
- CI pro interview with Emily C. Rushing — April 22, 2009
Topics for our intelligence frequently include: 1) profiling competitors' practice areas and clients, 2) identifying business development opportunities for the firm among existing clients and developing strategic targeting programs, and 3) developing intelligence in preparation for business development meetings with existing or potential clients. (blog) Ann Lee Gibson, April 22, 2009
- Game theory — April 22, 2009
Game theory is a method based on applied mathematics and economic theory. It can be useful when attempting to analyze (and ultimately predict) the strategic interactions between two or more actors and the way in which their actions influence future decisions. Game theory assumes that all actors are rational, and can be influenced by various individuals and factors. Games typically involve five common elements: players, strategies, rules, outcomes, and payoffs. (blog/article) Kristan Wheaton, April 22, 2009
- Competitive intelligence is crucial, or is it? — April 17, 2009
Intelligence is really another form of gathering customer insights that add value to your business. Used well and judiciously, it will actually save you money in the long run and save you a lot of pain in very competitive market places. It doesn't really matter how you go about gathering the information; the important thing is how valuable is the intelligence that was gleaned? (blog) Sally Church, April 17, 2009
- Why businesses fail — April 17, 2009
Well established enterprises need to have a continuous process of reinventing themselves. They should use a process like learning organizations, always learning and upgrading. They must be updated with market trends, new products, new demands and they must control costs, prices and margins. Resuming, they need to have an effective process called competitive intelligence. (blog) Mario Ferreira, April 17, 2009
- History and geography distort search engine results — April 15, 2009
Google search results are based on your web history and geographic origin. If you want to see how this can distort the search results you get, then do a Google search using your normal ISP connection, then do the same search using TOR, then again with Xerobank. Each search will return different results. Richard McEachin, April 15, 2009
- Red teaming — April 15, 2009
Red Teaming is an analytical modifier that can be used in two distinct ways: First, it is used to challenge emerging operational concepts in order to discover weaknesses with an organization's procedures and reactions. Second, red teaming is used to generate options for adversaries that may be overlooked due to biases or heuristics. When red teaming is used in the first manner, the effectiveness of red teaming is usually easier to monitor and evaluate. When using the second approach, it is more difficult to measure the effectiveness of red teaming, as the effectiveness is subject to forces outside of the method itself. (blog/article) Kristan Wheaton, April 15, 2009
- Seven ways CEOs can use LinkedIn — April 15, 2009
What are CEOs getting from LinkedIn? More effective hires, more efficient sales, and better use of their networks. Why? Because LinkedIn makes it easier to manage relationships. You can check out prospective partners, find experts, close sales, identify potential employees, contact media, and research competitors-and spend less time doing it. (blog) Dan Nye, April 15, 2009
- Capture competitor and market intelligence through elicitation — April 14, 2009
Teach Sales elicitation skills: they don't get it anywhere else and it will help them close more deals and collect information to help your company develop better products. It does involve planning to make it work, since most of us grow up asking people questions directly to extract information. (blog) Ellen Naylor, April 14, 2009
- Finding key influencers on Twitter — April 14, 2009
Engage with individuals from the industry. Competitive intelligence complements research, so go one step further than reviewing public information. Use conversation to get to the heart of the behavior behind a challenge or competitive issue. (blog) Beth Krietsch, April 14, 2009
- Decision trees — April 8, 2009
A visual representation exploring all possible courses of action and the resulting consequences to aid in the decision making process. Decision trees are comprised of nodes (decisions/consequences), branches (links between nodes), and probabilities. The resulting form resembles a tree. (blog/article) Kristan Wheaton, April 8, 2009
- Twitter search: are your clients happy? — April 8, 2009
With Twitter beta-ing its search function and a handful of new Twitter search aggregators out there, I have begun monitoring Twitter for industry chatter and competitive intelligence. One thing became immediately clear to me: When customers can tweet their frustrations to the world as easily as they can text their friends, all your customer satisfaction surveys and percentages go out the window. (blog) Ian Alexander, April 8, 2009
- A flexible future - pharma sales and marketing — April 7, 2009
A recent survey of more than 100 senior pharmaceutical executives in Australia conducted in March 2009, the hot topics of interest included sales excellence and SFE (67%), marketing strategy (54%), customer/market insights (53%), business and competitive intelligence (53%), sales management and coaching (46%), sales operations (43%), pricing and reimbursement strategies (37%), branding/marketing communications (35%) and forecasting (31%). (blog) n.a. April 7, 2009
- Designing your market presence for Twitter — April 6, 2009
By making Twitter a company-wide initiative, you can easily harness all the benefits of reputation management, prospect building, lead conversion, customer support and competitive intelligence with minimal effort. It does take some diligence, but the benefits can be outstanding. (blog) Stacey Schneider, April 6, 2009
- Argument mapping — April 1, 2009
Argument mapping (AM) is an analytic modifier that can be used to examine the logic behind the development of a particular conclusion and/or hypothesis. The product of AM is a visual representation (typically a box-and-line diagram) of the reasons that support and oppose the claim. Constructing a visual depiction of a complex argument reduces the level of abstraction in evaluating a decision. (blog/article) Kristan Wheaton, April 1, 2009
- Defense contractors need specialized technical pros — April 1, 2009
Demand is high for a wide range of functional specialists who can work in these areas. These include competitive intelligence, market intelligence and technology-transfer monitoring specialists; engineers in a wide range of subspecialties; intelligence analysts; linguists; and computer specialists of all types. (blog/article) n.a., May 1, 2009
- Knowledge for successful selling — April 1, 2009
Selling requires an immeasurable amount of education of company, industry and competitive intelligence. Clients receive immense value in the knowledge provided by the selling professional. In a time pressured world, clients are concerned about value not price. (blog) Drew Stevens, April 1, 2009
- Should CI take the lead on EB or should it stay with HR, strategy and marketing? — April 1, 2009
mployer Branding (EB) is one of the fastest growing business tools today, how company's potential employees view your company, how your current employees feel about your company is critical to success in todays world. Strategy teams know how important the people component of their corporate strategy is. The more I work within EB projects the more I ask myself why CI aren't more involved and more imporantly why isn't someone from CI in the senior management team for EB. (blog) Heather Disher, April 1, 2009
March
- Competitive intelligence toolkit — March 30, 2009
For those who are new to producing competitive intelligence, I will share three of the analytical tools I have come back to again and again in my CI career. These tools do not require CI-specific training. In fact, most of you are probably familiar with at least one of them from your business or insurance training, as well as even college courses. They may not be everything you require to fully answer a question or issue, but in my experience, they provide the foundation from which to launch a sound analysis on most issues. (blog) Karen Rothwell, March 30, 2009
- Persuading through CI tools: the cooperative angle — March 30, 2009
Don't be so persuasive that you forget about the dignity of the people you are addressing. Tell a good story that leads them to your conclusions, as though your audience had thought them up themselves. (blog) Ellen Naylor, March 30, 2009
- Competitive intelligence - a selective resource guide — March 29, 2009
Guide leverages selected reliable, focused, free and low cost sites and sources to effectively profile and monitor companies, markets, countries, people, and issues. This guide is a "best of list" of web, database and email alert products, services and tools, as well links to content specific sources produced by governments, academia, NGOs, the media and various publishers. Sabrina Pacifici, March 29, 2009
- Four possible futures for law firm scenario planning — March 29, 2009
Here is a summary of four possible futures we have developed for senior legal marketers. Working in small groups, they will identify core and contingent strategies for success under different scenarios, identify early warnings to recognize when scenarios are "coming true," and challenge their own and others' assumptions and strategies. (blog) Ann Lee Gibson, March 29, 2009
- Thoughts on Social CRM, hype and usefulness — March 29, 2009
I've had some time to stew over the developments that Web based CRM platform, Salesforce, has made with regard to introducing the ServiceCloud to solve real life problems. (blog) Joe Manna, March 30, 2009
- Semantic intelligence — March 28, 2009
Most people think of traditional business intelligence (BI) as a collection of business-critical information from inside the enterprise. However, consumer comments, independent reviews, and market reports online are crucial pieces of information coming from the outside that infinitely affect any organization. Semantic intelligence provides early identification and analysis of consumer sentiment, purchasing trends, market deals, and competitive information. (article) Brooke Aker, March 28, 2009
- Ex-Valspar employee accused of industrial spying — March 27, 2009
A former Valspar Corp. employee was accused by U.S. prosecutors of stealing trade secrets from the paint maker, then packing his belongings for a one-way trip to China, where a new job in the same business awaited him. (article) March 27, 2009 bloomberg
- Dealing with affiliates: a roadmap to success — March 25, 2009
Lori Weiman focuses on monitoring your affiliates' efforts. Her system is a competitive intelligence tool that looks at ads across different mediums, including search. They identify affiliates who direct link, affiliates who operate their own Web pages, watch for brand terms, head terms and long-tail terms. She's often asked if affiliates are a problem or a solution. They look at it as a solution: (blog) Virginia Nussey, March 25, 2009
- Dialectic and the Socratic Method — March 25, 2009
The Dialectic Method is an analytic technique designed to force the participants to re-examine their internal beliefs, biases, and conclusions through an open and directed dialogue. The Dialectic Method uses questioning techniques with the intention of creating a better understanding of a problem or concept. In the realm of intelligence analysis, it should be used as an analytic modifier; i.e. a technique to reassess the validity of the analytic process, not as a forecasting method. (blog/article) Kristan Wheaton, March 25, 2009
- Science searches — March 25, 2009
I had to locate articles written by a prominent scientist and here are some of the sites that proved useful. You may not know much about science, but a guy who does is probably published. (blog) Richard McEachin, March 25, 2009
- Think of it as safety — March 25, 2009
Business strategists and competitive intelligence professionals deal in ideas. At first it may seem that having a good idea is the biggest challenge. Later we come to know that affecting people successfully with those ideas is a much greater challenge. (blog) Tom Hawes, March, 25, 2009
- What's your competitive edge? — March 25, 2009
What makes your business unique? What is your competitive edge? It's important for new businesses to complete a competitive analysis during the business planning stage, but competitive intelligence can also be useful for marketing, pricing, managing and other strategic planning for retailers. Before you can know your competitive edge, you must know your competitor. Shari Waters, March 25, 2009
- BCG Matrix share: a visual strategic CI tool — March 23, 2009
A strategic visual competitive intelligence tool I like is an adaptation from the Boston Consulting Group's (BCG) Matrix Share model which depicts share momentum. In competitive intelligence terms, the BCG Matrix Share is a great primer to communicate a snapshot of competitor's share of market. (blog) Ellen Naylor, March 23, 2009
- CI in tactical times: actions and cautions — March 23, 2009
Let me give you some more reasons why an approach of "always and only strategic issues" is not a subtle enough approach for a CI professional. Work can be tactical for a while but there are cautions in every case.(blog) Tom Hawes, March 23, 2009
- Search technology in business intelligence not the answer — March 18, 2009
You should be using search to help you get competitive intelligence, market intelligence. But all you're doing is throwing more information at business users, and they'll be saying, 'You give me 10 bits of information and tell me to make a decision? Well how do I know what I should act on unless you give me an environment in which I can model a business outcome?' That is modeling based on guesswork. (article/interview) Christina Torode, March 18, 2009
- Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT) analysis — March 18, 2009
SWOT is the result of structured brainstorming on the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats of an organization or, as an intelligence analysis technique, of a competitor, enemy or rival. While not designed to generate an estimative conclusion by itself, SWOT serves as a possible convergent-thinking technique in the early stages of strategy formulation. (blog/article) Kristan Wheaton, March 18, 2009
- Surprise: strategic planning's Achilles heel — March 17, 2009
Surprise acts as a risk-multiplier. It's bad enough for companies to be confronted with an external development that complicates their strategy. However, if companies at least have an indication that such developments could occur, they can focus on remediation. The solution, I believe, lies in a system that combines structured analysis of plausible threat scenarios with a simple and effective approach to information monitoring. (blog) Ken Sawka, March 17, 2009
- The secrets of strategy — March 17, 2009
Strategy is the guiding principle on which are based a series of interlinked decisions regarding the selection and deployment of resources and tactics, whose purpose is realizing a vision and achieving decisive objectives in a competitive and changing environment. Strategy is broad and all-encompassing. With that in mind, here are the 8 steps in formulating strategy: 1. Set your vision; 2. Gather environmental and competitive intelligence, etc. (article) ‘Tolik', March 17, 2009
- Answers to using the internet to research private companies — March 15, 2009
On 25 February I delivered a well-attended webinar for the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) on some of the methods I use to collect information about private (and other hard-to-research) companies on the Internet. As promised, I wanted to follow up on the Questions that came in via the chat channel here on this blog. (blog) August Jackson, March 15, 2009
- Create a CI report card — March 13, 2009
A competitive intelligence (CI) report card is such a case. It is an indication of impending failure if a competitive intelligence professional does not get a report regularly on his or her performance. Why? Because a CI function depends on the relationships with and value to senior management. When either the relationship or recognized value is waning, then corrective action must be taken. (Or, you need to look for a new job.) (blog) Tom Hawes, March 13, 2009
- No country for partners either — March 13, 2009
Yet, BigLaw still hasn't gotten it how to use digital as a new-business development tool. Experiment with mini projects. The big nut to crack is coming up with a message that will resonate. Testing out can be done quantitatively, qualitatively [using blogs, Tweets can generate a gold mine of data and competitive intelligence], and being a guest commentator on others's digital sites. (blog) Jane Genova, March 14, 2009
- Why now is the time to consider scenario planning — March 13, 2009
The risk, of course, is not having a clear strategy for growth once the recession ends, or worse, failing to position now for future opportunities. That's why cogent strategy development is more important now than ever before. With forecasts deemed virtually meaningless, and the future harder and harder to envision, managers need a tool for flexible and realistic strategy development. (blog) Ken Sawka, March 13, 2009
- Analyzing your business' strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats — March 12, 2009
A SWOT analysis aims to provide decision makers with an overview of a particular target. This particular article focused on business and competitive intelligence (BCI) SWOT analysis, although the information has generalizability. Conducting a SWOT methodology yields a number of benefits. (blog) Andrew Canfield, March 12, 2009
- Competitive intelligence: learn what competitors are doing — March 12, 2009
When you look around at your current competitors, do you know what they're doing? Do you know how effective their current operations are, or how satisfied their customers are? When you develop your business strategies, do you consider what your competitors' strategies might be? (blog/article) n.a. March 2009
- Fresh look at strategy under uncertainty — March 12, 2009
Although even the highest levels of uncertainty don’t prevent businesses from analyzing predicaments rationally, says author Hugh Courtney, the financial crisis has shown us the limits of our tools—and minds. (interview) McKinsey Quarterly, March 12, 2009
- A framework for identifying inventions worth patenting — March 11, 2009
What patents are the company's competitors obtaining? Competitive intelligence is another important part of the invention selection process. While U.S. patent applications can be confidential for at least 18 months, regular searches on issued patents, published U.S. and international applications provides significant information. If a competitor is filing aggressively in a particular technology area, that should increase the value of inventions by the company in that same area. (article) Robert Sachs, March 11, 2009
- Are you really hearing your customers voices? — March 11, 2009
The impact of the Internet and then of the online social network phenomenon on the consumer buying behavior is a fact. You can therefore imagine that monitoring and, when possible, trying to influence the opinion expressed on these sources should be a main priority for any company. (blog) L. Scagliarini, March 11, 2009
- Conducting a proper SWOT analysis: going beyond the book — March 11, 2009
At the most basic level, a SWOT analysis involves collecting data and information about one's organization and industry (competitors, etc.), processing and assessing the relevant data, and creating four lists. (blog) ‘Jack S.' March 11, 2009
- The five myths of generic competition — March 11, 2009
Understanding and forecasting generic competition remains undoubtedly a serious strategic challenge for anyone with a brand product on the market. In analyzing the study findings, Thomson Reuters offers guidance on when and how best to improve competitive intelligence processes by focusing on more effective sources of long-range signals, and by providing brand teams with the resources and tools necessary to better understand generic competition. (report) March 11, 2009
- Link building 2.0 getting attention in the social age — March 10, 2009
Tools like Linkscape and Yahoo Site Explorer now mean that we have even more information than ever before about who links to our competitors. Find out who they are and then add them to your target list. (blog) ‘Matt,' March 10, 2009
- Marketing's primary mission — March 10, 2009
Successful firms know and understand the strengths as well as weak areas of their direct competitors. They constantly seek competitive intelligence and apply it to their on-going marketing and sales tactics. (blog) n.a., March 10, 2009
- British pair charged in industrial espionage row — March 9, 2009
A leading British manufacturer has been caught up in an industrial espionage row after two engineers used a mobile telephone to photograph a secret piece of equipment at an American factory. (article) David Brown, March 9, 2009
- Collecting primary research data on emerging nanotechnology innovations — March 9, 2009
Use executive interviewers of the highest calibre - provided with knowledge such as keyword triggers so as to understand what is important to probe endlessly. Interviewers who understand their position is to feed competitive intelligence, not just ensuring objective data alone. Frequently a trail of whispers collected by acute interviewers, beyond the pure survey, make important topics for boardrooms discussions. (blog/article) Grett Galvin, March 9, 2009 Fast Company,
- Competitive Intelligence Summit SCIP2009 Chicago — March 9, 2009
I know budgets are tight. Most of our companies are feeling the pinch, which is all the more reason to be involved in this important event. I know that the opportunities available through this gathering of CI professionals are something nobody can afford to sacrifice. The information you garner in our education sessions will make your work more valuable and effective, and SCIP09 vendors are excited to supply attendees with the best service for the best prices. (blog) Jens Thieme March 9, 2009
- How'd they do that? Enthusiasts aren't the only ones interested in finding out — March 9, 2009
You'd think, with all the competitive intelligence that could be gathered during the auto show, the manufacturers would be more guarded with who has access to the display stands, but that's not the case. It's tolerated because sooner or later their engineering and product planning staff are going to be making the rounds too.(blog) Mike Levine March 9, 2009
- Info Junkie: Brad Wilks — March 9, 2009
Never skip the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and Financial Times. Yahoo Finance has great competitive intelligence on its message boards. "So much of what appears is driven by internal people who've got information. Too often corporations overlook that, but we're of a mind that whatever you communicate internally, you can expect to see online within two minutes. (blog) Christina Le Beau, March 9, 2009
- Online impressions count when it comes to law firm evaluation — March 9, 2009
A recent survey of the Web habits of general in-house counsel has revealed that almost 90% of them agreed that a law firm's Web site plays a key role in influencing a purchasing decision. Nearly all of the general counsel interviewed stated they make broad use of the Web at work, primarily for research, including competitive intelligence gathering, industry information, legal research and information from legal and trade publications. (article) Jeremy Hill, Legal Technology Journal March 9, 2009
- The end of transactional executive search — March 9, 2009
To be a valued talent/HR organization, knowing and mapping the marketplace is a must. If done correctly, an internal executive search team will transcend the req-filling recruiter role to an intelligence function - a function with their finger on the pulse on competitive intelligence, marketing & branding opportunities, new sources of revenue, and potential M&A targets. (blog/article) Fernando Delgado, March 9, 2009
- Competitive intelligence and the spectre of executive negligence — March 6, 2009
What happens to competitive intelligence people when the system they operate within is profoundly flawed? What happens to their motivation when the competitive intelligence analyst realises that the whole game is so rotten that the data becomes totally valueless? How do competitive intelligence analysts remain of sound mind when the majority of their thoughts are almost totally derived of corrupted data? What happens to their confidence, to their behaviour and to relationships both inside and outside this context? (blog) n.a. March 6, 2009
- Competitive intelligence and the spectre of executive negligence — March 6, 2009
What happens to competitive intelligence people when the system they operate within is profoundly flawed? What happens to their motivation when the competitive intelligence analyst realises that the whole game is so rotten that the data becomes totally valueless? How do competitive intelligence analysts remain of sound mind when the majority of their thoughts are almost totally derived of corrupted data? What happens to their confidence, to their behaviour and to relationships both inside and outside this context? (blog) n.a. March 6, 2009
- Signs, signs, everywhere the signs — March 6, 2009
One thing that is true in competitive intelligence (CI) is that signs are everywhere. Contrary to the image of a spy sleuthing through trash or bugging phones, an ethical CI professional is swamped with publicly available information. The question is rarely about the quantity of information but how to identify and interpret the valuable information. (blog) Tom Hawes, March 6, 2009
- Top 5 ways retailers may loose customers — March 6, 2009
It's important for new businesses to complete a competitive analysis during the business planning stage, but competitive intelligence can also be useful for marketing, pricing, managing and other strategic planning for retailers. Before you can know your competitive edge, you must know your competitor. (blog) Shari Waters, March 6, 2009
- How to get a lost account to speak with you — March 5, 2009
One of the most difficult things in Win/Loss Analysis is getting someone from a lost account to speak with you. Why would they spend the time, and why would they reveal anything to you? The preparation work is essential to get the information you need. (blog) Alan Armstrong, March 5, 2009
- Mindset is more important than skillset for CI — March 5, 2009
Over the past few years, I've had conversations about how to hire for CI positions. The longer I do this work, the more I seek out those who think a particular way rather than those that necessarily have specific CI experience or skills. Of course, having both is ideal, but I will take a creative, curious thinker who is always asking questions and thinking several steps ahead over someone who has mastered Five Forces, online searches, etc. (blog) Bill Fiora, March 5, 2009
- Boston SCIP member among first to question Madoff — March 4, 2009
Harry Markopolos has attended a number of SCIP Boston chapter meetings and provided an excellent presentation on the difference between espionage and competitive intelligence. Here's one article from the Boston Business Journal. (blog) Jorge Posada, March 2, 2009,
- Look at their job postings — March 4, 2009
When looking at another company, that company's future plans are important to know. The company may be contemplating entering or leaving a market. They may be creating products which increase their competitiveness. Product lines may be expanded or contracted. There is no one measure (short of public announcements) that signals the future. However there are many activities and actions which may help produce a reasonable guess about future plans. Job postings are one type of signal that may indicate a company's future plans. (blog) Tom Hawes, March 4, 2009
- Sell-side research: there's value tracking the flow — March 4, 2009
We're starting to do some research with the Street Pulse database to see what kind of web-based information has the potential to move stocks. I don't expect to find many instances where articles and posts we process and aggregate are actionable, but I do expect to find evidence of excellent early warning signs and valuable market and competitive intelligence. (blog) Steve Goldstein, March 4, 2009
- The armchair sleuth: competitive intelligence via search — March 4, 2009
Would you like to have a heads-up any time your competitors are about ready to launch a new product? In many cases you can get good advance warning with clever use of search. There are specific competitive intelligence tactics that make this relatively straightforward. You can easily find out ALL of the new product offerings, ad campaigns, and catchy slogans that your competitors are about to lob into your vertical. (article) Lori Weiman, March 4, 2009
- Competitive intelligence sleuthing — March 3, 2009
Competitive Intelligence (CI) does not involve covert operations or espionage but it is sleuthing ... nearly almost always in electronic form. Law librarians have been doing CI sleuthing for a while and have seen an increase in the number of fee and free tools available nowadays. (blog) Evelyn Campbell, March 3, 2009
- Commentary on blogs and blogging — March 2, 2009
Blogging has changed my personal working habits. I have learned to present myself better, to offer opinions, and to invite commentary. Researching my field on the web and reporting on it, I've learned how to separate relevant from irrelevant information and to develop more sophisticated ideas of my topics. Being able to see what others are writing about and being able to compare them has led me to clarify my topic. N.a. (blog) March 2, 2009
- Holding business professionals accountable for leadership malpractice — March 1, 2009
A flawed strategy is almost always the product of failures further up in the decision making process. This process begins with diagnosis - identifying the correct problem or opportunity. It is followed by having the appropriate input - the information and insight necessary to understand the problem or opportunity - and throughput - the ability to reach the most appropriate and impacting conclusions from the data and situational analysis and connecting them to strategies. (article) Paul Kinsinger, March 1, 2009 Thunderbird Knowledge Network,
February
- Lessons from a wise old bird — February 28, 2009
People are talking about your brand, are you tapping in when they are conversing? Listening can do many wonders for your company. Conversations (either negative or positive) around your brand means they care about your brand. Social media monitoring is essential for your company's competitive intelligence. Isabelle Joo, Feburary 28, 2009
- Competitive intelligence: learn what competitors are doing — February 27, 2009
A competitor is a rival company operating in the same industry as you, selling similar goods or services. You may be competing against your rivals to win customers on the basis of price, the type of product you sell, the type of promotions you run, or perhaps the quality of service you offer. (article/fee) n.a. February 2009
- It's not the quills (analysis poverty) — February 27, 2009
My experience in competitive intelligence (CI) is that organizations have favorite techniques to interpret the competitive environment. When a small number of approaches are used repeatedly, it may signal what I call analysis poverty, the condition whereby a large variety of problems are addressed by a narrow set of analytical techniques. The impact of analysis poverty is that the organization will not likely understand the environment appropriately and they will dampen the impact (through misapplication) of the techniques that they know best.. (blog) Tom Hawes, Feb 27, 2009
- Patent cluster tool — February 27, 2009
Patent clustering tools aid the patent analyst in his daily analysis and review of huge set of patent documents. PatentCluster.com provides patent cluster tools, where documents get automatically clustered into various clusters based on the technology elements and patent focus/ (blog) Vinod Singh, February 27, 2009
- Six ways to kill competitive intelligence — February 26, 2009
There are many things to do to be successful in a competitive intelligence (CI) function. There are some things that will likely doom an effort. When working in CI it is important to understand both perspectives. That is, there are things to ensure and things to avoid. Here is my list of things to do to "doom" a competitive intelligence effort. (blog) Tom Hawes, February 26, 2009
- Six ways to kill competitive intelligence — February 26, 2009
There are many things to do to be successful in a competitive intelligence (CI) function. There are some things that will likely doom an effort. When working in CI it is important to understand both perspectives. That is, there are things to ensure and things to avoid. Here is my list of things to do to "doom" a competitive intelligence effort. (blog) Tom Hawes, February 26, 2009,
- Ten steps for successful competitive intelligence — February 26, 2009
There are many important things to consider for establishing and executing a successful competitive intelligence function. Some of these steps may be executed "outside" of a designated competitive intelligence staff. Nonetheless, my argument is that all of the steps are critical. Here are the 10 steps that I think are important. (blog) Tom Hawes, February 26, 2009
- Building a trusted brand — February 25, 2009
A current competitive intelligence strategy is key to an organization's success. Understanding what others in your market space are doing, how many people they serve, what large contracts are they implementing, what are they doing well, and where could they improve can make the difference between success and failure. (blog) n.a., February 25, 2009
- Sales intelligence: the secret to sales nirvana — February 25, 2009
In November 2008, Aberdeen surveyed over 300 companies to understand how organizations leverage sales intelligence information to improve the effectiveness of the sales force and enrich the quality of leads in the sales pipeline. This report examines how top performing companies are implementing sales intelligence initiatives to increase the quality of leads in the pipeline and contextualize opportunities with relevant industry or account information. (report) Alex Jefferies, 28 pages. February 2009
- Why is my competitor doing that? — February 24, 2009
Competitive strategy is often an exercise of imitating a competitor's actions instead of charting a unique course of action -- an approach that rarely results in a company establishing a leadership position in its industry. the biggest mistake companies make when establishing a CI function is that they position it as a research function instead of a resource for informing strategic decisions. (blog) Ken Sawka, February 24, 2009
- Alacra pulses with new product energy — February 23, 2009
Alacra's new Pulse Platform reflects the reality of where people now look for corporate news, information, and analysis. It's no longer sufficient to rely upon investment house research reports, whether those reports come from the buy side or the sell side. Bloggers and analysts from outside the traditional investment community have taken up the slack. An increase in available information, however, raises a different type of trustworthiness issue: how to separate the wheat from the chaff. (article) Marydee Ojala, February 23, 2009
- Opportunity analysis in bad times — February 23, 2009
We need to consider the entrepreneurial businesses, which have made America great such as Google, Intel and Microsoft. Let's be on the lookout for the next Google to invest in. We still have great innovation in America. Let's not curb their enthusiasm. (blog) Ellen Naylor, February 23, 2009,
- Social media targeting for people and businesses — February 23, 2009
Professional marketers, especially direct marketers, study what their competition is - and is not - doing in great detail. They may also try to understand why the competition is doing what it does, and if a campaign is used over and over, they'll assume that the campaign is profitable. Watch your competitors and you'll learn how they position themselves, what they write about, what keywords they optimize, where they bookmark their content, what tags they use, and much more. (blog) Larry Brauner, February 23, 2009
- Competitive audits — February 22, 2009
Further proof that the scope and advantage of mystery shopper programs extends well beyond that of a perfunctory customer service evaluation is their effectiveness as a tool for conducting competitive audits - and for building a body of competitive intelligence that can be used to inform your own product, staffing and service-based decisions as well as long-term strategic development. (blog) David Rich, February 22, 2009
- Managing corporate reputation online can no longer be an afterthought — February 22, 2009
Weber Shandwick and The Economist released a study based on interviews with more than 700 executives, designed to address the key challenges companies face today and specific actions that need to be taken. The highlights included: Most surveyed executives say they utilize the Web more for competitive intelligence than understanding their company's reputation positioning. (blog) Mike Spataro, February 22, 2009
- Moving CI from information-driven inquiry to decision-support consultancy — February 22, 2009
I want to encourage researchers to move from thinking about requests for specific information and focusing more on the motivating decision that they are trying to inform. I have been looking at this concept recently based on some observations I've been pulling together about some cognitive biases that occur when competitive intelligence tasking is focused strictly on finding specific information about the market or a competitor versus inquiries and support based on decision support. (blog) August Jackson, Febrary 22, 2009
- Recruiting firm keep focus to weather the tough times — February 22, 2009
Sheila Greco and Associates has four main branches: research, recruitment, competitive intelligence and the company's special executive tracker. In hard times, Greco believes it is more important than ever for businesses to have the best possible people, and clients will turn to her to seek them out. (article) Jessica harding, Daily Gazette Schenedtady NY, Febuary 22, 2009
- Risky Business Reputations Online — February 22, 2009
Weber Shandwick commissioned the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU) to conduct a worldwide online survey of 703 senior executives from 62 countries. Risky Business addresses such issues as the vulnerability of company reputations, the resources executives rely upon to assess company reputations, the identification and prioritization of online risks to reputation, the impact of traditional and new media on reputation, the globalization and localization of digital reputation, the viability and penetration of Web 2.0, the threat of employee cyber-sabotage, and most importantly, the best measures for protecting a company's reputation online. (PDF full report) 20 pages. 2009
- Selected Philippine online media sources — February 22, 2009
I do daily media scanning and news analysis. Simply put I track relevant issues so that I can provide risk assessment, competitive intelligence, and early warning to clients. The following are my staple of on-line media sources. (Blog) Eero Rosini Brillantes, February 22, 2009
- The basic rules of competitive intelligence — February 22, 2009
Every business has to deal with customers, suppliers, employees and others. In nearly every branch of trade there are many companies dealing with the same reference groups. These companies are competitors because they offer similar products to similar customers. Therefore, it is so crucial to know what the other companies, the competitors, are doing. (blog) Sophie Bonczyk, Febuary 22, 2009
- Turning business intelligence into business decisions — February 22, 2009
Many organizations, however, have spent substantial time and effort building a business intelligence capability only to struggle with acting on the intelligence gathered. Often, competitive intelligence fails to include actionable insights that decision-makers can put to use. How then, to ensure that business intelligence drives decision-making. (article) Ken Sawka, February 2009 Kiplinger Business Resource Center.
- Better to fetter: Mintel vs Neerghen — February 21, 2009
There's a new decision out of the N.D. of Illinois addressing the question of what justifies direct access to a non-party's hard drives in the context of employee data theft. What Mintel should have done from the start was seek appointment of a neutral examiner to undertake the examination. A neutral could assess evidence of usage and re-distribution of Mintel's stolen data while ameliorating the risk that Mintel might use third-party discovery as a means of competitive intelligence. (blog) Craig Ball, February 21, 2009
- Making great leaders: social intelligence and the biology of leadership — February 21, 2009
Being in a good mood, research finds, helps people take in information effectively and respond nimbly and creatively. In other words, laughter is serious business. Excerpts from Social intelligence and the biology of leadership, by Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatsis. (blog) David Harkleroad, "," February 21, 2009
- Social media and pharma — February 20, 2009
Things are still evolving in the Pharma industry as a few players have only just started to experiment with the cool social media tools that are out there. There will be a lot of interesting battles with internal medical-legal-regulatory review teams to come though. (blog) Sally Church, February 20, 2009
- Follow your client's breadcrumbs - follow up sales tips — February 19, 2009
The first thing I would do is try to get competitive intelligence on the new contact's past company and see if they would be a good prospect for your business, perhaps this new contact could introduce you. Second I would follow the old contact to their new place of employment and see if they could purchase services from you again. Lastly I would ask who he replaced at the new job and where they moved to. (blog) Oliver Feakins, February 19, 2009
- Intellipedia suffers midlife crisis — February 18, 2009
The U.S. intelligence agencies' internal wiki Intellipedia has gotten glowing press reports and accolades, as well as input from thousands of analysts. However, the wiki still struggles to make a permanent home in the spy agencies. The growth of the collective intelligence site so far largely has been fueled by early adopters and enthusiasts. If the intelligence agencies want to get further gains from the site, they need to incorporate it into their own formal decision making process. (article) Joab Jackson, February 18, 2009
- New Intel related articles on Wikipedia — February 18, 2009
One of the assignments I give the grad students in my Intelligence Communications class is to write a Wikipedia article on something that is both "intelligence related" and that has not been covered before on Wikipedia. Last year's class generated a good crop of articles and this year's class -- while extending the definition of "intelligence-related" somewhat -- is no different. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, February 18, 2009
- Sales training for competitive intelligence — February 18, 2009
An important area in your sales career make is sales training and you should find a course in Competitive Intelligence. It is important to understand your competitors. It is not industrial espionage, competitive intelligence is an ethical and legal business discipline used routine in the business community. (blog) Bob Beck. February 18, 2009
- The other death spiral — February 18, 2009
This death spiral is where you start to believe too much of your own thinking. Over years of experience -- particularly within a single organization -- a kind of inertia builds up. Make periodic assumption questioning part of your routine process. Take a step outside of your comfort zone. Really do a scenario analysis of how the options will play out over time. (blog) Tim Rochte, February 18, 2009
- Best practices in competitive technical intelligence — February 17, 2009
Best in class companies consider primary intelligence gathering a key practice. While technology has made great strides for information collection and organization, people are still needed, since critical thinking is absent strictly using technology. Tap into individual networks and get access to intra-company networks, company to government R&D organizations, and company to company networks (from conferences and presentations). (blog) Ellen Naylor, February 17, 2009
- Dominating your SEO competition through competitive knowledge — February 17, 2009
Knowing who your competitors are and what kind of time and monetary investment they are making into their online marketing is nearly as essential as implementing your own marketing strategy. If you have a good idea of what you're up against can make better decisions about where and how to invest your own time and money. (blog) Stoney DeGeyter, February 17, 2009
- Leadership skills: understanding the competition part 2 — February 17, 2009
This article is one in a series focusing on your building intellectual capital. The last article and this one target a particular area: competitive intelligence. In this column, we focus on obtaining high level financial information, and it differs if it is for public or private companies. (blog) Marian Cook, February 17, 2009
- The airport waiting area syndrome goes global with Twitter — February 17, 2009
Now Twitter opens up a whole new way to give away your company secrets to anyone anywhere who wants to listen. I was talking with a marketing person who subscribes to his competitors Twitter feeds. He finds that they often discuss recent sales calls on Twitter. He can then forward the competitive intelligence on to the appropriate people in his sales force. (blog) Bill Ives, February 17, 2009
- Top 10 Twitter tips for beginners — February 16, 2009
Is it finally time to take the Twitter plunge? The free service that lets users micro-blog 140 characters at a time had accumulated around 1.9 million users as of December 2008, according to comScore. If you are just now jumping on the Twitter bandwagon, or are intimidated by your inexperience with Twitter etiquette and acronyms, allow us to share some Twittery tips that will make your experience easier and more enjoyable. (blog/article) Sean Ludwig, February 16, 2009
- Collecting competitive intelligence on sitepoint — February 14, 2009
Although the SitePoint marketplace is pretty big and has a lot of prospective buyers, you still need to stay up-to-date with what your competition is doing and why. The reason is simple - benchmarking. Every single time one of your chief competitors sells a website, you need to know when it happens, what got sold and, most importantly, why. (blog) ‘George', February 14, 2009
- Old habits die hard: why a revised approach to M&A due diligence is key — February 14, 2009
Traditional approaches to M&A due diligence may allow vital issues in today's cross-border M&A environment to fall through the cracks, potentially giving acquirers an incomplete, and possibly faulty, view of the deal landscape. In some cases, basic information required to make deal decisions simply doesn't exist or is of questionable quality. Against these odds, how can management make the best quality investment decisions? (report) 4 pages February 4, 2009
- Researching intellectual property law in the Russian Federation — February 14, 2009
With the advent of globalization attorneys increasingly confront the necessity to research intellectual property law in jurisdictions other than the United States. This task can be complex and intimidating at times, depending on the amount of information available and the extent to which the foreign law differs from American law. The purpose of this guide is to assist attorneys and other legal professionals in the research of contemporary intellectual property law in the Russian Federation. (article) Julian Zegelman, February 14, 2009
- Six ways to make web 2.0 work — February 14, 2009
Web 2.0 tools present a vast array of opportunities-for companies that know how to use them. Over the past two years, McKinsey has studied more than 50 early adopters to garner insights into successful efforts to use Web 2.0 as a way of unlocking participation. We have found that, unless a number of success factors are present, Web 2.0 efforts often fail to launch or to reach expected heights of usage. (article) Michael Chiu, Andy Miller and Roger P. Roberts, McKinsey Quarterly, February 2009
- Collecting competitive intelligence on SitePoint — February 13, 2009
Gathering competitive intelligence is essential to any business. If you're going to take on the competition, you need to offer something at least similar to what they're providing. Your competitors on the SitePoint marketplace are your best source of competitive intelligence. (blog) George Chernikov, February 13, 2009
- Competitive intelligence using lost deals — February 13, 2009
Win/Loss analysis is one of the most powerful tools in the product manager's belt. Gather competitive intelligence from last year's losses. Sales people rarely follow up once they feel an account is dead. Therefore you are looking to find accounts that sales considers dead, but in which you can get a lot of valuable information. It would be hard for sales to prevent you from calling dead accounts. There are two main kinds of dead accounts, and you can learn different things depending on what you find. (blog) Alan Armstrong, February 13, 2009
- Time to assess: who is your real competition? — February 13, 2009
This article explores the increasing ways in which competitive intelligence can help law firms differentiate themselves from the pack and more successfully vie for the anticipated redistribution of client relationships and revenue streams in a disrupted and changing marketplace. (article) Liz Pava, National Law Journal, February 13, 2009
- Twitter: what is it good for? — February 13, 2009
"communications protocol" that allows users to blast small bursts of info to their followers and friends, according to new data by the Pew Internet & American Life Project. Twitter, Yammer, Facebook and other micro-blogging platforms are becoming journalism tools: Reporters use a dedicated newsfeed to keep up with the competition, and to solicit ideas from their readers. (blog) ‘JDP, February 13, 2009
- Fifteen nifty SEO Google Alert tips — February 12, 2009
You may know that you can get the latest news headline links using Google alerts. Simply go to http://www.news.google.com and put in a search for something you want to know more about. Here are some ideas about how you can use Google Alerts. (blog) Greg Cryns, February 12, 2009
- Who washed my briefs? — February 12, 2009
Change is a given in any industry, but especially so for us legal folks. Recently large-scale change has been visited upon us in terms of our clients, the economy, and our internal organizations. The interesting thing about clients is that they expect their professional service providers to be proactive, not reactive. Proactive strategies are the result of knowing your market, your clients, and your industries inside and out. (blog) Laura Walters, February 12, 2009
- Competitive analysis: 12 free competitive intelligence tools — February 11, 2009
Of course there are a lot of [search marketing] tools that companies can spend a lot of money and resources on to track their competition, but there are also a number of free resources that you can use to gain competitive intelligence. Here's a look at twelve great online competitive intelligence tools... and they are all free. (blog) February 12, 2009
- Getting into your competitor's head: a case study — February 11, 2009
Competitive intelligence professionals often spend too much time collecting competitive data and not enough time digesting what it really means, and how it can help their managers make better decisions. In the February McKinsey Quarterly, "Getting into Your Competitor's Head," the authors (Hugh Courtney, John Horn and Jayanti Kar) discuss that in order to be more predictive you need to insert yourself into both your competitor's company moves as well as their decision-making, which often don't match. (blog) Ellen Naylor, February 11, 2009
- Evaluating intelligence: part 8 batting averages — February 7, 2009
Clearly, given the caveats and conditions under which I am attempting this analysis, I am looking only for broad patterns of analytic activity. My intent is not to spend hours quibbling about all of the various ways a particular judgment could be interpreted as true or false after the fact. My intent is to merely make the case that evaluating intelligence is difficult but, even with those difficulties firmly in mind, it is possible to go back, after the fact, and, if we look at a broad enough swath of analysis, come to some interesting conclusions about the process. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, February 7, 2009
- Sharpen your emotional intelligence skills — February 7, 2009
Emotional Intelligence is as important component of cooperative intelligence. Referred to as EI, often measured as an Emotional Intelligence Quotient (EQ), it is the ability to sense, understand, and effectively apply the power of emotions to facilitate high levels of collaboration and productivity. In my field of competitive intelligence a high EQ is helpful since we're often delivering people bad news. (blog) Ellen Naylor, February 7, 2009
- Evaluating intelligence: part 7 the Iraq WMD estimate — February 6, 2009
These three documents, prepared at roughly the same time, under roughly the same conditions, with roughly the same resources on roughly the same target allows the accuracy of the estimative conclusions in the documents to be compared with some assurance that doing so may help get at any underlying flaws or successes in the analytic process. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, February 6, 2009
- Getting into your competitor's head — February 6, 2009
You must analyze a competitor at two levels: organizational and individual. At the organizational level, you have to think like a strategist of your competitor by searching for the perfect strategic fit between its endowments and its changing market environment. At the individual level, you have to think like the decision makers of the competitor, identifying who among them makes which decisions and the influences and incentives guiding their choices. (blog/article) Hugh Courtney et al. February 6, 2009
- The disappearing corporate career path — February 6, 2009
I am amazed how many marketers avoid public contact. They avoid meeting new suppliers because they do not want to be bothered hearing pitches. I found suppliers became my best sources of competitive intelligence. (blog) n.a. February 6, 2009
- Competitive intelligence: inside is best — February 5, 2009
In my view timely competitive intelligence should be an important part of the "innovation algorithm."
Sources of competitive information cover the gamut and range from web sites, to analyst reports, to primary research to web searches. There is one source, however, that is often overlooked and that is a company's own internal activities. (blog) Andres Jordan, Feburary 5, 2009
- Evaluating intelligence: part 6 the decisionmaker's perspective — February 4, 2009
Experienced decisionmakers do not expect intelligence professionals to be able to understand external forces to the same degree that it is possible to understand internal forces. They do expect intelligence to reduce their uncertainty, in tangible ways, regarding these external forces. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, February 4, 2009
- Strategies for preparing for a patent interference — February 4, 2009
Your client will never know a patent problem exists (until it is too late) unless it is obtaining competitive intelligence. Each company should employ a procedure to obtain competitive intelligence. Most companies set up an information "watch," which is a periodic retrieval of targeted information, as part of this procedure. (article) Richard Neifeld, n.d.
- Win loss analysis is more than competitive intelligence — February 4, 2009
Win loss analysis is my favorite tactical cooperative intelligence practice as it offers the best ROI of any sales intelligence tool. You gain intelligence by interviewing your customers shortly after the sales event to find out why they chose to do business with you or decided on a competitor. The data gathered combines knowledge from sales, customers, competitors, and your marketplace. (blog) Ellen Naylor, February 4, 2009
- Ignorance management — February 3, 2009
Donald Rumsfeld is credited with this legendary remark back in February 2002: "...as we know, there are known knowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns - the ones we don't know we don't know." Turns out, he knew what he was talking about. (blog) n.a. February 3, 2009
- Learning from loss — February 3, 2009
When you lose a sale, it's an opportunity to learn something about yourself and your firm and also about your competitors. Recently, I spoke with Ken Sawka, and asked him how a firm could get the most from these opportunities. He had suggestions well worth passing on. (blog) Ford Harding, February 3, 2009
- Oh social networking tools — February 3, 2009
Currently, those of us that are pushing the benefits of Twitter, or the comment strings on blogging, are telling our colleagues that this is a wonderful resource where you can truly get a water cooler topic going on a global scale. Unfortunately, it is also ripe for being crushed by the very openness that makes it so great. (blog) Greg Lambert February 3, 2009
- Another cap feather, sort of — February 2, 2009
As an active member of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals I was recently invited to sit on a panel. One of the other panelists, Mark Chussil of Advanced Competitive Strategies, is one of those guys whose math skills you flat-out envy, and he invited the audience (and those of us on the panel) to be part of some pricing research he's doing for an upcoming book. (blog) Roger Courville, February 2, 2009
- Pharma versus Pharma — February 2, 2009
How should companies respond to this pharma-versus-pharma environment? Here are 10 competitive success factors for surviving and thriving in the competitive stage. #2 Most pharma brand teams assign a single product manager, market researcher, or competitive intelligence professional to be "in charge of" competition. More progressive companies, however, use multi-disciplinary groups, such as competitive Centers of Excellence, or full-time competitive teams to handle such responsibilities. (blog/article) n.a. February 3, 2009
- Social media analysis comes of age with an association? — February 2, 2009
Forrester coined the phrase listening platforms to describe the social media monitoring industry, and also suggested that the feature set of such platforms is expanding. I agree, but I also think the industry is moving beyond listening to engagement, developing technologies and practices that enable companies to solve particular problems within the enterprise. (blog) John Cass, February 3, 2009
- The anonymous investigator — February 2, 2009
During Competitive Intelligence projects, I have found certain web servers that serve-up disinformation to the competitor's IP addresses. TOR can prevent this (blgo) Richard McEachin, February 2, 2009
- The pricing strategy simulation — February 2, 2009
Participants at the January 27 SCIP Oregon meeting faced a challenge. Three, actually. What pricing strategy should they implement in a fictitious ailing industry, mature industry, and fast-growth industry? And who, among the strategists, would win? We gave each participant information about the industries in which their businesses would compete, and we asked each of them to design pricing strategies for their businesses. (blog) Mark Chussil, February 2, 2009
- Creating a technology profile on a competitor — February 1, 2009
It's amazing how much you can learn with a little effort and an internet connection! You can build a pretty good profile on a competitor's environment relatively quickly. I'll show you how and where to do the research to start assembling that profile. (blog) n.a. February 1, 2009
- How presenting live, via the web, is different — February 1, 2009
One of the biggest problems with presenting online is a failure to adapt to the medium. Over and over I see experienced presenters, whether public speaking pros or senior corporate execs, deliver LAME online presentations because they either don't see it or they fail to heed it. (blog) Roger Courville, February 1, 2009
- Job hunting case study — February 1, 2009
Your resume is a marketing tool, plain and simple. It's designed to get a reader's attention and compel them to call you for an interview. Your résumé has less than 3 seconds to impress a reader enough to compel them to read it entirely. (blog) David Perry, February 2, 2009
- Risk WatchDog — February 1, 2009
Business Monitor International has a free e-newsletter called the Risk WatchDog. Some interesting posts, and did I say it was free?
January
- CI, ethics and consequences in France — January 31, 2009
Only ethics can save CI profession in France and elsewhere in the world. Guy Gweth wrote a very interesting posting I just discovered citing some recent scandals in France where ethical and legal boundaries have been crossed. (blog) Andreas Romppel, January 30, 2009
- Good shows in bad times — January 31, 2009
Competitive intelligence is always important, but seldom as much so as when an entire sector hits hard times. Fortunes can be made and lost in the blink of an eye, which is why it is important to keep a careful eye on what your competitors are doing. (blog) Susan Friedmann, January 31, 2009
- IFI patent intelligence report 2008 — January 31, 2009
IFI Patent Intelligence, a Wolters Kluwer Health business, has released an annual compilation of the world's top-ranked U.S.-patent companies, which suggests America's longstanding dominance of new U.S. patents may be slipping. (blog) Vinod Singh, January 31, 2009
- Patent family analysis — January 31, 2009
Patent family members are patents which claim at least on common priority. This definition becomes more complex in case of extended families and the analysis of patent families becomes more tedious and time consuming. The Patent Lens databases provide the nice representation in table and chart format for analysis of their association with priority claims. (blog) Ramesh Verma, January 31, 2009
- See the first open source intelligence brief in a virtual world — January 31, 2009
About a week ago, I wrote about the Visual Short Form Analytic Report exercise I run in my intelligence communications class each year. I got a ton of interesting and creative projects this time but two of my students attempted to use the web-based, virtual world construction kit JustLeapIn.com to complete their projects and the results are pretty cool. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, January 31, 2009
- Social networking more popular than porn — January 30, 2009
While the cast of players may change (Facebook, Twitter, etc.) the concept of social networking and subsequent threats and opportunities are here to stay. (blog) August Jackson, January 30, 3009
- Duplicity: CI is not this sexy — January 29, 2009
So often the government intelligence types get the Hollywood treatment. Now corporate espionage gets the treatment. How do I know it's corporate espionage and not competitive intelligence? Because CI, while being something I find a lot of fun, is so not sexy. (blog) August Jackson, January 29, 2009
- Evaluating intelligence part 4 — January 29, 2009
The fundamental problem with evaluating intelligence products is that intelligence, for the most part, is probabilistic. Even when an intelligence analyst thinks he or she knows a fact, it is still subject to interpretation or may have been the result of a deliberate campaign of deception. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, January 29, 2009
- Fifty blog tools to help you blogging — January 29, 2009
Blogging is more than just posting your views, thought, opinion, and share. There are many specialized tools available on the Internet that can enhance your website to a outstanding extent and the only way to know what is going to work to your profits is to giving them try out! Here is a list of 50 useful blogging tools that will help you in picking up your choice. (blog) n.a. January 29, 2009
- Four step action plan for social media marketing — January 29, 2009
In business world, they refer to listening as "competitive intelligence." While that totally sounds like a moment in the life of James Bond, it boils down to simply listening, reading and scoping out the environment for your community. You can listen by simply searching for what people are talking about with easy to use tools like Google Blogsearch, Technorati or BoardReader. (blog) Joe Manna, January 29, 2009
- Indeed.com is a powerful trend tool — January 29, 2009
Indeed.com is one of the most useful tools out there to understand the trends concerning what is hot, or not, in your industry. it, is what I call the Google of job search. It indexes most of the job sites out there so you don't need to go to each and every one. (blog) Collin LaLonde, January 29, 2009
- Sally Church's observations of new ways of knowing 2.0 — January 29, 2009
We were privileged to have Sally Church of Icarus Consultants join us for our New Ways of Knowing 2.0 session yesterday and share her experience using social media for competitive intelligence discovery. Sally blogged about New Ways of Knowing 2.0, and here are some excerpts. (blog) January 29, 2009
- Google street view — January 28, 2009
It's always good to take a look at the premises from which a business operates to avoid dealing with a phantom business. I requested that our agent in San Francisco go there and take a picture. He said it would be less bother to get it from Google Street View. (blog) Richard McEachin, January 28, 2009
- Hospital strategy adjustments in economically troubled times — January 28, 2009
An important feature of this discussion should be the highly dynamic nature of the environments in which hospitals (and other health care organizations) operate, requiring an equally dynamic approach to managing the strategies. (blog/article) George Moseley, January 28, 2009
- KM in Practice: an exploratory case study — January 28, 2009
K'Netix is the knowledge network developed by Buckman to fulfill the company vision of knowledge sharing and organizational learning. The type of knowledge shared includes customer knowledge, competitive intelligence, process knowledge, and product knowledge. (blog) n.a. January 28, 2009
- Keeping an eye on your rivals — January 28, 2009
This is competitive intelligence, and Jonathan Calof, a professor at University of Ottawa's Telfer School of Management and a leading CI expert, says it's widely misunderstood. Perhaps the biggest misconception is that competitive intelligence is too complex and expensive for small businesses to undertake. In fact, most CI techniques cost nothing but time, and the findings are vital to small business success, especially in tough times. (article) Joanna Pachner, The Globe and Mail, January 28, 2009
- Performing a simple competitive analysis — January 28, 2009
Once you identify your most direct competition and have a firm grasp on your second- and third-tier competitors, project which actions they're likely to take in the next year or so. Forecasts of competitors' future activities depend on your knowing and understanding their objectives, strengths in the marketplace and resources. Key intelligence for your brand's success. (blog) Mark Levit, January 28, 2009
- Use customer intelligence to elevate sales in a down economy — January 28, 2009
Use sales dashboards to automatically gather intelligence about the prospective clients, enabling you to capitalize on the best opportunities in the pipeline or manage threats to your business. Use intelligence-gathering mechanisms to capture essential data about your prospects' organizational structure, political underpinnings, areas of growth and more. (article) Tom Aley, January 28, 2009
- Anticipating competitive threats to global growth strategies — January 27, 2009
The topic that I was asked to speak on was on ways that companies can anticipate and evaluate competitive threats to their global growth strategies. I wanted to share the (slightly redacted) slides from that presentation. (blog/ powerpoint) August Jackson, January 27, 2009
- CI techniques - finding jobs as recruiters, part 1 — January 27, 2009
Sticking to the theme of my blog purpose of competitive intelligence - what does this mean towards recruiting? How does CI translate into recruiting mechanics in the end? Part 1 of this series will define CI again, but translate how this applies to our industry of recruiting. (blog) Kristin Newman, January 27, 2009
- Competitive intelligence: think like your competitor and war gaming — January 27, 2009
Competitive Intelligence has become one of my default job responsibilities. my competitive intelligence responsibilities include reviewing the quarterly financial filings of other insurance carriers, analyzing market share by product line, and working with the sales teams on gathering market buzz. SCIP has provided a structured way for me to think about my intelligence gathering. (blog) N.A. January 27, 2009
- Evaluating intelligence, part 3 — January 27, 2009
Clearly there is a need for a more sophisticated model for evaluating intelligence - one that takes not only the results into consideration but also the means by which the analyst arrived at those results. It is not enough to get the answer right; analysts must also "show their work" in order to demonstrate that they were not merely lucky. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, January 27, 2009
- Social networking action and privacy risk — January 27, 2009
Social networking websites are rising in prominence in every aspect of an average person's lifestyle. The purpose of the Social Networking Action & Privacy Risk (SNAPR) methodology is to evaluate the risk posed to an individual user from information posted on a social networking website, such as Facebook, MySpace, or LinkedIn. SNAPR answers the question, "What risk is posed to an individual with a profile on a social networking website?" The results create decision advantage for users of social networking websites by highlighting the contributing factors of their overall risk. (website)
- Targeting consumer-focused IT — January 27, 2009
Developing a competitive intelligence system will require the solid partnership of marketing, IT, finance, human resources and the service lines with special emphasis on governance and provider feedback. (article) William Sorrells, Advance for Health Information Executives, v11/8 p25 n.d.
- Teaching the computer to read - in stages — January 27, 2009
Natural language processing identifies factual statements based on grammatical analysis of content. This is helpful for understanding the reason behind sentiment and potentially huge for competitive intelligence and finance applications. (blog) Nathan Gilliatt, January 27, 2009
- The most important thing that your company can do on social media — January 27, 2009
When I mention "Social Media" to most marketers, they immediately think - Facebook, YouTube, "viral", Myspace, Linkedin, Blogs and Twitter. While these are all great potential tools in your social media toolbox, and creating a social media presence can be extremely valuable, but creating "official profiles" for all of them, in my opinion, is NOT the Holy Grail of Social Media Marketing. Find people who are already talking about you (both good and bad) and engage them. (blog) Krista Neher, January 27, 2009
- The slippery slope of price fixing — January 27, 2009
A recent ruling by the Supreme Court is in the spotlight for retailers, lobbyists and economic theorists. For the past 96 years, retailers have been protected under an umbrella of antitrust laws prohibiting the collusion of manufactures from establishing and maintaining minimum prices for retail and consumer goods. The implications of the new ruling present a significant change to the relationship between price, value and demand in the U.S. market. The new ruling opened the door for manufacturers and domineering retailers to discuss pricing strategy. (article) Russ Aldrich, E-Commerce Times, January 27, 2009
- Evaluating intelligence, part 2. — January 26, 2009
I want to tell you a story about two weathermen; one good, competent and diligent and one bad, stupid and lazy. Why weathermen? Well, in the first place, they are not intelligence analysts, so I will not have to concern myself with all the meaningless distinctions that might arise if I use a real example. In the second place, they are enough like intelligence analysts that the lessons derived from this thought experiment - sorry, I mean "story" - will remain meaningful in the intelligence domain. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, January 26, 2009
- How to protect your profits — January 26, 2009
Have eyes and ears in as many geographies as possible to monitor competitive pricing moves and cash-flow positions. Regularly review their websites, press releases and press coverage to learn about their new products, promotions and strategic moves. (article) Yosi Heber, January 26, 2009
- Evaluating intelligence, part 1 — January 25, 2009
This is another in a series of posts that I refer to as "experimental scholarship" -- or using the medium of the internet and the vehicle of this blog as a way to put my research online for more or less real-time peer review. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, January 25, 2009
- Business lessons from The Office: Season 5 Episode 12 — January 23, 2009
Dunder Mifflin corporate asked Michael to gather some information on a competitor in a potential new market. Michael and Dwight decide to go "undercover" and obtain competitive intelligence. Michael pretended to be a potential client while Dwight pretended to be an interested potential employee. (blog) Ron Desi, January 23, 2009
- Competitive intelligence — January 23, 2009
In SEO there's a term that's used quite often called "Competitive Intelligence". Some people even refer to it as "Competitive Analysis". Either way you say it, it means the same thing; taking a good long look at what you're competitors are doing (or not doing as the case may be), and then creating a plan for yourself in order to make use of the information you've found. (blog) Kristine Wirth, January 23, 2009
- Predicting layoffs using social networks — January 22, 2009
Social Networks like LinkedIn are a wealth of information, not just for consumer insights but of course for competitive intelligence as well. For instance, just over the past couple of weeks, the number of people joining a networking group from the same company in a short period of time seems to be highly correlated (though often with a lag), with layoffs from that company. (blog) Tom Anderson, January 22, 2009
- The three biggest kludges of copyright law — January 22, 2009
Yesterday, we took a look at five "stupid" copyright questions and why they weren't stupid at all. As was illustrated in the post, copyright law, in places, is a hopeless kludge and even the most basic questions can have very complicated answers. (blog) Jonathan Bailey, January 22, 2009
- Visual short form analytic reports — January 22, 2009
One of the exercises we routinely assign in our Intelligence Communications and Intelligence Writing and Presentation classes is a "visual" short form analytic report. The fundamental intent of the exercise is to engage students' creativity and to get them to think about other -- primarily visual -- ways to produce an intelligence report. To get the students started, I point them towards a number of resources. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, January 22, 2009
- Competitive urban legends — January 21, 2009
Managers can hold similar myths, stereotypes, and distortions about competitors, industry conditions, or other business matters. It's hard for executives, especially those who have been in the same industry or with the same company for most of their careers, not to develop deep-seated beliefs about their business environment. (blog) Ken Sawka, January 21, 2009
- Economic Development Commission Director remarks — January 21, 2009
This year will begin "economic gardening" programs. Economic Gardening is an economic development strategy that focuses on supporting local entrepreneurs and small businesses. It is economic development from the "inside-out" versus from the "outside-in". Programs focus on three areas to help build small business. 1. Information resources and marketing assistance or also know as competitive intelligence. 2. Infrastructure development. This includes the traditional items like roads, and taxes as well as quality of life and education. 3. Networking and information sharing. (blog/speech) January 21, 2009
- Few tips to learn how to do a competitive analysis — January 21, 2009
Why some online businesses are successful and others are not? Why some customers have preference for one business than the other? In order to understand these questions it is important that proper competitor intelligence is done. (blog) NA, January 21, 2009
- Leadership skills: understanding the competition pt 1 — January 21, 2009
As a practitioner of competitive intelligence (CI), I can speak from experience that this is a very rigorous discipline and effort. There are a few tricks that will open your eyes and build your value if you invest your time in learning and using them. (blog/article) Marian Cook, January 21, 2009
- Not only the president faces a BlackBerry challenge — January 21, 2009
Some of the legal and practical compromises lawyers urge on business when e-mail is a primary form of communication. While one may dismiss security as a concern for the private sector, business espionage has always been present, even if lawyers prefer euphemisms such as "due diligence" or "competitive intelligence" to describe what goes on behind closed doors, or, quite literally, over the airways. (article) Stanley Jaskiewicz, January 21, 2009
- Using competitive intelligence for your marketing strategy — January 21, 2009
Are you familiar with competitive intelligence, and how it can help your company grow? Competitive intelligence is the purposeful and coordinated monitoring of your competition, wherever and whoever they may be within a specific marketplace. (blog) D.J. Heckes, January 21, 2009
- Collaborative analytics - an emerging practice — January 20, 2009
The old model of business analysis is about to change. Collaborative technology is ready. But more importantly, today's business and economic climate demands collaborative understanding and problem-solving. There will be turbulent times; to navigate you'll need to make the right discoveries, ask the right questions, find the right answers and devise the right solutions. That's a tall order for the solitary business analyst. Collaborative analytics is an idea whose time has come (blog) Dave Wells, January 20, 2009
- Ethics and marketing — January 19, 2009
As long as it is not illegal, is any method of gathering sensitive information acceptable? Sometimes information is gathered in a way that is not illegal-that is, it does not violate the EEA or any other law-but still poses an ethical dillemma. The perception of privacy depends on an individual group's norms and codes, target audience and aim. (blog/article) January 19, 2009
- Competitive intelligence tools — January 18, 2009
This video shows many tools aiming to give an inside on competitors' behavior in the internet. Here you may find some answers to questions you have always asked yourself: How do companies keep their competitors under surveillance, how can they control each step they make? What are the tools to do so? (blog/video) Sophie Bonczyk, January 18, 2009
- How I use social media in my job: part 3 social networking sites — January 18, 2009
Instead of trying to reach all audiences, I view social media as another communications avenue to expand the reach of my company to key B2B marketing audiences and customers. In this third installment, I highlight how I participate in social networking sites as part of my day job. (blog) Cece Salomon-Lee, January 18, 2009
- Integrating competitive intelligence and marketing — January 18, 2009
Last week I traveled to San Francisco to help instruct an AMA (American Marketing Association) course on Integrating Competitive Intelligence into Marketing. In the cooperative spirit, I shared this book list to supplement our teaching which I am sharing with you. (blog) Ellen Naylor, January 18, 2009
- Marvelous techniques: streaks, slumps, and improving your odds — January 17, 2009
People ask my colleagues and me about the value of business war games, strategy simulations, crisis simulations, competitive intelligence, market research, win/loss analysis, advertising, and more. Many want to know how confident they can be that one of those marvelous techniques will improve their bottom line, market share, quality of decision-making, crisis preparedness, or whatever they care about. The important (and answerable) question is whether the likely benefit of a marvelous technique will outweigh its costs. (blog) Mark Chussil, January 17, 2009
- Hulu's mark on the video on demand sector — January 16, 2009
Internet TV is receiving a boost from Hulu.com. A growing site in the Video on Demand (VOD) sector, web surfers can view streaming video of their favorite television shows and movies with very minimal commercial interruption. A joint-venture owned by NBC Universal and News Corp, direct and indirect competitors face new challenges with the emergence of Hulu. (blog)January 16, 2009
- Intelligence studies in higher education — January 16, 2009
Intelligence studies as an academic discipline was slow to develop in universities. Yet, since that time, intelligence and security studies have taken on a new life in academe. Even as student interest is burgeoning, universities find themselves grappling with resourcing, staffing, and curricular challenges facing such a uniquely interdisciplinary, historically secretive, politically sensitive, policy-driven academic field. (article) Martin Rudner, International Journal of Intelligence and CounterIntelligence, January 2009
- Open source intelligence makes a difference — January 16, 2009
My assumption why Competitive Intelligence is still the most underrated management discipline: You cannot talk big about the results of your excellent research and analysis efforts because then you are about to lose the competitive advantage you just gained. (blog) Andreas Romppel, January 16, 2009
- Tapping competitive intelligence to drive product success — January 16, 2009
The Boston Product Marketing Association and the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals co-hosted an event last night titled "Tapping Competitive Intelligence to Drive Product Success". The event featured several product management and competitive intelligence professionals. Here's my summary. (blog) Christopher Cummings, January 16, 2009
- Collaboration across a distributed marketing force — January 15, 2009
Today, businesses are moving from a "need to know" to a "need to share" culture. If individuals rethink competitive intelligence, they can take the approach to deploy social software as a solution for collaborating within the team and that group will quickly develop a group memory. Collaborative intelligence allows marketing professionals to look at a different way to utilize business social software tools to further realize the power of the various contributing teams. (article) Ross Mayfield, January 15, 2009
- Essentials of patents by Andy Gibbs and Bob DeMatteis — January 15, 2009
While there are many books on "how to patent" and patent law, Essentials of Patents delivers practical advice on how to leverage patents as a powerful competitive corporate tool. Gibbs and DeMatteis show how patents can enhance competitive intelligence, product development cost reduction, product line expansion, and revenue streams, making this guide a must-have for the savvy manager. (blog)N.A., January 19, 2009
- In praise of trade shows — January 15, 2009
For journalists, buyers, and manufacturers alike, trade shows are a seething petri dish of connections and creativity that are well worth the trip. Trade shows are also where a lot of competitive intelligence gets done. Nobody at Samsung will ever give an LG exec a tour of Samsung's product line. But there it all is at the Samsung booth, plain for everyone to see. (blog/article) Sascha Segan, January 15, 2009
- Interview with Josh Stomel, ResumeBucket — January 15, 2009
All of the other sites--LinkedIn, CareerBuilder, and Monster--are really large destination sites. The users go there to do a lot more than just create a resume and share and distribute it. There are lots of people there doing competitive intelligence, or doing research on an industry or landscape. ResumeBucket is a portal that allows consumers to simply put their resume online, within seconds. (blog/interview) Benjamin F. Kuo, January 15, 2009
- Swirrl — January 15, 2009
Swirrl is a web application that allows your team to store, share, edit and analyze information. It combines the flexibility of spreadsheets and the power of databases with the collaboration features of a wiki. In addition to the normal wiki features, you can also share and manipulate structured data as a team. Looks like Swirrl could possibly be a competitive intelligence tool worth checking out. (blog) Ina O'Murchu, January 15, 2009
- Ethics and marketing — January 14, 2009
A company's survival may depend on how quickly and effectively it can gather information about its competitors' plans for products and services. Companies thus place a great deal of pressure on employees to locate and analyze sensitive information by whatever means possible. In order to meet the company's expectation, employees often feel they must operate at the very limits of ethical behavior. How far should they go to gather information? (blog) January 14, 2009
- How I use social media in my job: part 2 search feeds — January 14, 2009
Instead of trying to reach all audiences, I view social media as another communications avenue to expand the reach of my company to key B2B marketing audiences and customers. In this second installment, I highlight how I use search feeds for my day job. (blog) Cece Salomon-Lee, January 14, 2009
- I’d like to meet Harry Markopolos — January 14, 2009
I’d like to meet Harry Markopolos. Not because The Boston Globe called him a whistleblower for attempting to alert authorities of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme as far back as 2000. But because he is very good at searching for the unvarnished truth about a corporation. (blog) Leonard Fuld, January 14, 2009
- New ranking reflect law firms' web presence — January 14, 2009
Muzeview, which calls itself a "competitive intelligence services provider working with professional services firms," has completed a new analysis of the internet strength of major law firms. (blog) Elie Mystal, January 14, 2009
- Competitive advantage or necessary to compete? — January 13, 2009
Information is the currency that companies have used for competitive advantage in business since the earliest beginnings. In today's highly competitive global economy, knowledge of consumer and business behavior, socio-economic, lifestyle and/or demographic information can be transformed through information analysis (known as decision science, marketing science or customer analysis) into actionable insight. It is this insight that provides key decision-making support to companies that seek to enhance profitability and/or gain a competitive business advantage. (blog/article/ podcast) Leslie Ament, January 13, 2009
- Connecting networlding and cooperative intelligence — January 13, 2009
Networlding is a lot like cooperative connection, a component of cooperative intelligence. Networlding is cooperative: networking is often collaborative. This is an important distinction. People know when you are giving to get. They also know when you are giving to give. (blog) Ellen Naylor, January 13, 2009
- Review of the legal experience.... — January 13, 2009
Westlaw Profiler is a proprietary tool created by Westlaw to provide competitive intelligence for lawyers about their opponents in civil litigation. Profiler automatically scans Westlaw, and creates a list of the number of times an attorney's name appears in Westlaw. (blog/article) Zachary Kitts, January 13, 2009
- Senior marketers: research, innovation key in ‘09 — January 13, 2009
Marketing budgets may be on the chopping block, but market research and innovation are high up on the priorities list, according to results of the newly released "Top Marketing Trends for 2009" survey from the Marketing Executives Networking Group (MENG). Other high-ranking concepts this year, in order, are brand loyalty and segmentation (each cited by 61%), quality (56%), search engine optimization (48%), competitive intelligence, data mining and lead generation (each cited by 43%). (article) Karlene Lukovitz, Marketing Daily, January 13, 2009
- Competitive counter-intelligence: the secrets of an African Company — January 12, 2009
Today, I invite you to discover an African company, whose practices of competitive counter-intelligence (not academic, not expensive, discrete and effective) force the respect of competitors equipped with enormous monitoring budgets. Counter-intelligence consists of tools, methods and activities of protection of which the goal is to neutralize (or divert) in a legal way any espionage or hostile CI operation. (blog) Gweth Marshall, January 12, 2009
- How I use social media in my job: part 1 microblogging — January 12, 2009
There has been a lot written about how to use social media and what the ROI is from using the various tool. I thought it would be interesting to highlight how I use social media for my day-to-day job. I use Twitter as my main microblogging platform, with Twhirl to manage my personal and corporate accounts. I also follow individuals from competitive companies. This is key for monitoring what competitors are doing and who they may be speaking with. (blog) CeCe Salomon-Lee, January 12, 2009
- Playing card program for unsolved police cases — January 12, 2009
Creative action can take place in any context. It always requires a good understanding of the problem you are trying to solve and some expertise about the internal and external environment in which your company operates. Have you ever thought of asking your workers what is going on? (blog) John Gaynard, January 12, 2009
- Intelligent revenue generation — January 11, 2009
The brief presentation below outlines our "Intelligent Revenue Generation" framework. It describes how Law, Accounting and Consulting firms should use market and competitive intelligence to generate revenue growth. (blog/powerpoint) Paul Gladen, January 11, 2009
- It's not about the technology? — January 11, 2009
Try to understand a different geographic market with no travel budget. Using Twitter, you could follow people who live and work in that area and get to know what's important to them (free competitive intelligence). (blog) Harold Jarche, January 11, 2009
- Are trade shows a thing of the past? — January 10, 2009
I used to be responsible for the Business and Market Intelligence function at MAAX and Venmar. My role was to track and monitor marketing activities, pricing strategies, new product launches from all of our key competitors. In the early 2000s, I would say that 20% of the valuable information could be found over the internet and the remaining 80% was in the hands of our reps, at our customers retail locations or trade shows. Now, I would say, it is quite the opposite. You will find an increasing share of unbiased information coming directly from users of your competitive products through online customer reviews or youtube rants about products. (blog) Etienne Chabot, January 10, 2009
- Level of maturity of the competitive intelligence function: case study of a retail bank in South Africa — January 10, 2009
While competitive intelligence (CI) is a relatively new business discipline, it is evolving in complexity and importance, to maintain pace with rapid business development. It is the aim of this paper to establish the level of maturity of the CI function within a South African retail bank based on key characteristics for different levels of maturity. (article) David Heppes, Adeline du Toit, Aslib Proceedings, V61/1, 2009 p48-66. (fee)
- A primer: web 1, 2, and 3 — January 9, 2009
A simple way of understanding Web 3: Imagine something similar to your Facebook, MySpace, iGoogle, or My Yahoo pages that delivers to you everything your friends are doing, the news about the topics you care about, competitive information about products or services you want to buy, and everything else you might want from the Internet without the constraints, control, adware, or spyware of Facebook, MySpace, Google, or Yahoo. Rather than you surfing the Web (which you could still choose to do), the Web serves you. (article) Vin Crosbie, January 9, 2009
- Tapping CI to drive product success — January 9, 2009
Product managers and marketers (PM for both) are key users of competitive intelligence (CI), tracking rivals and their products all through the product development, launch, and market process. Many PMs already utilize CI in their product plans, while many CI professionals work regularly with PM groups. The goal of this meeting is to expand understanding of each other's needs and processes to increase success for both functions. PMs and CI professionals will also have an opportunity to share what works and what doesn't. (blog/meeting) Stewart Rogers, January 9, 2009
- Subaru owners duped by scam, company claims — January 8, 2009
This complaint is an excellent source for competitive intelligence about Subaru which is owned by Fuji. Its not that this information isn't available elsewhere but the succinct summary of the company, its history and business is useful as is a nice chart showing all the Subaru trade-names and marks. (blog) Randy Wilson, January 8, 2009
- Using CI to spot risks and opportunities — January 8, 2009
In every company I've worked for I've always ended one of the go-to dudes for competitive intelligence, officially or unofficially. The reason is simple, really. I love CI, and it's critical to figuring out price/package/position and all that. And helping others think about what would work best for them, too. (blog) Roger Courville, January 8, 2009
- Yelp UK — January 8, 2009
Yelp, the community-led local search site, today announced the availability of Yelp UK (http://yelp.co.uk). Now people in the UK can use Yelp to read and write reviews about great businesses in their neighborhood. Additionally, small business owners can set up a free business owner's account to attract new customers and communicate with current ones. (press release) January 8, 2009
- Corporate yammering — January 7, 2009
Yammer takes the basic idea behind Twitter and moves it into the workplace, where it is only accessible via SSL to employees with a valid company email (and other security restrictions). (blog) Richard McEachin, January 7, 2009
- Trade shows: can you really afford not to go? — January 7, 2009
There are multiple advantages to be gained from exhibiting including gaining competitive intelligence, meeting buyers and generating leads, meeting the press and other members of the distribution channel, and most importantly, to sell. Gaining competitive knowledge by visiting competitors' booths can help you learn about both other companies and yourself. You are able to gain knowledge on how you compare to the competition, how they do things, what makes them more or less successful, and what the competition thinks about your product (blog) N.A. January 7, 2009
- Attacks in politics and marketing — January 6, 2009
So, what should you do if you are attacked in the marketplace? First, stop. Think. It means that you got someone`s attention for some reason. You may have not even intended to get this attention, but that`s what the attack may mean and that`s valuable competitive intelligence if you can confirm it. Remember, if you were really irrelevant, chances are you`d be ignored. (blog) Jim Grisanzio, January 6, 2009
- How does meaning extraction work? — January 6, 2009
Meaning extraction.What exactly is that, you ask? Other than a catch phrase, one of those one of those unique combinations of words that marketing folks crave to have associated with their brand.I submit this definition of "meaning extraction" for your consideration. (blog) David Seuss, January 6, 2009
- How the heck do you get this information? — January 6, 2009
This network lets us get around any ethical questions about how we obtained information and is key because most of the information you get from vendors in briefings or even in product demonstrations is too high level to be of much use when it comes to systems selection. In fact, I think the best way to "do CI" is to speak to both actual customers, channels and SIs who are putting in the systems. That way you get the details and dirt that vendors tend to wipe away all too quickly when they're talking about it. (blog) Jason Busch, January 6, 2009
- New ways of knowing 2.0 — January 6, 2009
"New Ways of Knowing 2.0? will be an interactive educational event in which we will examine the potential of social media to improve the intelligent organization of the future. Participants can expect to teach as much as they learn and see connections among diverse concepts, tools, intelligence practices and business processes. (blog) Eric Garland, January 6, 2009
- The economic crisis: will your CI function survive? — January 6, 2009
In times of economic slowdowns, corporations look to cut excess costs. Many a support function - in particular strategic planning and marketing, to name two - are often the first to get whacked. And competitive intelligence, which for most firms is nothing more than a big old cost center in the eyes of the CFO, can have a big target painted on it. (blog) Ken Sawka, January 6, 2009
- York pro co-authors report about competitive intelligence — January 6, 2009
Businesses need to be careful that they don't violate good ethical practices when sleuthing for inside information about their competitors. "Competitive Intelligence: Ethical Challenges and Good Practice" - for the UK-based Institute of Business Ethics (IBE) is the newly published report highlights the ethical challenges and questions that confront organization. (press release) January 6, 2009
- CI group on ning now counts 500 members. Well almost — January 5, 2009
The group at Ning is providing a group of people a venue to discuss issues related to competitive intelligence in an informal setting. It's kind of like being able to shoot the breeze with attendees at a live event but without the actual event. (blog) N.A. January 5, 2009
- In search of the Holy Grail - competitive intelligence and KM's role — January 5, 2009
This type of information can and should be the Holy Grail when it comes to building a knowledge tool and a competitive intelligence resource that will leverage existing information against the firm's future challenges. Remember, it sure helps to know where you are going, if you know where you've already been. (blog) Greg Lambert, January 5, 2009
- Local experts look back and ahead during these uncertain economic times — January 5, 2009
To take stock of recent events and ponder the year ahead, Star Business Weekly recently assembled a panel of local business and economic experts to discuss how recent upheavals are playing out in the Kansas City area. One of the panelists was Chris Kuehl, managing director of Armada Corporate Intelligence. (article) Chris Lester, Kansas City Star, January 5, 2009
- What is your competition up to these days? — January 5, 2009
While it is illegal to use "black hat" techniques to keep tabs on your competition (such as using "spy ware" type software programs), keeping your eyes and ears open to what your competitors are doing is a critical part of being successful online. (blog) Joe Teixeria, January 5, 2009
- Five tips on twittering for business — January 4, 2009
Not only can you use Twitter to give out information you can also use it to garner information on competitors. By monitoring your competitors' tweets and conversations you might discover new products they are working on, watch their customer service interactions or the sort of promotions they are running. (blog/article) Helen Leggatt, January 4, 2009
- Six social search engines to start 2009 — January 4, 2009
Many reasons to search social media include monitoring for brand and reputation management purposes. Smart online marketers have also been using social search for other reasons including competitive research and opportunistic content marketing through social keyword trends. Here are 6 free social search tools that may help small businesses make their initial foray into searching the social web more productive while keeping costs to a minimum. (blog) Lee Odden, January 4, 2009
- TouchGraph revisited — January 4, 2009
When you search on a URL or some text you will get a connected graph that you can then drag around, select items to expand or edit and explore connections. I remember using an earlier version to do some competitive intelligence. Although most of the connections were obvious I did find some links that were surprising. My experience with these kinds of visualizations is that they don't provide a way that you may want the structure of the data arranged, but the new look can lead to things you may have not known. (blog) Franz Dill, January 4, 2009
- Advice, gullibility, and predictions — January 3, 2009
What we really want is to find a theory (in the sense of a model or system, not in the sense of an idea) that repeatedly, not anecdotally, predicts future events well. That's how it works in science, where the scientific method is designed to foster testing, evaluating, and enhancing models, not people. I am not saying it's easy. I am saying it is possible and it doesn't have to be perfect to make an improvement. (blog) Mark Chussil, January 3, 2009
- An argument for open source intelligence secrecy — January 3, 2009
Open source intelligence refers to intelligence that is derived from unclassified, legally accessible information sources. But the fact that the underlying sources of OSINT are unclassified doesn't mean the resulting intelligence can be disclosed. Decision advantage has nothing to do with the classification of the sources and methods. It has to do with the insights that the intelligence can deliver. (blog) January 3, 2009
- The new open source intelligence and Silobreaker — January 3, 2009
The consumers of the present practice of intelligence are kept in the dark. Most intelligence activities are just information or data hoarding and at best secondary research smartly upgraded by buzzword wizards. Maybe this is a bold statement but our experiences and encounters with decision makers and their support teams within both governments and business the last 20 years all confirms this observation. (blog) Mats Bjore, January 3, 2009
- My favorite books for business 2008 — January 2, 2009
My list of favorite business books each year is most often focused on a few core concepts that caused me to rethink my assumptions about decision making, management, innovation and strategy within the framework of my professional orientation around the use of competitive intelligence in business. (blog) Arik Johnson, January 2, 2009,
- Using the internet to research private companies — January 2, 2009
I will be reprieving an updated version of the very successful webinar I delivered for the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals on using the Internet to research private companies. I'm particularly excited about some of the updates that I'm going to be able to detail new methods and tools to research private companies using social networks. (blog) August Jackson, January 2, 2009
- Why cooperative intelligence? — January 2, 2009
We have plenty of support to become good at our skill such as law, finance, accounting, art, marketing, or my area-competitive intelligence. However, many of us have trouble listening, being heard and taken seriously by the right people in our companies. I have learned that an attitude of cooperation is one of the best ways to encourage people to share, regardless of what you do or what industry you work in. (blog) Ellen Naylor, January 2, 2009
- Enterprise mashups: the new face of your SOA — January 1, 2009
There's a vast wealth of publicly available information about your competition - key announcements, news, financial performance, partnering, and business development, even speeches and marketing campaigns. Imagine a mashup that captured this - one that included an RSS feed from Google News on key competitor search terms, and benchmarked pricing on key competitive products against your own. (blog/article) John Crupi Cloud Computing Journal, January 2009
- Intelligence competitive innovation et developpement — January 1, 2009
This Audiobook read by the author (Henri Jean-Marie Dou) presents the development of the methods and tools of Competitive Intelligence and Regional Development using as a guideline the cycle of intelligence. This audiobook (copyright protected) can be freely downloaded for personal use only. (in French) (blog)January 1, 2009
- Who is the information professional? — January 1, 2009
The information professional is the person who works on a more abstract level and clearly demonstrates the value-add of the information organization to clients and key stakeholders, he/ she can also be called a business/ marketing/ competitive intelligence specialist, knowledge broker (Boom, 2002), information manager or chief information officer. (blog) Hannah Verhoeff, January 2009.
2008
December
- The dilemma about blogs as marketing tools — December 31, 2008
Gaining competitive intelligence about competitor's means of marketing can be done by searching for other blogs related to your field of business. This is mainly because blogs allow a user to openly react or state an idea or thought. This in turn helps you realize other potential strategies and tactics to do to promote the growth of your online business. (blog) Steve Fultz, December 31, 2008
- A question of survival — December 30, 2008
The Preemptive Enterprise takes nothing for granted. It knows that its deepest and strongest customer relationships are constantly at risk. It also knows that both existing and emerging competitors are able to create new value, and that its customers will always be attracted to that new value. Through the use of competitive intelligence and scenario analysis, it is able to understand the goals, strategies and capabilities of its competitors and consistently dilute and diffuse any new value that its competitors plan to bring to the market. (blog) Adrian Davis, December 30, 2008,
- The role of the extended AR team in rebutting analyst commentary — December 30, 2008
The extended AR team can play a critical role in rebutting analyst commentary. Many employees hear about analyst commentary, whether written or spoken, before AR does. For instance, marketing or competitive intelligence staff that monitor media and published research might come across something that deserves attention. Well-informed sales representatives can acquire analyst comments if they make a habit of asking prospects about what they are hearing from the analysts. (blog) NA December 30, 2008
- Dataopedia: free web intelligence tool — December 29, 2008
Here's another great, free tool for getting invaluable competitive intelligence: Dataopedia.com. Just visit the site, type in a website URL, and up will come a host of traffic and other information about that site. (blog) Anna Johnson, December 29, 2008
- How do you respond to information about your company? — December 29, 2008
Web Ink Now features an article about the Air Force's use of social media. Included is a flowchart the Air Force uses to respond to blog posts about them. This could easily extend beyond blogs to just about any form of communication. (blog) NA, December 29, 2008
- Interview with Mark Asher - CI manager Adobe — December 29, 2008
Our competitive intelligence practice has two main charters. The first of those is primarily to keep our management team aware of competitive developments across all of Adobe's business thrusts and interests, as well as providing them with thoughtful implications and recommendations about how to react to those events as they occur. (blog) Sean Campbell, December 29, 2008
- Intel definition — December 27, 2008
There is no standard definition of "intelligence". Popular thinking and the best efforts of legislatures, agencies and academics to the contrary, no generally agreed upon definition of intelligence exists. This problem is exacerbated when the newly formed intelligence communities in law enforcement and the private sector are included. (blog) December 27, 2008
- Assembly line searching — December 24, 2008
Efficient online searching dictates that you set time limits for each search. If you don't, the time allotted will be infinite and the job will expand to fill all the time you have and more. (blog) Richard McEachin, December 24, 2008
- State of the Twittersphere — December 23, 2008
Online marketing firm, Hubspot, released a report today that details the "State of the Twittersphere" for the fourth quarter of 2008. (blog) Richard McEachin, December 23, 2008
- Monitoring .edu domains for blogging ideas — December 22, 2008
Edu domains can be an excellent source of ideas for blog posts, especially about social media. Academics are fascinated by developments in this field, and they are always running conferences and forming working groups. Google Alerts can be used to monitor edu domains and deliver a constant stream of papers and events related to social media. This is also a great way to find professors in anthropology, law, psychology, sociology, and even business who can become useful contacts and sources for interviews. (blog) Adam Greene, December 22, 2008
- The top 10 myths of human capital due diligence — December 22, 2008
Human capital and personnel costs are typically the largest expense items appearing on the income statements of most companies. Human capital due diligence during mergers and acquisitions (M&A) often is an underestimated and undervalued piece of the overall due diligence process. There is more to human capital due diligence, however, than just analyzing benefits and compensation - including correctly identifying significant cost increases and hidden liabilities that could account for millions of dollars in an M&A transaction. (report) 10 pages. December 22, 2008
- Two plus two equals ten — December 22, 2008
Patent Trees. Patents are a great source of information: employee names, corporate research interests, corporate locations, partnerships, etc. By tracing patent families, you can see where companies are investing their research dollars. You can also see how technology has evolved. (blog) Samantha Chmelik, December 22, 2008
- Online 2008 presentations available — December 20, 2008
The three presentations I gave at Online Information 2008 are available on Slideshare and authorSTREAM: Making web 2.0 work; Competitive intelligence: can free sources do the biz?; and Impact of web 2.0 on search. (blog) Karen Blakeman, December 20, 2008
- Can MBA students learn to effectively do competitive analysis? — December 19, 2008
I gave my students a recently written, 2008 Harvard Business School case on Apple Computers to do for their final examination. The case is a lengthy one (as many of the Harvard ones are) and, unlike at least a few of the Harvard cases I have liked to use teaching this in the past, doesn't necessarily offer clear guidance on either their strategic decision needs or what the executives of the company consider the key challenges facing them in the future. Having said that, I like having my students face this ambiguity, primarily because I have run into too many executives who cannot satisfactorily articulate their future decision making paths (i.e., they have unclear intelligence needs). (blog) Craig Fleisher, December 19, 2008
- Does Bg Pharma know how to play a strategic Game? — December 19, 2008
In this second part of our interview with Wayne Rosenkrans, who ran strategic gaming activities for AstraZeneca for nearly a decade and is now VP Consulting for Fuld & Company, we examine what factors contribute to successful strategic gaming for Big Pharma - or any of Healthcare's players. (blog) Leonard Fuld, December 19, 2008
- Top 5 intelligence analysis methods: analysis of competing hypotheses — December 19, 2008
Analysis Of Competing Hypotheses (ACH) is probably the best-known intelligence analysis method today. Invented by Richards Heuer over 30 years ago and made famous in his intelligence classic, the Psychology of Intelligence Analysis, ACH is widely taught and conceptually easy even for entry-level analysts. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, December 19, 2008
- Competitive Futures' official predictions for 2009 — December 18, 2008
I tend to avoid short-term predictions, but these days, six months really IS the mid-term future. So after the response to yesterday's pithy analysis of the coming year, here are our official predictions for 2009. (blog) Eric Garland, December 18, 2008
- When the sale doesn't happen — December 18, 2008
Companies, sales managers, and sales people are always looking for competitive intelligence. It is important to know who is eating your lunch. Is there a trend? What are they doing that you are not? If you don't know a particular competitor is kicking sand in your face, you can't develop a strategy to defeat them. (blog) Lee Salz, December 18, 2008
- Google's ‘editorial input' from personalized search could kill objectivity — December 17, 2008
Google's Vice President of Search Product and User Experience, Marissa Mayer, observed that editorial judgments may play a key role in Google searches in the near future. If this change does materialize, the editorial input would come from Google's "personalized search" as represented by its new Search Wiki. It would turn the search industry upside-down, and would likely compromise Google's search objectivity. (blog) Brandon Lovested, December 17, 2008
- Litigation and competitive intelligence — December 17, 2008
Litigation may tell you what the target company doesn't want you to know. Here are five things to look for when reviewing a company's legal entanglements. (blog) Richard McEachin, December 17, 2008
- OSINT: where it stops, nobody knows — December 17, 2008
Open-source intelligence has basically been around for decades, but has really only been taken seriously in the last few years. OSINT is most popular at the fringes of the intelligence field - law-enforcement intelligence, and the emerging business-intelligence (or "competitive intelligence") communities, and it is here at the fringes that a lot of the cutting-edge work is being done. Yet, unfortunately, even as OSINT gets pushed and promoted by its users and advocates, the lines between it and other "INTs" get blurred. (blog) Nemo de Monet, December 17, 2008
- Boston SCIP member among first to question Madoff — December 16, 2008
Harry Markopolos has attended a number of SCIP Boston chapter meetings and provided an excellent presentation on the difference between espionage and competitive intelligence. Here's one article from the Boston Business Journal. (blog) Parmelee Eastman, December 16, 2008
- Competitive intelligence for business — December 16, 2008
Primary Intelligence created Competitive Navigator to give all salespeople access to the competitive intelligence that would normally take years to obtain on their own. With a central intelligence location, all sales people receive the same training and information that helps them compete against any competitor. (blog) Mark Larson, December 16, 2008
- Coping mechanisms for future uncertainty — December 16, 2008
Frustrations abound over most organizations' inability to effectively deal with future uncertainty, despite a general awareness of the sources of such uncertainty. How can organizations better counter unexpected external developments and surprises? I asked 25 director, VP and C-level executives to identify the major sources of strategic surprise in their external environments. (blog) Ken Sawka, December 16, 2008
- Lifespan of German Utility Model — December 16, 2008
The German utility model is called as Gebrauchsmuster (GebrM) is a patent-like, intellectual property right protecting inventions. The Gebrauchsmuster is slightly different from the patent. (blog) Vinod Singh, December 16, 2008
- Against whom am I competing? — December 15, 2008
One of the key questions that needs to be determined by sales reps is "against whom am I competing?" The answer determines not only pricing, but overall positioning of your firm's value proposition and how to avoid the likely traps competitors will set for your firm. Here are some tips for inferring competitors when your prospect or client won't name them. (blog) December 15, 2008
- SWOT analysis — December 14, 2008
SWOT Analysis is a strategic planning method used to evaluate the Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats involved in a project or in a business venture. It involves specifying the objective of the business venture or project and identifying the internal and external factors that are favourable and unfavourable to achieving that objective. (blog/article) Ade Fauji, December 14, 2008
- Vendor management risk governance — December 14, 2008
Vendor melt-down, the unexpected failure of an outsourcing service provider, is a troubling aspect of the slowing economy and tight credit conditions. Vendor Management Risk Governance (VMRG) is the overarching structure that enables an all company view of your supplier community. Invest in some competitive intelligence . Find out who else is out there, what they offer, how it compares with your current relationship. (blog) Linda Chapman, December 14, 2008
- Defining ‘extended analyst relations (AR) team' — December 12, 2008
The group of individuals at a technology provider who do not have AR as part of their job responsibilities, but whose efforts within their proscribed areas of responsibility can be leveraged by the Core AR Team. Examples of individuals who may be recruited as members of the Extended AR Team include: b) marketing or competitive intelligence personnel who monitor media and analyst research publications. (blog) NA, December 12, 2008
- Obama can't have a BlackBerry. Should your CEO? — December 12, 2008
So, what's at stake when your execs are using wireless devices such as smartphones and laptops, or working at home or at a coffee shop on their laptops? As it turns out, far more than a CEO's contact list and calendar. On the line, say the experts, are billions of dollars in proprietary intellectual property and the maintenance of a continuous flow of capital, the lifeblood of business. (article) Ephraim Schwartz, December 12, 2009
- Top 5 intelligence analysis methids: multi-criteria decision making matrices/ multi-criteria intelligence matrices — December 12, 2008
Multi Criteria Decision Making (MCDM) is a well-known and widely studied decision support method within the business and military communities. Some of the most popular variants of this method include the analytic heirarchy process, multi-attribute utility analysis and, in the US Army, at least, the staff study (see Annex D). There is even an International Society on Multiple Criteria Decision Making. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, December 12, 2008
- What's the competition doing? — December 12, 2008
Cometitive intelligence gives you hard facts on which to base decisions about marketing tactics, R&D investments, product launches and overall business strategy. Effective gathering of competitive intelligence can easily be done using legal and ethical sources of information. There are many ways to collect the information you need. (blog) John Reh, N.D
- Fox and the hedgehog — December 11, 2008
One of the topics that intrigues me most about intelligence and the process of moving from evidence to data to insight to action is the role the cognitive dissonance plays in human decision-making. A great presentation on that subject I heard recently is psychology researcher Philip Tetlock's analysis of the performance of "foxes" and "hedgehogs" in making predictions about the future. On the whole "foxes" are more reliable predictors than "hedgehogs." (blog) August Jackson, December 11, 2008
- How I Got My Job in competitive intelligence — December 11, 2008
My friend and colleague Suki Fuller was recently interviewed for the "How I Got my Job" podcast. Suki shares her experience getting a job in the field of competitive intelligence. (blog/podcast) August Jackson, December 11, 2008
- Social networking: a research tool — December 11, 2008
A Wikipedia compilation lists more than 125 social networking sites and even this list is "non-exhaustive" and "limited to some notable, well known sites". Dozens of social networking sites have given rise to potentially useful information that can be included in the information professional's toolkit. Two social networks not included in the Wikipedia article cited above reflect an emerging breed of specialty social networks: BiomedExperts.com and globalEDGE.com. (blog/article) Amelia Kassel, December 10, 2008
- The WayBack Machine - internet archives and research — December 11, 2008
As the metabolism of the Internet is at least 3 times faster than that of the average person, we see more happening faster, and more content available. The trouble is that as quickly as this content rolls in it overwrites the current material. Solutions are found in at least two services, free and easy to use. (article) Cynthia Hetherington, Pursuit Magazine, December 11, 2009
- Top 5 intelligence analysis methods: social network analysis — December 11, 2008
Social Network Analysis (SNA) is fundamentally about entities and the relationships between them. As a result, this method has a number of variations within the intelligence community ranging from techniques such as association matrices through link analysis charts right up to the validated mathematical models. It is most commonly used as a way to picture a network, however, and is rarely used in the more formal way envisioned by the sociologists who created the method. In other words, while SNA is a very powerful method, intelligence professionals rarely take advantage of its full potential. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, December 11, 2008
- Top 5 intelligence analysis methods: social network analysis #3 — December 11, 2008
Social Network Analysis (SNA) is fundamentally about entities and the relationships between them. As a result, this method has a number of variations within the intelligence community ranging from techniques such as association matrices through link analysis charts right up to the validated mathematical models. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, December 11, 2008
- Australia learns about outsourcing costs — December 10, 2008
Slowly but surely companies are beginning to realize that there is more to competitiveness than just cheap labor. It's all about total cost, which includes cost to support the offshore manufacturer in differently languages and time zones, in-transit inventories, obsolescence, less agility to rapidly introduce new designs, and training. (blog) Kevin Meyer, December 10, 2008
- Competitive intelligence and strategy — December 10, 2008
Product Managers and Marketers spend a meaningful amount of time doing competitive research and planning strategies to be successful in the competitive market. While time will often prove the merits of such strategies, one of the most interesting opportunities is when you end up merging with a competitor and can trade notes. You may both be off a bit but the comparison itself is usually enlightening. (blog) Tim Rochte, December 10, 2008
- IP litigation clearinghouse — December 10, 2008
Operated by Stanford Law School, in concert with leading experts from around the country, the IP Litigation Clearinghouse aims to be a comprehensive online information source on IP litigation. We seek to enhance the quantity, quality, and art of IP analytics for the benefit of the public.
- Law firms build business through client teams and interviews — December 10, 2008
Only with exclusive insight into the client's issues can you implement marketing or business plans that are based on first-hand knowledge. It is authentic intelligence that will, and should, drive your business strategies. In the trenches, gathering client information becomes your competitive intelligence. It will enable your firm to identify and address core issues ahead of your competitors better, faster and cheaper than anyone else. (article) Susan Van Dyke, December 10, 2008
- Competitors' patents: a warning light that could have helped Detroit — December 9, 2008
As Congress readies an auto bailout package and the industry contemplates its future, it's worth noting that competitive intelligence techniques such as patent mapping and analysis could also have probably helped avoid the current situation. The tools for mapping the patenting efforts of competitors have been available for years. (blog) Tom Blailock,December 9, 2008
- Free benchmarking tools you should be using — December 9, 2008
If your budget doesn't allow for advanced competitive intelligence, don't fret. Here are three tools you can use to demonstrate the effectiveness of your online efforts. ( blog/article ) Michael McVeigh, December 9, 2008
- I will find you — December 9, 2008
As companies became aware of how their information could be analyzed for CI purposes, corporate counter-intelligence began. With the prolilferation of blogs and corporate social networking sites, one might think finding people has become easy again. In some ways, yes. In other ways, no. (blog) NA, December 9, 2008
- I will find you — December 9, 2008
About this time, the CI community decided to publicize itself more. An attempt to establish itself alongside the upper tier management consulting firms. It didn't really work, but it did make the jobs of the rank & file CI people more difficult - as companies became aware of how their information could be analyzed for CI purposes. Corporate counter-intelligence began. (blog) Samantha Chmelik, December 9, 2008
- Latest STEEP Report: the future of big brother technologies — December 9, 2008
Our most recent STEEP Report was just published this week on the future of surveillance technologies - RFID, GPS, facial recognition, biometrics and more. Our bottom line: these technologies will give business and government tremendous new capabilities and significant new liabilities. (blog/powerpoint) Eric Garland, December 9, 2008
- Maintain your reputation online through SEO — December 9, 2008
Ironically the tactics we reach for in are strikingly similar to any normal SEO campaign. Competitive intelligence, content publishing, link building, taking inventory of digital assets for universal search and leveraged power of social channels are among classic tools of the trade. What differentiates crises management is the sense of urgency, pressure to perform, legal options and the obvious downside to failure. Here are 8 tips for SEO Reputation Management Success: (blog) Dan LaRusso, December 9, 2008
- How chemical companies can plan and manage investor relations for the market upswing — December 8, 2008
Institutional investors are a great source of competitive intelligence, given their broad dialogue with chemical industry peers and large end-users. Many company executives will admit privately that some of their best strategic ideas resulted from dialogue with institutional investors during nondeal marketing road shows. (article) Jonathan Goldhill, December 8, 2008
- Interview with James Major - author of Communicating with Intelligence — December 8, 2008
You make interesting points in the book about different ways to approach getting the meaning out of a long, detailed document. What kind of techniques do you use to quickly analyze meaning within a document? (blog/ article) Sean Campbell and Scott Swigart, December 8, 2008
- It's just garbage — December 8, 2008
Just garbage--but also a successful business. Atkinson has built an empire collecting high-tech junk out of corporate trash bins, repairing it and selling the second-hand goods. He won't touch data, but if he were so inclined, he could be a premier practitioner of corporate espionage (ahem, "competitive intelligence"), mining the hard drives that appear by the hundreds every time a company moves (Microsoft threw out 30 middle-managers' laptops with hard drives intact) and the sensitive memos that could be harvested by the ream. (article) Cory Doctorow, Forbes, December 8, 2008
- Law firms: learning and adopting of corporate methods — December 8, 2008
It has only been 15 years ago when competitions for clients and work started among law firms and thus, the need for them to operate similar to a business. Given this situation, law firms in the country are lately starting to adopt the competitive methods of corporate establishments. Competitive intelligence has already started to make the rounds on law firms all over the country as a business strategy. (blog) NA December 8, 2008
- Searching Craigslist — December 8, 2008
Here are my favorite tools for working with Craigslist. (blog) Richard McEachin, December 8, 2008
- See if your company plans a big layoff in California this year — December 8, 2008
California's WARN law requires certain companies with more than 75 employees to provide 60 days advance notice of a plant closing or mass layoff involving 50 or more employees. Search our database to see if your employer has filed a notice and to see how many layoffs are planned in 2008 in each California city where it has a facility. (blog/article)NA, Mercury News, December 8, 2008
- Top 5 intelligence analysis methods: Bayesian Analysis — December 8, 2008
Bayes is the "Gold Standard" for analytic conclusions under conditions of uncertainty and probably ought to be closer to -- if not at the -- top of this list. It provides a rigorous, logical and thoroughly validated process for generating a very specific estimative judgment. It is also enormously flexible and can, theoretically, be applied to virtually any type of problem. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, December 8, 2008
- The secrets of failure — December 7, 2008
The same technology that affords us the luxury of reading blogs and exchanging e-mails is creating a nightmare for business. It's easier for internal spies to steal corporate secrets. Nowhere is that nightmare being played out more publicly now than in the battle between Airbus and Boeing. (blog) Bob Collins, December 7, 2008
- Zoetrope: visualizing historical web data — December 7, 2008
The project Zoetrope is explored in Technology Review. A project from Adobe Systems and the University of Washington, it allows the user to take a look back at previous states of a web page to understand how information provided has varied over time. What changes are your competitors making to their sites? (blog) December 7, 2008
- First European Certificate of practitioner in CI & value management — December 5, 2008
The first certificate of Practitioner in CI and Value Management has been handed over to the students of the Atelis Strategic Workshop of the ESCEM, Business School Tours - Poitiers, France. M. Alain Juillet, Senior Executive in CI in France, presented the goals and main framework of the French Competitive Intelligence program. He underlined the fact that the double competency offered by Atelis to the students in CI and Value Management, as well as the synergy between these two disciplines will be a strong competitive advantage during their professional life. (blog) December 5, 2008
- Gathering intelligence in cross-border M&A — December 5, 2008
The merging of businesses located in different countries has been on the increase. Success is largely due to excellent and thorough data gathering. While due diligence has a varied and all-encompassing definition, many foreign deals rely on an enhanced level of fact and intelligence gathering. Analogous to competitive intelligence, this fact gathering is made up of several components. (article) Frank Rudewicz, Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, December 2008
- Google primer — December 5, 2008
Here's an excellent guide to searching Google featuring Matt Cutts, a senior engineer at Google. The video starts out with a number of well-known tips but quickly gets to some stuff that I didn't know Google could do. Even if you're an expert, this is a good 5 minute course on getting the most out of Google. (video) Richard McEachin, December 5, 2008
- Top 5 intelligence analysis methods: what makes a good method? (list pt.2) — December 5, 2008
What makes for a useful intelligence analysis method? Based primarily on my experience with real-world intelligence problems and with teaching entry-level analysts a wide variety of methods, I think there are four primary factors: Validity, simplicity, flexibility and the method's ability to work with unstructured data. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, December 5, 2008
- Disruptive innovation at P&G — December 4, 2008
Forbes has a very good disruptive innovation example from P&G. Also a good example of using external, open innovation to provide disruption. Shows how it is not just about connection to disruptive external ideas, but also about how to develop the ideas for the right internal application. (blog/article) Franz Dill, December 4, 2008
- Top 5 intelligence analysis methods (list) — December 4, 2008
Feelings), what, then, are the best methods for conducting intelligence analysis? Given the wide range of intelligence analysis problems (tactical, operational, strategic) and the large number of disciplines using intelligence analysis to support decisionmaking (national security, law enforcement and business) is there any chance that I can identify the five best methods? (blog) Kristan Wheaton, December 4, 2008
- Airbus Dreamlines dossier revealed — December 3, 2008
In a stunning and candid critique of its chief competitor, Airbus has crafted a comprehensive competitive analysis that touches on nearly every aspect of the troubled 787 programme gleaned from Boeing proprietary data and an embedded network of sources from inside the Dreamliner's global supply chain. Competitive intelligence is a standard practice in the aerospace industry, but the information revealed in the Airbus analysis reveals a scope and specificity of the data collected. The document includes what appear to be seven slides labelled BOEING PROPRIETARY. (blog) Jon Ostrower, December 3, 2008
- Blog proud v. blog tolerant - how are big firms presenting their blogs? — December 3, 2008
In part II of our study on Big Law Firm Blogs, we wanted to see how it "appears" to the casual viewer on what the firms actually think of their attorneys' blogs. As we stated in part I, the firms that had blogs tended to fall into two camps: blog-proud or blog-tolerant. (blog) December 3, 2008
- RSS feeds working in blog — December 3, 2008
I've written extensively about the potential for RSS to improve competitive intelligence tracking on on-going updates on topics of interest (competitors, technologies, news, customers, regulation, etc.). What I'm barely getting my mind around is the power of RSS for distribution of regularly updated content in both federated and aggregated platforms. The immediate benefit for the information provider is simplification of content management. (blog) August Jackson, December 3, 2008
- Strategy under uncertainty — December 3, 2008
This is a good time to rethink planning process. In the months to come, decisions have to be made very quickly on fundamental opportunities that may drive earnings performance for the next decade or more, and organizations need to be prepared to make these decisions in real time. That requires a continuous focus on market and competitive intelligence and far more frequent conversations-daily, if necessary-among the top team about the current situation. (blog) December 3, 2008
- CI: frightening information your competitors can easily learn about your business — December 2, 2008
Competitive intelligence (CI) is essential in search advertising. Without it, marketers risk ineffective keywords, poorly developed ad copy and ultimately lost business. With competition already intense and only expected to increase, the question isn't whether to practice CI, but which CI tools to use? (blog) Richard Stokes, December 3, 2008
- Whole Foods looking to subpoena competitors records? — December 2, 2008
Whole Foods looking to subpoena competitors records? Not content to do sneaky business the new way, Whole Foods is using it's court battle with the FTC to try and subpoena the business records and marketing plans of competing natural foods market New Seasons. (blog) (extensive comments) December 2, 2008
- Now is the time for change! — December 1, 2008
Here are 5 simple steps to greatness you should be taking today. Fourth; Provide Value outside of hires. If you do 1-3, your department will be a storehouse of competitive intelligence, candidate/customer feedback and market data. This is information that if gathered correctly, can give your company a distinct competitive advantage in today's market. Experience the joy of walking into the VP of Marketing's office with reams of competitive data your team has gathered. She will be forever your advocate and tell 6 of her peers what an amazing group you are. (blog) Phil Haynes, December 1, 2008
- What is competitive intelligence? — December 1, 2008
Competitive intelligence (CI) is regarded as a system of environmental scanning which integrates the knowledge of everyone in the company. As will be discussed in this article, the term encompasses marketing, structural, strategic and other organisational elements. This special issue of the European Journal of Marketing demonstrates the breadth of the CI concept, and is the first non-intelligence journal to invite contributions for a special issue entitled "The impact of competitive intelligence on marketing activity". (blog) NA, ND
November
- Early warning, or you can't find what you're not looking for — November 30, 2008
Surprise rarely occurs because of lack of signals; it's due to either misreading indicators or when an organization's view of the environment, conditioned by past perceptions, prevents it from correctly seeking or interpreting indicators or emerging trends. (blog) David Harkleroad, November 30, 2008
- Early warning, or you can't find what you're not looking for — November 30, 2008
Very few organizations consistently transform external information into profit-producing assets. Surprise rarely occurs because of lack of signals; it's due to either misreading indicators or when an organization's view of the environment, conditioned by past perceptions, prevents it from correctly seeking or interpreting indicators or emerging trends. (blog) David Harkleroad, November 30, 2008
- Protect your organizations proprietary information — November 30, 2008
In addition to the legal dangers, are those surrounding the loss of proprietary advantage through the sharp practice of intelligence gathering by competitors and even industrial espionage. Interestingly, a recent report out of the U.K. placed France on equal standing with Russia as an intelligence threat, not for military secrets, but rather industrial espionage. (blog) John Di Frances, November 30, 2008
- Sales strategies for strategic selling — November 30, 2008
Customers no longer desire focus on product; they want to understand results. The only method to remediate this issue is the creation of a client-competitive intelligence program. Use investigative tools that promote the client's organizational comprehension, industry knowledge, and even competitive trends and pressures. (blog/article) Drew Stevens, November 2008
- The code of best practices in fair use for media literacy education — November 30, 2008
This document is a code of best practices that helps educators using media literacy concepts and techniques to interpret the copyright doctrine of fair use. Fair use is the right to use copyrighted material without permission or payment under some circumstances. This guide identifies five principles that represent the media literacy education community's current consensus about acceptable practices for the fair use of copyrighted materials. (full report) November 2008
- Competitive intelligence (reverse engineering) — November 28, 2008
"Reverse Engineering" (RE), the process of taking an existing product, disassembling it in a forensic-like manner, and examining the component parts and the technology used in its production. RE has had a significant influence on the dissemination of technology, and is now a recognised part of competitive intelligence. Electronics RE customers fall into two groups: technical intelligence and patent-related intelligence. (article) Dick James, November 28, 2008
- Execution: the critical competency — November 27, 2008
Not so much a resourcing issue as a cognitive issue. Most CEOs' minds are immersed in the day-to-day details of their business, while a few get out and talk with others in their industry. Since most structural change, almost by definition, comes from outside their industry, they don't have much of a chance to detect those changes early. As a CEO you really need to work on your outside networks, as discussions with people outside your industry can often give you a more objective perspective. (article/interview) David Armstrong, November 27 2008
- Genetic intellectual property — November 25, 2008
I came across this throw-away line in an article about biofuel synthesis: "I wonder how thoroughly they are scrubbing the waste stream? Dumpster diving for competitive intelligence takes on a new meaning here." You may spend ten years perfecting a biomass-composting superbug, only to have your competitor slurp it out of your sewage.It's become a standard line among software CEOs to say your chief assets walk out the door every night. In the biotech business you literally pour those assets down the drain. (blog) Ned Gulley, November 25, 2008
- Key to research success: asking the right questions — November 25, 2008
First step to any research -- "A key step in matching your ‘search' with your ‘find' is asking the right question at the start of the process. Competitive Intelligence professionals may call this ‘requirements' or key intelligence topics. Jane John presents 8 tips for asking the right questions. (article) Jane John, Fumsi, November 25, 2008
- Tapping eResources for business — November 25, 2008
The National Library Board (NLB) has over 20 business-relevant databases that entrepreneurs can access via its eResources website at eresources.nlb.gov.sg. These databases provide information ranging from import-export data to business directories, international or local laws and regulations, product innovation and processes, and competitive intelligence. Examples include Business Monitor International, Euromonitor Global Market Information Database, Economist Intelligence Unit reports, Informa Law, Jupiter Research and many more. (blog/article) November 25, 2008
- Gobble up the competition a competitive sales strategy — November 24, 2008
Do you know who your competitors are and what makes what they sell different from yours? More importantly do you know how to sell against them? Do you know how they sell against you? Do you know how to get this information? In this episode Joe and Mike talk about working with sources of competitive intelligence and offer advice on ways you can increase your competitive effectiveness so you can win more deals. (podcast) NA November 24, 2008
- Introverts, unite! — November 24, 2008
It happened that I asked a question during a SCIP conference session, and the question was something in which other people took an interest. Several of them came up to me after the session, and along with the session presenter, we got into a free-flowing discussion on the topic. I decided that I would present sessions at future conferences. I had no hesitation about presenting in front of a group, so I would make presenting my trick method for doing networking. (blog) NA, November 24, 2008
- Market intelligence for innovation and product life-cycle: case examples — November 24, 2008
The case companies featured in this White Paper are Pirelli Tyre, DSM, and Boehringer Ingelheim. Operating in the car tyre, life and material sciences and pharmaceuticals industries, respectively, all of these companies depend a lot on the quality of their innovation activity and product life-cycle management. Consequently, the related intelligence activities also play a vital role in contributing to the companies' competitive success. (whitepaper) November 24, 2008
- Top Italian firms called to trial in wire-tapping case:report — November 24, 2008
A court in Milan ordered Monday two of Italy's top firms, Telecom Italia and its former leading shareholder Pirelli, to stand trial in connection with a huge spying scandal. Some 34 suspects targeted by Milan prosecutors have also been ordered to court after two years of investigations into an extensive phone-tapping system, according to the report by the ANSA news agency. The scandal broke in 2006 after investigators uncovered a vast private spy network at the heart of Telecom Italia. (newswire) November 24, 2008
- Health insurance industry community of practice — November 23, 2008
Research professionals from the health insurance industry now have a dedicated community of practice in which to network, participate in continuing education coursework, and ensure best practice application of research initiatives within their organizations. (press release) November 23, 2008
- Learning about a company through lawsuits — November 23, 2008
What litigation says about the company itself. Numbers may tell stories about profits and successes and the website and news generally tell you what the company wants you to know, but lawsuits against a company tell you what they DON'T want you to know. Here are four things to think about when looking at a company's legal proceedings. (blog) Randy Wilson, November 23, 2008
- Competitive intelligence: how to clue your competitors and bare their not so hidden secrets — November 22, 2008
In business, you consistently charge to apperceive what your competitors are doing. To survive you accept to accomplish aggressive intelligence activities and adviser the broader bazaar for new developments that could affect your company, your articles and brands, suppliers, and distributors. Competitive intelligence is rewarding, but not easy. (blog) NA November 22, 2008
- Engineers sentenced to 1 year for espionage case — November 21, 2008
Two engineers from China were sentenced to a year in prison Friday for stealing computer chip designs from their Silicon Valley employers and trying to smuggle the secrets to their homeland to launch a government-backed startup there. Fei Ye, a U.S. citizen, and Ming Zhong, a permanent resident of the U.S., had pleaded guilty in 2006, becoming the first people convicted of the most serious crime under the Economic Espionage Act of 1996. (AP news) November 21, 2008
- CI keeps you ahead of the competition — November 20, 2008
Competitive intelligence is an absolute must for developing a profitable business with products and services constantly exceeding that of your competitors. It should be included in your small business marketing plans and given serious consideration when writing a business plan. It's an integral ingredient in a SWOT analysis and it allows you to make informed decisions that can have a substantial impact on your business. (blog) Peter Kirkham, November 20, 2008
- Global Executive presentation on disruptive technology — November 20, 2008
I had the great pleasure of presenting a one day seminar on the Transformational Role of Emerging Internet Technologies on Business Innovation to our Global Executive MBA class. Many who attended asked for access to charts and any media that went along with the presentation. This post, I hope, fulfills that request. (PowerPoint/video/blog) Tony O'Driscoll, November 20 2008
- Market intelligence — November 19, 2008
Market Intelligence (MI) is the information relevant to a company's markets, gathered and analyzed specifically for the purpose of accurate and confident decision-making in determining market opportunity, market penetration strategy, and market development metrics. Organizationally, Market Intelligence can be the name of the department that performs both the market intelligence and competitor analysis roles. (blog) NA, November 19, 2008
- The power of collaboration: corporate wikis — November 19, 2008
Scottrade set up a competitor wiki dubbed CIA (Competitive Intelligence Analysis) to tap into the knowledge of hundreds of staffers spread out across the country. Now, all anyone has to do gather the latest intelligence on a rival is go to CIA and click on a competitor's link to find a quick summary, up-to-date comparison charts and talking points. One reason for CIA's effectiveness: Its clear and narrow focus. By branding its wiki and defining its purpose from the outset, Scottrade has ensured its use is directed toward a compelling business interest. (blog) NA, November 19, 2008
- Art of Intelligence — November 18, 2008
Intelligence, is at its core, the analysis of information. It is the search in information for competitive insight or predictive meaning. This is brought to light by applying analytical techniques. What is sometimes overlooked, however, is that intelligence is also a interdisciplinary field. NA November 18, 2008
- Colleague to Colleague interview series — November 18, 2008
We get a lot of foot traffic through the library and our space was enlarged due to increased reference staff and study space rather than more shelving for print. I would add that we have a competitive intelligence unit in the library that works closely with marketing to drive client development, and that also helped. (blog) Colleen Cable, November 18, 2008
- Intl Journal of Business Forecasting and Marketing Intelligence — November 18, 2008
International Journal of Business Forecasting and Marketing Intelligence publishes articles that link current practice and theory in the business forecasting field. This includes new forecasting domains (e.g. rule-based forecasting, fuzzy logic forecasting, spline regression forecasting, etc.) and the growing area of business/marketing intelligence involving environmental scanning, "brain" monitoring, innovative intelligence methodologies, competition, strategic decision support systems, etc. There is a free download of the papers from this first issue. (blog)
- It is better to be wrong, than silent — November 18, 2008
We have to allow ourselves to explore what could happen-since we cannot know what will happen. There is no right answer waiting to be uncovered. (blog) John Mahaffie, November 18, 2008
- East Asian patent information — November 17, 2008
In today's global economy no patent searcher can afford to ignore patent literature from East Asia. More than half the patent applications filed worldwide every year are written in Japanese, Chinese or Korean. As a special service to European industry, the EPO has set up an East Asia Helpdesk, staffed by experts in the Japanese, Chinese and Korean patent systems, who perform searches in original language patent databases for customers or offer advice on the efficient use of free internet sources.
- Fourteen competitive intelligence tools — November 17, 2008
One of my favorite sessions at PubCon is the Competitive Intelligence panel. I thought you might like to see the slide deck I used-complete with a list of 14 tools I recommend for spying on your competition. (blog/Powerpoint) Andy Beal, November 17, 2008.
- Opening keynote at CICI Shanghai: Joe Goldberg — November 17, 2008
My good friend, Dr. Qihao Miao, as conference chair, opened with remarks about how the conference looks very promising and introduced Mr. Joe Goldberg, SCIP President, to keynote the conference. Joe gave the usual glad-handing and greetings from the board and so on, then got to the new international strategy of "One SCIP" and how that applies to China. Here's my synopsis of his remarks (blog) Arik Johnson, November 13, 2008
- Patents and East-Asiatic Languages — November 17, 2008
As part of Competitive intelligence I always look at patents to see what is actively being developed, what the new trends are within various fields. East Asiatic countries such as Japan, China and Korea are issuing patents at an amazing rate. It is obviously important to be able to read these patents, both to avoid reinventing the wheel and to avoid costly litigation for infringement. (blog) Helen Martin, November 17, 2008
- The comfort zone - institutional blindness — November 17, 2008
The most recent email dialogue focused on "institutional blindness". I had pointed out that the company (a large, key company not to be identified) is in my opinion beginning to suffer from institutional blindness - not being aware of what is going on around it. I pointed out the dangers in that type of thinking. (blog) N.A. November 17, 2008
- Essential market research for your small business — November 16, 2008
Because of todays technology it is easier to research and gain competitive intelligence about emerging competition than ever before. Here are some other ways to conduct competitive research online. (blog) Joe Love, November 16, 2008
- Market (Business/Competitive) intelligence — November 15, 2008
Market Intelligence (MI, often also referred to as Competitive Intelligence or Business Intelligence) is a distinct discipline by which organizations systematically gather and process information from their external operating environment. The purpose of MI is to facilitate accurate and confident decision-making that is based on well prepared homework, i.e. processed and analyzed business information. Organizationally, MI may be the name of the department that performs the roles of both market and competitor analysis. (blog) N.A. November 15, 2008
- Steps to develop an indirect strategy: gather CI — November 15, 2008
This post will introduce the third step in this 6-step process: Gather competitive intelligence. This step is central to employing an indirect strategy because the reliability of competitive intelligence is the meaningful way that you can determine what constitutes direct or indirect if you do not know the direction in which you are positioned against your competitor. (blog) Norton Paley, November 15, 2008
- Utilising competitive intelligence tools for PPC marketing — November 15, 2008
Competitive Intelligence is the process of acquiring and studying competitive data from sources that are widely available, in order to help achieve the main aim of the organization. CI assimilates random information into accurate, relevant and useful knowledge about competitors, capabilities, performance and position. CI also relates to information that has been thoroughly researched so that it facilitates decision making. CI tools for PPC marketing can be an effective way to make business decisions. (blog) N.A. November 15, 2008
- Track the changes on any website or page easily — November 14, 2008
A large portion of marketplace awareness is competitive intelligence. Maintaining insight into what your competitors are doing is a great way to keep tabs on the marketplace that you are working within. The internet is a great source of information about your competitors, especially if your competitors have a strong web presence. There are a variety of ways and a large toolbox to assist you with keeping up to date with what your competitors are doing. The newest tool, which is very simple to use is called TrackEngine. (blog) James Helms, November 14, 2008
- Vigilant due diligence could head off vendor viability issues — November 14, 2008
My standing advice to HR executives is that they should not just evaluate vendors when they are in the dating process, but they need an ongoing competitive intelligence gathering process so that they are never surprised about what is happening at vendors. (article) Jessica Marquez, November 14, 2008
- Can HR embrace social media and competitive intelligence? — November 13, 2008
Join Suzy Tonini, manager of Internet Research at Deloitte. Suzy covers topics on competitive intelligence and sourcing. Join Suzy on Thursday, Nov. 13th for a Chat on Competitive Intelligence! (blog/chat) Susan Burns
- Increase ROI from marketing Conferences — November 13, 2008
Pre conference goal setting and planning, well defined processes as well as follow up and post event knowledge sharing can all multiple the value organizations realize by sending employees to educational events. Understand the conference offerings, set goals and make the time to pre-plan conference involvement. Leverage content creation, networking, recruiting, competitive intelligence as well as prospecting opportunities and industry conferences can move pretty quickly from an expense with an uncertain effect to an investment with multiples of return. (blog) November 13, 2008
- Innovation in Littleton — November 13, 2008
Littleton turned to an "economic gardening" approach that focuses on supporting entrepreneurs. Littleton businesses can assess training and seminars in advanced management techniques, and have access through the city to tactical and strategic information from more than 100,000 publications worldwide. Marketing lists, competitive intelligence, industry trends, new product tracking, and legislative research are just part of what the city offers. As measured by job-creation figures, the "gardening" approach has been a considerable success. (article) Susan Thornton, November 13, 2008
- Competitive intelligence - dump their junk — November 12, 2008
I was recently sitting in a client's employee lounge and saw a flyer that was on all of the tables. As I looked closely it said the following "turn competitors trash into competitive intelligence treasure. Receptacles will be set up in the atrium and on the second and third floor to collect all the junk mail you receive at home from the competition." (blog) Simon Bailey, November 12, 2008
- Particularisms of the competitive intelligence profession in France — November 12, 2008
In France, very few CI graduates write “competitive intelligence”, “strategic intelligence” or “economic intelligence” on their resume or CV to find a job. The great majority invents all kinds of formulations around the word “information”. Only ethics can save CI profession in France and elsewhere in the world. (blog) Guy Gweth, November 12, 2008
- Telecom passes bio in intelligence gathering — November 12, 2008
The biotech sector is falling behind other industries when it comes to gathering intelligence on rivals, according to a new report. Fuld & Co., which specializes in competitive intelligence, examined 500 companies to assess the extent to which they engaged in the practice this year compared to last year. (article) November 12, 2008
- Competitive intelligence as a key part of strategic development — November 11, 2008
Competitive intelligence (CI) continues to be valued as a necessary and important tool for competitive strategy development, according to Outward Insights' 2008 Ostriches & Eagles* study. As a follow-up to the 2005 study, Outward Insights conducted an almost identical survey this year to analyze the use of competitive intelligence across a range of industries. In almost every instance, the insurance industry stands out from the norm when compared to other sectors. (article) Karen Rothwell, November 11, 2008
- Ethics claptrap — November 11, 2008
In today's National Post a vague article entitled, Spying doesn't pay, prattles on about ethics and warns about the weak moral fibre and criminality of competitive intelligence practitioners. Of course no details provided. He just wants us to believe this is SOP in business today. (blog) Richard McEachin, November 11, 2008
- Spying doesn't pay — November 11, 2008
Our research at the Schulich School of Business, conducted in partnership with the Institute of Business Ethics and the University of London, has been investigating the ethical challenges in competitive intelligence from those who know best -- intelligence professionals themselves, and the people in their organizations whose responsibility it is to ensure compliance with ethical and legal standards. The questions we've asked them, about what can go wrong, why, and how firms can avoid getting into the ethical quagmire, have produced some striking insights. (article) Andrew Crane, November 11, 2008
- Tune into the voice of your customer with voice mining — November 11, 2008
Understanding customer comments is a hot topic in the text mining world, and mining audio data is gathering momentum. Combining voice capture data with business intelligence, analytics and text mining provides valuable customer intelligence for marketing and competitive intelligence. This paper helps you understand how to take advantage of analytical technologies that combine data mining methods with emerging linguistic techniques to find patterns and meaning in the words captured in conversations and documents. (whitepaper) November 2008
- How to use trade data — November 10, 2008
Trade data provides much of the fundamental information global organizations need to effectively and efficiently complete their market intelligence efforts. There are many ways that companies take data provided by U.S. Census and U.S. Customs data providers and turn it into actionable, value based initiatives. (blog) Kevin Palmstein, November 10, 2008
- Eight tips for difficult client conversations — November 9, 2008
Summarizes one of the founding principles of our firm - we tell our clients what they need to hear, not what they want to hear. Unfortunately, sometimes that means having difficult conversations with your clients. Here are seven tips for making those conversations as conflict-free and effective as possible. (blog) Kerry Birch, November 2008
- President-elect Barak Obama: a classic case study in intelligence 2.0 — November 8, 2008
The Obama example of how his Presidential campaign made use of information everyone else had but interpreted differently made for a perfect opening example of how businesses must do the same to compete in the Intelligence 2.0 world. (blog) Arik Johnson, November 8, 2008
- How to figure return on investment for your competitor's blog — November 7, 2008
By visiting these corporate blogs, the importance of competitive intelligence may be realized in that you have the ability to "sit in" on these conversations, leveraging your ability to gain strategic insights based on the direction of your competitor's consumer's thoughts. (blog) Richard Telofski, November 7, 2008
- Napoleon on project management — November 7, 2008
My work as a Competitive Intelligence (CI) Researcher or Investigator has evolved from fulfilling information requirements of established projects, to managing projects within projects. I expect this trend to continue over the next decade as the complexity of information and analysis requirements increase. As the concepts of Project Management are imposed on Investigations, CI, forecasting and planning processes, study of this area of business skill will not only become absolutely necessary for all managers, but also for people like me. (blog) Richard McEachin, November 7, 2008
- Successful selling strategies for a volatile economy — November 7, 2008
Customers no longer desire focus on product; they want to understand results. The only method to remediate this issue is the creation of a client-competitive intelligence program. Use investigative tools that promote the client's organizational comprehension, industry knowledge, and even competitive trends and pressures. A sincere understanding of client issues assists in promoting a strong relationship. (blog) Drew Stevens November 7, 2008
- Competitive intelligence driving more corporate decisions — November 5, 2008
It's a classic good news / bad news report: more US corporations are using competitive intelligence to drive critical strategic and tactical decisions than ever before, but an alarming number of companies still do not have structured way to deliver intelligence to decision-makers in their organizations. Is the chasm between companies that value CI and those that don't growing? (blog) Ken Sawka, November 6, 2008
- Fifty web tools to keep tabs on your competitors — November 5, 2008
If you're in business, you almost surely have some sort of competition to keep tabs on. And in this day and age, you can bet that there's some information to be found about your competition online. By making use of these resources, you can keep an eye on what your competition is up to. (blog) Jessica Merritt, November 5, 2008
- Managing sales in a down economy — November 5, 2008
Now is the time to step up communications efforts with your managers and sales teams. While many of us rely on email, "best practices" for poor economic conditions dictate personal contact. By doing such, you will get "real time" feedback. Topics for such communications should be: account successes, market vertical triumphs, performance expectations, "street fighter" tactics, and competitive intelligence. (article) Todd Kasper, November 5, 2008
- What does SCIP's future hold? Get out the vote. — November 5, 2008
SCIP's Board of Directors election is open through November 14 and there are seven candidates for three slots. SCIP faces some formidable issues and it will take a strong board to help the organization effectively deal with them. (blog) Jon Lowder, November 5, 2008
- Firm digs up mining data — November 4, 2008
These days some multinationals looking for the hottest leads on resource finds suitable for development rely increasingly on intelligence software developed by Coemergence, which gathers and manages huge amounts of data and presents it to companies in a clear and efficient manner. "Without an orderly presentation of competitive intelligence, executives risk spending all their time glued to their laptops," said the chief executive officer. (article) Bill Power, November 4, 2008
- BI, CI, and KM — November 3, 2008
It is often spoken of BI (Business Intelligence), CI (Competitive Intelligence) or KM (Knowledge Management). BI is concerned with the analysis of one's own business, CI with competitors and KM is a common whole of tools and methods devoted to knowledge necessary as well for BI than CI . Our behaviour depends on the behaviours of our rivals considered either individually or as a whole : what they do, don't do or are likely to do in the future. Our plans are built on the perception we have of the intents of our competitors. (blog) Guy Benchimol, November 3, 2008
- Training intended for the intelligence community improves business negotiations — November 3, 2008
The combination of elicitation and MBTI preferences results in immediate indicators of how the subject prefers to take in information, and how they organize their lives and how they make decisions. Every person has some kind of "push to talk" button, a stimulus that gets them to offer additional information about themselves or their work. (blog) George Dennis, November 3, 2008
- What is intelligence? Let's find out — November 3, 2008
The question has come up within the last six months, "What is Intelligence?" While these discussions are often eloquent, they typically rely on persuasive argumentation rather than on empirical data. I want to change all that. I have designed a short online survey to gather some data about what kinds of activities are "intelligence-like" and which kinds are not. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, November 3, 2008
- AMIE - Morocco Association of Competitive Intelligence — November 2, 2008
The AMIE Morocoo Association of Competitive Intelligence (Economic Intelligence) organize the annual meeting of the Association in December at Casabalanca, Morocco. Several round tables dealing with "thinking another way" will open the field of application of Competitive Intelligence in various Regions of Morocco. November 3, 2008
- Hurray for election day and for opposition research! — November 2, 2008
When it comes to early warning, politicians and companies are more alike than either would like to believe. Both need to prepare for the unknown future. Each needs to be prepared with targeted marketing, the right messages for your audiences, anticipate the unanticipated threat that could set you back months or years (or in the case of a candidate, end your campaign altogether). (blog) Leonard Fuld, November 2, 2008
- Key to research success: asking the right questions — November 2, 2008
A key step in matching your ‘search' with your ‘find' is asking the right question at the start of the process. Competitive Intelligence professionals may call this ‘requirements' or key intelligence topics. I have developed a series of elements to cover in client conversations. Each element drives back to the same goal - to enable me to envision, describe and feel exactly what will satisfy the client's needs. (article) Jane John, November 2, 2008
- Who (really) owns your Linkedin contacts? — November 2, 2008
If you are a Linkedin Power User and (when it comes to recruiting/sourcing) swear by Linkedin, you definitely want to listen in to this podcast. Jim and Karen debate) over who owns your Linkedin contacts. If an employer pays for an account upgrade, does that account still belong to you after you leave the company? (podcast) Jim Stroud, November 2, 2008
October
- If they only knew: finding CI from the web sites of your competitors — October 31, 2008
it's almost impossible for a commercial body not to have some presence on the Web - if not via its own website, then through its employees' Web activities. The problem now is finding the nuggets of information that can give clues to what the company is doing. (article) Arthur Weiss, October 2008
- Patent bar is atwitter about Bilski decision — October 31, 2008
In a ruling with huge business implications, the appellate judges continued the Federal Circuit's recent trend toward narrowing the power of patents. In re Bilski is a case that asks whether a business method can be patented. In yesterday's 9-to-3 decision the court wrote that in order for a business method to receive patent protection, it would need to either "transform [an] article to a different state or thing" or be "tied to a particular machine." (blog) Dimitria Kessenides, October 31, 2008
- Patent technology landscapes — October 31, 2008
A patent technology landscape is a type of Technology Competitive Intelligence (TCI) report, which consists of visual representation of the analytic analysis of large patent dataset information in a particular technology domain. (blog) Vinod Kumar Singh, October 31, 2008
- 100 essential resources for doing business in China — October 30, 2008
China has emerged as an amazing economic power that brings plenty of opportunities for entrepreneurs and business people alike from outside China. If you plan to do business in China, there are several areas you should study prior to launching your business venture. The following resources include journals and newspapers, informative articles, blogs and podcasts, and free classes to help you learn about international business, Chinese culture. (blog) Alisa Miller, October 30, 2008
- Center library offers competitive intelligence — October 30, 2008
Information is critical to your small bioscience business, from research and development to business development. The North Carolina Biotechnology Center Library works to make access to information as affordable as possible. (blog) October 30, 2008
- How to determine source reliability on the internet — October 30, 2008
There are a number of great sites (mostly libraries) where there is good guidance on how to evaluate internet based sources. I intend, in this post, to list some of those sites and identify some up-and-coming tools. Finally, I want to highlight an important contribution to this literature that specifically pertains to intelligence analysis. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, October 30, 2008
- PIs in demand for companies — October 30, 2008
Local companies are increasingly turning to private investigators to spy on their competitors. Conservative estimates suggest that one out of every 20 local companies has had its intellectual property compromised in some way. In order to protect companies from becoming victims, it's important to establish a ‘culture of security' within the organizations and have employees understand the importance of correct policies and procedures. (blog) Mike Hamilton, October 30, 2008
- Twitter and maritime disasters — October 30, 2008
Twitter Search is like sitting in a dockside bar listening to enemy sailors plot some dastardly attack. If you understand that competitive intelligence isn't a guessing game like Battleship, then searching Twitter might help your marketing salvo sink a competitor's Battleship. Richard McEachin, October 30, 3008
- Why web data extraction service? — October 30, 2008
Tools are needed to manage all available information including the Web, subscription services, and internal data stores. Inefficient methods means the information analyst spends time finding, collecting, and aggregating data instead of analyzing data and gaining the competitive edge. A new generation of information extraction tools is markedly improving productivity for information analysts and application developers. (blog) N.A. October 30, 2008
- Don't just sit there, adapt! — October 29, 2008
I've been reading Leonard Fuld's book on conducting competitive assessments. This leads to my curious thought/statement/whatever you want to call it: when you see other forces that begin to change your traditional model, that changes the way consumers interact with your services, don't fight it, learn it and see how you can work with it. N.A. October 29, 2008
- Your brand in tatters — October 29, 2008
Consider whether the core problem is different from what we initially or traditionally think. Look at new metrics: for instance, if you rely on financial spreadsheets, look at competitive intelligence or customer interviews. Ask go-deeper questions. (blog) Mark Chussil, October 29, 2008
- Do you compete in a repertoire market? — October 28, 2008
Are you in a repertoire market? If so, how do you effectively compete against rivals? The traditional methods may not apply. Examine your own marketing plans vs. those of your key competitors to see which organizations may gain in today's tough market. (blog) Parmelee Eastman, October 28, 2008
- Harnessing the power of blogs survey — October 28, 2008
Harnessing the Power of Blogs survey, a BuzzLogic-sponsored research study of more than 2,000 online consumers in the US conducted by JupiterResearch. The study aimed to uncover changing behavior around blog discovery and consumption, how blogs factor into consumer purchase decisions and the nature of blog influence on buying behavior. Blogs are becoming trusted guides, steering users who are seeking very specific information to places of interest online. (press release) October 28, 2008
- Tune into the voice of your customer with voice mining — October 28, 2008
Understanding customer comments is a hot topic in the text mining world, and mining audio data is gathering momentum. Combining voice capture data with business intelligence, analytics and text mining provides valuable customer intelligence for marketing and competitive intelligence. This paper helps you understand how to take advantage of analytical technologies that combine data mining methods with emerging linguistic techniques to find patterns and meaning in the words captured in conversations and documents. (white paper) October 28, 2008
- Using IP for competitive intelligence — October 28, 2008
More and more in-house counsel and general practitioners are seeing competitive intelligence on intellectual property (IP) added to their responsibilities. At the Association of Corporate Counsel's (ACC) 2008 Annual Meeting in Seattle last week, West sponsored a session on intellectual property and competitive intelligence. (blog) N.A. October 28, 2008
- European CI Summit - From Rome 2008 to Amsterdam 2009 — October 27, 2008
We were not sure which language was spoken at this year's EU Summit because Rome turned into Babylon for a couple of days. This year's European Conference was, as expected, multi-national, multi-cultural, multi-background, multi-level with approx. 300 participants. High quality content, including: 1) two Italian breakthrough keynotes that demonstrated ‘glocalization', 2) great discussions at the Exhibition Hall, as well as informally, 3) lots of take home messages and "memories of the future", when embarking towards the 2009's EU Summit. (blog) Eduardo Bermudez, October 27, 2008
- Sales skills for strategic selling — October 27, 2008
Customers want to understand results. The only method to augment this issue is the creation of a client competitive intelligence program. Employ the use of investigative tools that promote the client's organizational comprehension, industry knowledge and even competitive trends and pressures. (blog) Drew Stevens, October 27, 2008
- Why you should have some form of competitive intelligence solution — October 27, 2008
How does competitive intelligence fit into the strategic planning process? Is competitor analysis identical to competitive intelligence? How can competitive intelligence become part of a corporate intranet strategy? How do we train our employees to beware of corporate espionage and protect our intellectual property?? How do we measure the effectiveness of our own CI process? (blog) Rick Allen, October 27, 2008
- Technology strategy - do your experts know what they don't know? — October 26, 2008
Knowing what is unknown sounds like a Zen koan, and perhaps it is. We admit that competitive technologies strategic blindness may be a difficult concept to grasp, but solving this riddle may mean the difference between success and failure for your company. Blindness, in the sense of not knowing what we don't know, is a root cause of serious defects in the strategic competitive intelligence gathering process. (blog) N.A. October 26, 2008
- Mining the internet for investment insights — October 24, 2008
A big part of my approach to understanding the market is to explore the edges, and one of the edges is information arbitrage-where social media analysis meets investment research. Think of a portfolio manager or analyst using social media intelligence to analyze investments and find trading signals. (blog) Nathan Gilliatt, October 24, 2008
- Enterprise mashups: the new face of your SOA — October 23, 2008
There's a vast wealth of publicly available information about your competition - key announcements, news, financial performance, partnering, and business development, even speeches and marketing campaigns. Imagine a mashup that captured this - one that included an RSS feed from Google News on key competitor search terms, and benchmarked pricing on key competitive products against your own. This competitive intelligence mashup would be tailored to your particular product or territory. (article) John Crupi, October 23, 2008
- Global business intelligence — October 23, 2008
In today's globalized environment, the need is to have global business intelligence. Corporate intelligence and related areas like pre-JV research, due diligence, financial status, competitive intelligence and the backgrounds of personnel, need to be investigated. Without all of the relevant facts and background information, decision makers may be putting themselves, their investors and their organizations at substantial financial, legal and reputational risk. (press release) October 23, 2008
- Google, a powerful mental eraser — October 23, 2008
Clearwell System creates an audit trail so queries can be rerun at any time. It generates an email thread so an attorney can see who wrote whom when and what was said. Look at this system for competitive intelligence, not just eDiscovery. Recommind search and eDiscovery interface uses a version of content processing that shares some features with Autonomy's system and with the latent semantic indexing system used in Inxight Software. (blog) Stephen Arnold, October 23, 2008
- Your private conversations ain't so private — October 23, 2008
It is not new that one should not conduct private business in public places, especially about legal issues. What IS new is the ability of technology to instantly spread your foibles worldwide, if someone equipped with that technology chooses to do so. I don't personally agree with his methodology, but I must admit I was morbidly fascinated by the results.... (blog) Sheila Scarborough, October 23, 2008
- Competitive intelligence (Intelligence Economique) in the Hauts de Seine — October 22, 2008
A Conference organized by the CCIP Chamber of Commerce and Industry of Paris, in the Hauts de Seine. This Conference will deal with Competitive Intelligence, applied tout the SMEs. The SMEs and the integration of process of Competitive Intelligence is particularly important in these days where the competition is larger than ever and the credit facilities more difficult to get. (blog) N.A. October 22, 2008
- Competitive intelligence for law firms — October 22, 2008
It is time that lawyers learned more about competitive intelligence, the benefits it offers law firms, and the guidelines a law firm should put in place to ensure all its competitive intelligence activities are conducted ethically. This One-Hour Briefing will address the business and ethical issues faced by law firms that develop and use competitive intelligence. (webcast) Practicing Law Institute, October 22, 2008
- Executives must re-establish their strategic radar — October 22, 2008
Tim Powell, a colleague and expert in competitive intelligence, sees the financial crisis as a complete failure of scientific management. We use numbers all the time because measurement is better than superstition. Numbers aren't perfect, but if we don't restore confidence in these techniques, the whole economy will suffer. (blog) Eric Garland, October 22, 2008
- Large law firms begin using LinkedIn groups — October 22, 2008
The value of Online Social Networks, such as LinkedIn are becoming more of a mainstay in the large law firm arena. I broke out my "researcher" cap and started delving through the LinkedIn Groups page to see how many of the top 100 law firms had some type of Alumni or Employee LinkedIn Group. (blog) Greg Lambert, October 22, 2008
- What to do with your marketing budget is cut — October 22, 2008
What should you do if your marketing budget is cut? Rather than responding hastily and arbitrarily just to show activity, I recommend performing a quick analysis of your situation to get a better understanding of your best business alternatives. Check what you competitors are up to. During difficult times, it's particularly important to consider a wide range of substitute products. (blog) Heidi Cohen, October 23, 2008
- Competitive intelligence — October 21, 2008
In order for a business to stay competitive it is necessary for it to constantly analyze the existing market for any relevant changes. This process is much more than merely gathering information. It is not only necessary to know where to go to find the data but it is also necessary to interpret it. There are different types of Competitive Intelligence tools and techniques. (blog) N.A. October 21, 2008
- Could we have been ready for the crisis? — October 21, 2008
"But surely looking for these warning signs (of which there were many) would have allowed governments to shore up soon-to-be faltering banking systems or at least ensure that adequate policy measures were in place that would help to guide the flailing, seemingly haphazard decisions that policy makers have made in the last few weeks." Such a system could be of huge value to businesses as well, and help them prepare for both a slowdown and liquidity problems. Sawka and Dragon examine the types of signals that could have been picked up and acted upon. N.A October 21, 2008
- How to not answer that question — October 21, 2008
The HBS researchers believe that this phenomenon occurs because listeners are limited in their capacity to absorb information coming at them, plus people correlate a confident manner with accurate answers. Conversational blindness occurs in part because real-world conversations occur as a continuous ebb and flow, leaving little time for people to reflect on how each statement links to each previous statement. There are several implications of this study for primary research. (blog) Parmelee Eastman, October 21, 2008
- How-To: Automatically translate foreign language blogs and websites — October 21, 2008
Part 1 contained background material on RSS feeds (and why they are so useful for intelligence analysis) and step by step instructions on how to set up Google Reader and get some interesting feeds into it. Today, I want to show you how to find interesting feeds in foreign languages and how to use Mloovi.com to get automaticaly translated feeds into Google Reader. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, October 21, 2008
- Mining your own back yard for supplier intelligence — October 21, 2008
Size matters when mining for supplier intelligence in your own back yard, and the bigger your business, the bigger your back yard. At the same time, any small enterprise can apply the practices I describe here for turning information into actionable intelligence for managing their supplier base. I've bounced between "competitive intelligence" and "supplier intelligence" because the latter term is still evolving. The principles are the same; the focus is different. (blog) Cynthia Garcia, October 21, 2008
- Opening general session at SCIP Rome — October 21, 2008
Ken Garrison (SCIP Executive Director) introduced Joe Goldberg (SCIP President) for opening remarks. Joe commented on how sure he was it would be a success since he had nothing to do with it. Milena Motta introduced the keynote speaker, Catia Bastioli, CEO of Novamont. Ms. Bastioli focused her remarks on the need for finding new orders of development as the great challenge of the future - how to create a systems-based economy as a transition from our product-based economy. (blog) Arik Johnson, October 21, 2008
- The importance of messaging in new product launches — October 21, 2008
Smart companies continually evaluate their competitors messaging and the intentions that they signal in the process. This is competitive intelligence at its best; honing and refining your brand to best take advantage in a highly competitive market, so that you can proactively respond to your rivals rather than react six or nine months later down the line as you assess the market data. Often by then it is too late and momentum has been lost. Sally Church, October 21, 2008
- Holding on to old business models — October 20, 2008
It's no secret that innovative competitors, new technologies, and regulatory conditions force industry leaders to adapt to new market realities. Why, then, when the writing is on the wall that paradigmatic shifts are occurring in an industry, do most market share leaders try to perpetuate obsolescing business models? (blog) Ken Sawka, October 20, 2008
- Reputations in crisis — October 20, 2008
When you find your company in the middle of a reputation crisis, your job is to identify the main roots of the problem and to provide a treatment of appropriate communication strategies which will help you soothe the negative effects. Consider deploying an online reputation management system, which will allow you to monitor all conversations on the Web related to your brand. Keep a good eye on your competition and how they react on your own troubles. Do not spare any energy on business/competitive intelligence. (blog) Ivana Kalay, October 20, 2008
- Are they gaining on you? Know the competition for spa success — October 19, 2008
The competitive intelligence gained by shopping the competition, helps managers identify strengths and weaknesses of both properties. Capitalizing on this knowledge to exceed their competitors' services will make your property the first choice. This knowledge can also be useful in helping the marketing department focus advertising campaigns. (blog) N.A. October 19, 2008
- Keeping an eye on the spies — October 18, 2008
Questions have also been triggered by other revelations in The Age this week about the work of private intelligence firms, who make their money by feeding companies information they say can't be garnered through normal channels. In the the world of corporate spying, no one is keeping tabs. Except, of course, the corporate spies themselves. (article) Nick McKenzie, October 18, 2008
- The value of Twitter for business and competitive intelligence — October 18, 2008
Recently I was interested in a recently approved drug and wondered kind of reaction it was getting. Searching on Twitter yielded some early signs of side effects and clinical trials in other cancers. Very useful stuff. (blog) Sally Church, October 18, 2008
- An intelligence revolution — October 17, 2008
Open sources, open systems, and advanced telecommunications technology are changing how any form of intelligence collection and reporting is done. These developments have also changed how we have to look at the Intelligence Cycle. The decision-makers and intelligence professionals must now come together within the same space and time to focus on the target in a collaborative model using easily configurable open systems. (blog) Richard McEachin, October 17, 2008
- Patent to strategic business and competitive intelligence — October 17, 2008
Effective Patent intelligence can provide information about technological or market-related developments, based on a study of global patent data. Patent Intelligence data may play a critical role for decision makers in tracking trends in innovation, identifying licensing and sales targets, anticipating market entry and business white spaces, and assessing competitor strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (blog) Vinod Singh, October 17, 2008
- Rethinking thinking in the era of asymmetric interpretation," — October 17, 2008
As we rush headlong into global economic uncertainty ahead, competitive issues (and competitive intelligence with it) is poised for quite a comeback. But it can swing the other way.The problem lies in the "either/or" extremism of looking at the problem as a continuum of perspective when in fact, what is required is a Hagelian notion of "both/and" in dealing with top-down, as well as, bottom-up issues of relevance in anticipating changes in the market environment. (blog) Arik Johnson, October 17, 2008
- State and local records research by Aurora WDC — October 17, 2008
Derek Johnson, just produced the podcast presentation on State & Local Public Records and its role in the competitive intelligence process. This is the second installment in Aurora's Intelligence Techniques Mini-Series.(blog) Zach Steltenpohl, October 17, 2008
- The intelligence CPA firm — October 17, 2008
The September Edition of CPA Practice Management Forum included an article by me on the role and process of market and competitive intelligence within CPA Firms. The ideas in the article are equally applicable to Law Firms and other Professional Services Firms. (blog) Paul Gladen, October 17, 2008
- Avoiding telemarketer voice — October 16, 2008
The goal of any good Competitive Intelligence project is to gain greater insight and win more deals. By talking to people in a more meaningful manner, you can get much better information than a bunch of rankings from 1 to 5 would ever be able to tell you. (blog) N.A. October 16, 2008
- Competitive intelligence departments — October 16, 2008
As far as communicating the importance to senior management of a CI (Competitive Intelligence) department, its importance really does matter based on the circumstances of the company and its competition. One way is to just start doing what you can with the resources you have. (blog) N.A. October 16, 2008
- Healthcare impact trends — October 16, 2008
Internal strengths and weakness, consumer wants/needs, and competitive intelligence need to be wrapped in a framework of market trends and influencers. Following is a summary of ten healthcare "impact trends" to place on your strategic radar screen. (blog) Lindsay Resnick, October 16, 2008
- Twitter as a competitive intelligence tool — October 16, 2008
Twitter has been gaining acceptance in the business world as new and legitimate business applications for the tool are discovered. Twitter has an online search utility...Twitter Search. This may be a place to check from time to time to see if anything revealing has been posted about a competitor that warrants further investigation. (blog) N.A. October 16, 2008
- Betting the company: welcome to the world of crisis management — October 15, 2008
In reality, most in corporate America believed implicitly in marketing, operations research and value of just muddling through, confident that existing corporate strengths would be enough to offset most competitors. Today, however, the competitive margin is narrower than ever before. Success and survival depend as well on the disciplined analysis of the competitive environment - and on the business intelligence needed to survive its challenge. (article) Jim Thomas, October 15, 2008
- Could an early warning system have helped predict our current financial woes? — October 15, 2008
The interesting question, however, isn't so much who was to blame, but more, what were the signposts along the way that, had they been identified beforehand, could have helped authorities avert the disaster. The really interesting question isn't what the early warning indicators might have looked like, it's why our leaders weren't looking for them to begin with. (blog) WJ Dragon, October 15, 2008
- Eddington quits British intelligence firm over conflict — October 15, 2008
PRIME Minister Kevin Rudd's chief infrastructure adviser, businessman Rod Eddington, has resigned from the advisory board of a secretive British corporate intelligence firm after accusations that the dual roles amounted to a conflict of interest. The resignation of Sir Rod, who is the head of Infrastructure Australia, comes after The Age reported yesterday that he had an unpaid role advising Hakluyt & Co. The firm, founded in the 1990s by former British intelligence officers, provides companies with high-level business and political intelligence on investment opportunities around the world. Hakluyt has been embroiled in several corporate spying scandals. (article) Nick McKenzie, October 15, 2008
- Expect the unexpected in this downturn — October 15, 2008
Think twice about predicting competitive behavior based on patterns of previous recessions. Your competitors may surprise you. (blog) Parmelee Eastman, October 15, 2008
- Once and future intelligence challenges: labor — October 15, 2008
As we contemplate the prospect of a sustained global downturn - be it recession or even depression - there are a number of issues which will raise their ugly heads in an environment where the forward press of globalization may no longer obscure underlying tensions of instability. (blog) N.A. October 15, 2008
- Best practices in implementing CI software — October 14, 2008
Some of the best practices that were shared by participants regarding how to successfully implement CI software were: Communicate the purpose and value of CI systems; Identify early adopters and use them to spread usage; The right content is more important than a lot of functionality; Integrations with third party products is crucial; Users want digested & filtered information. Email alert is an obvious "killer application" to promote; A well developed taxonomy is crucial for usability. Working habits are hard to change and is not done over-night. October 14, 2008
- Blue Ocean strategy and cancer drug portfolios - thinking outside the box — October 14, 2008
The old fashioned approach to portfolio analysis and competitive intelligence involves a bottom up gathering of data to derive current approaches and make decisions on what your competitors are thus doing right here, right now. It also leads to blinkered, narrow thinking that merely repeats what has already been done before. (blog) Sally Church, October 14, 2008
- Google launches new blog search in China — October 14, 2008
When Google announced its new, clustered results on the Google Blog Search home page, they promised support for more languages "in the coming months." Well, less than two weeks later, the clustered home page has launched on Google China Blog Search. This is the first non-English launch of the new blogsearch interface. (blog) Matt McGee, October 14, 2008
- Profile: Justin Hibbard, private investigator — October 14, 2008
Our clients have been hedge funds, buyout firms, venture capital firms, tech companies, startups and attorneys, and we do everything from background checks to competitive intelligence - like working with an established company that wants to learn more about particular competitors or areas of their market. (blog/interview) Connie Loizos, October 14, 2008
- Six free tools for online reputation management — October 14, 2008
Online reputation management consists of tracking your brand and reacting when necessary. Though sometimes tedious, brand monitoring can save you from a potential disaster when someone cites your name in an article that misrepresents you. Aside from protection, it can help you proactively join conversations around your topic. Below are the top 6 tools for your online reputation management program. (blog) Dan Schawbel, October 14, 2008
- Trademark protection using AdGooroo — October 14, 2008
In my last Industrial Strength post I wrote about how to use tools like Hitwise to protect your brand. I am going to explore this topic a bit more, but this time show some of the unique features of AdGooroo. October 14, 2008
- Actual environmental intelligence in history and practice — October 13, 2008
Early environmental intelligence was for the most part less concerned with potential damage from human action as much as the effective exploitation of natural resources, and understanding the economic aspects of industries in these areas. Like many aspects of the intelligence profession over the years, a number of these historical roles are simply no longer the domain of the intelligence community. But the core foundations of intelligence tasks no doubt remain present. For this reason, many of these modern functions may merit closer study, with a particular focus on areas of parallel evolution which may offer benefit to the intelligence community as a whole. (blog) N.A. October 13, 2008
- How can I gather competitive information on private companies? — October 13, 2008
Regardless of how you gather the information, and what information you gather, the important part of competitive intelligence is what you do with that information. Even when the companies are public, prices are widely known, and vast amounts of information is available on the products, the challenge is still the same - to read between the lines, try to figure out what the competition is doing (and is going to do), and use that to adjust your strategy as needed. (blog) Jeff Lash, October 13, 2008
- Interview with Bill McCloskey of Email Data source — October 13, 2008
We monitor the world of email marketing and archive the email marketing efforts of over 25,000 brands and publishers. We have a database of over 11 million marketing campaigns that our clients can access for competitive intelligence, idea generation, affiliate monitoring, brand monitoring, new business pitches, and sales leads. We add nearly a million new campaigns to our database each month. (blog/interview) Jeff Rohrs, October 13, 2008
- Learn about competitive intelligence — October 13, 2008
There are quite a few Competitive Intelligence Methods we use when attempting to decide which vertical or markets we want to compete in. And before we do, we like to analyze what we're up against. Here are a few awesome techniques we use almost every day we are working on Virtual Real Estate. Before we enter any vertical, we need to take a look at 2-3 unbeaten Enterprises in that market and drill down and analyze what we can find on them. (blog) N.A. October 13, 2008
- Still trying to understand Twitter? — October 13, 2008
I was trying to explain Twitter to some folks in my social media session who weren't familiar with it. Since I'm a big fan of analogies, I spent the week before the show trying to come up with a quick and easy way to explain Twitter. The thing that kept popping into my head was the idea of a wall of Post-it notes. (blog) Jennifer Laycock, October 13, 2008
- Using market intelligence part 3 of 3 — October 13, 2008
Here we have the final part (3 of 3) of our podcast on Using Market Intelligence. The podcast dicusses ways in which marketing intelligence and competitive intelligence can be used to add value to a business, and is based on a white paper. It focuses on how market intelligence can work for you, and ways to ensure that you get maximum ROI from your market intelligence. (blog/podcast) Matthew Harrison October 13, 2008
- Competitor intranet wiki case study — October 12, 2008
To stay competitive, the online brokerage firm Scottrade must constantly keep on top of competitors' new product offerings, commission schedules, trading platforms, special promotions and much more. The Competitive Intelligence Analysis (CIA) Wiki was created to allow staff to update the information directly, rather than relying on a central team to maintain the content. (blog) Toby Ward, October 13, 2008
- Listening strategically — October 12, 2008
Usually, we're most interested in communicating outwardly; getting our messages out to others. But finding ways to hear what's going on around us can be just as important. Let's start by identifying three different types of listening we do. The third type, a less rigorous approach to competitive intelligence, one that falls somewhere between simple listening and formal competitive intelligence. Call it strategic listening, a relatively simple way to stay on top of issues that affect your organization. (blog) N.A. October 12, 2008
- Technology management and patent intelligence — October 12, 2008
Patent documents can be used as reservoirs of information that can be analyzed to assess the competitive position and expected competitive moves. The patenting history of a competitor reveals the technology road map they are following and provides insight as to future moves. Patent data analysis can also be used to reveal the strengths and weaknesses of the competition's technological position. (blog) Vinod Singh, October 12, 2008
- Protect your organizations proprietary information — October 11, 2008
In addition to the legal dangers, are those surrounding the loss of proprietary advantage through the sharp practice of intelligence gathering by competitors and even industrial espionage. Today, businesses in many run of the mill industries are clearly at risk. Worse yet, many still do not realize it even after they have been stung. Let's look at a simple 5 Point Set of Policies that can effectively protect your organization within just a few weeks and at little or no cost. (blog) John Di Frances, October 11, 2008
- Using smart web2.0 tools to redefine pharma CI — October 10, 2008
As the pharma market becomes extremely competitive with increased competition, fewer new approvals, generic threats with blockbuster patent expiries and major layoffs, making the marketing dollars go further is an imperative. One way to do this is through smart and judicious use of competitive and market intelligence. These approaches allow the collection of primary and secondary data sources, including key opinion leader interviews, to help form a strategic picture of the marketplace or answer critical questions that drive the brand forward efficiently and cost effectively. (blog) Sally Church October 10, 2008
- Competitive intelligence in India — October 9, 2008
I've posted the latest episode of the Competitive Intelligence Podcast. It's an interview with Karthik Vijayakumar on conducting CI in India. This is the first of my podcasts on CI in the BRIC countries. (blog/podcast) August Jackson, October 9, 2008
- Competitor analysis is an essential business tool — October 9, 2008
To complete a comprehensive competitive analysis, you must know the competitive landscape. You must know who your competitors are. Prepare an overview of your competitors, their strengths and weaknesses. Position each competitor's product against your products. Understand the customer needs and preferences that are you competing to meet. (blog) Kris Carrie, N.D.
- Improving sentiment analysis — October 9, 2008
Sentiment analysis is a hot area right now in text analytics. In a short survey Hurwitz & Associates conducted this past summer, Voice of the Customer and Competitive Intelligence were the top two areas of interest noted by end-users planning to deploy text analytics. Both of these would utilize sentiment analysis. (blog) Fern Halper, October 9. 2008
- Intelligence and financial crisis, historical edition — October 9, 2008
The debate over intelligence failures in the current financial crisis thus continues to attract our attention. It is clear, however, that good intelligence served financial institutions well in earlier times. Regardless of the means by which it might have been obtained in accordance with the standards of the day, the precedent of relying upon intelligence to avert financial crisis has long been a maxim within the financial industry. (blog) N.A. October 9, 2008.
- Interview with Mark Chussil — October 8, 2008
A business war game can be as simple as a two-hour conversation around a conference-room table where people are doing their SWOT [Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats] analysis. It can also be as elaborate as a multi-day program run off-site with 100 people and costing hundreds of thousands of dollars. (blog/interview) Sean Campbell, October 8,2008
- Mr. Fuld goes to Washington — October 7, 2008
Confirmation bias is a trap that people and organizations fall into when they subconsciously gather data designed to prove a hypothesis they already hold as true. A close relative of confirmation bias is hindsight bias. Some argue that they are one in the same. They certainly function in a similar fashion when companies do something as simple as only hiring execs who have experience in their particular industry or read their competitive intelligence reports not asking themselves how many ways the assumptions made could be wrong. (blog) N.A. October 7, 2008
- Top five ways trademark filings can boost CI — October 7, 2008
When we hear the word ‘trademark', we often think of catchy jingles and lawsuits. But, trademark filing data can be a marketer's friend. It can offer big clues about what your competition is up to and can illustrate new marketing trends. Here are five reasons to incorporate monitoring trademark filings into your overall marketing strategy. (blog) N.A. October 7, 2008
- Utilizing CI tools for PPC marketing — October 7, 2008
Competitive Intelligence is the process of acquiring and studying competitive data from sources that are widely available, in order to help achieve the main aim of the organization. CI assimilates random information into accurate, relevant and useful knowledge about competitors, capabilities, performance and position. (blog) N.A. October 7, 2008
- Competitor analysis is an essential business tool — October 6, 2008
To complete a comprehensive competitive analysis, you must know the competitive landscape. You must know who your competitors are. Prepare an overview of your competitors, their strengths and weaknesses. Position each competitor's product against your products. Understand the customer needs and preferences that are you competing to meet. (blog) N.A. October 6, 2008
- Fifty tools to help you blogging — October 6, 2008
Blogging is more than just posting your views and any serious blogger would agree to that note hands down. There are many specialized tools available on the Internet that can enhance your website to a whopping extent and the only way to know what is going to work to your profits' is to just try them out! Here is a list of 50 useful blogging tools (other than brains, creativity and the will to work!) that will help you in picking up your bet. (blog) Jai Verma October 6, 2008
- IAFIE essay competition — October 6, 2008
The International Association for Intelligence Education (IAFIE) is pleased to announce its Essay Competition for 2009. This competition promotes IAFIE's goal of providing a forum for the communication and exchange of ideas and information for those interested in and concerned with intelligence education.
- Phone research, the prequel — October 6, 2008
Most articles dealing with telephone research focus on what happens once you start calling. However, many, if not most, issues need to be considered and resolved earlier in the process. So let's look behind the curtain at what you need to do before you ever pick up the phone. You have to know in advance what you can say (and can't), who you can call (and shouldn't), what you can offer (and mustn't), and who might be able to help. (article) Risa Sacks, October 2008
- Revolution in intelligence affairs — October 6, 2008
The changes that modern telecommunications technologies and their associated applications have brought to the world are only the most visible of those that are already affecting intelligence affairs. Three other trends, the ascendency of the "open," the collapse of the so-called intelligence cycle and the changing perception of intelligence in the public eye, are likely to completely revolutionize intelligence over the next 5-10 years. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, October 6, 2008
- Talent intelligence during the onboarding process — October 6, 2008
For years now, thought leaders have been advising organizations to embed formal competitive-intelligence-gathering activities into theironboarding processes , yet few actually have. When a recruiter learns of actions in a competitor, rarely do the managers who could leverage such information hear of it. (blog) N.A. October 6, 2008
- Using market intelligence — October 6, 2008
Following on from last weeks podcast - today we have part 2 of our 3 part podcast on Using Market Intelligence. The podcast dicusses ways in which marketing intelligence and competitive intelligence can be used to add value to a business. This episode of the podcast focuses mainly on competitor intelligence and how it can benefit your business. (blog/ podcast) Matthew Harrison October 6, 2008
- LinkedIn for competitive intelligence — October 5, 2008
LinkedIn insiders know that you can use the site's information for more than job, sales, and partnering leads - you can find out what others are up to as well. I'd like to share an article I found where a reporter does just that. (blog) N.A. October 5, 2008
- Competitive differentiation: the battle for customer perception — October 4, 2008
Part II of this two-part series discussing competitive differentiation focuses on competitive comparisons and how to take action with this information. One of the key goals of competitive analysis is to arm your salesforce with the information they need to keep sales conversations going, including proof behind the statements. To achieve this goal, take a three-step approach: gather data, quantify differences, and apply the "so what?" test. (article) Ted Turner, October 4, 2008
- Calling all small businesses: contact centers improve bottom line — October 3, 2008
Often the cause of a customer's complaint goes no further than the agent's screen. Whether callers are irate, neutral or happy, companies are missing a golden opportunity if they fail to mine their call center's constant flow of customer feedback for ideas - from product and process improvements, to new product ideas, to competitive intelligence. (blog) Michael Margolis, October 3, 2008
- Could your million-dollar idea be a viable business opportunity? — October 3, 2008
When properly executed, due diligence can deliver strategic and commercial intelligence from the entire value chain: suppliers and critical supply-chain data; the structure, size and growth of the market, including the competitive environment; and key potential customers and their purchasing criteria. Information about all of these factors can help business people make better and more informed decisions. (blog) Beth Wilson, October 3, 2008
- Welcome all to LAFS — October 3, 2008
Welcome all to the Lisbon Academy of Future Studies. The goal I want to achieve with this blog is to create a community where we all can share insights about strategy and competitiveness across multiple industries; we will address topics such as Future Studies, scenarios, perception, competitiveness, early warning systems and competitive intelligence. (blog) Pedro Diegues, October 3, 2008
- The paranoid still survive — October 2, 2008
CEO intelligence needs are more complex than ever. Corporate CI practitioners have to maintain vigilance against a wide array of risks. Intelligence reports and approaches to strategy that harness this paranoia -- by generating plausible future scenarios and corresponding strategy options -- can be highly successful. (blog) Karen Rothwell, October 2, 2008
- Thoughts on Elluminate session — October 2, 2008
Staying on top of the news about your organization is very important, and RSS solves the problem. He showed how easy it is to provide a quality current awareness to one's organization by doing a simple search on news aggregators, you can retrieve recent articles. He also noted the importance of the RSS feed to competitive intelligence. (blog) Ethel Dimapasok, October 2, 2008
- CI and competitor analysis of paid and organic search marketing activities — October 1, 2008
Competitive intelligence is an important task that Internet marketers should not take lightly. Knowing what your competition is doing is imperative in the offline world; the same is true online. Online marketers have an advantage over their offline peers: eMarketers can get data about their competitors' marketing activities. This data is accessible at various levels of accuracy and detail on the Internet and you don't have to break any laws to get it. There are a number of tools and services available to help you with competitive analysis. (article) Carsten Cumbrowski, N.D.
- CI drives more corporate decisions, new survey shows — October 1, 2008
In a classic good news/bad news report on Competitive Intelligence (CI), more U.S. corporations now use it to drive critical strategic and tactical decisions than ever before. But the same survey, conducted by consultants Outwards Insights, found that fully one-fourth (24%) of respondents still don't have a structured way to deliver intelligence to decision-makers in their organizations. (press release) October 1. 2008
- Savvy competitor analysis and keyword research your competitors aren't doing — October 1, 2008
Remember that the competitive landscape is always fluid. Your biggest competitor next quarter may be an unknown today. Given the advent of global business markets and the mixing of industries that globalization has created, there is almost no way to anticipate what "the next big thing" will be in your industry. (blog) Dave Davies, October 1, 2008
September
- 44% of second hand mobile devices still contain sensitive data — September 30, 2008
According to a recent research conducted by BT, the Edith Cowan University, and the University of Glamorgan (Wales), 44% of the 160 second-hand devices that they tested, still contained sensitive data such as bank accounts, board meetings, business plans, and financial data. (blog) Dancho Danchev, September 30, 2008
- Competitive intelligence tools — September 30, 2008
Avinash Kaushik is a web analytics expert, evangelist, blogger and author who has some really great posts on his blog about competitive intelligence tools. His blog is called Occam's Razor. His postings are tutorials that can help you to extract some great insights about a competitor's online activities. (blog) N.A. September 30, 2008
- Have you fed your creativity lately? — September 30, 2008
We here at the Geeklawblog discuss a lot on the topics of Knowledge Management, Marketing, Research and Competitive Intelligence. On the surface, these ideas tend to mean the "repackaging of existing data into usable information for the benefit of those in our firm." In other words, we attempt to create a way to make our "results" greater than the sum of our "parts". But perhaps the key word in the previous sentence isn't "results" or "parts", but rather it is the word "create." (blog) Greg Lambert September 30, 2008
- TIPO enhances free search options for Taiwanese patent information — September 30, 2008
Taiwanese Patent Office (TIPO) added a number of new features to the search options in its online "TWPAT" database. The English search interface in particular has been enhanced making it easier for Western users to access Taiwanese patent information. (blog) Vinod Singh, September 30, 2008
- Vacant intelligence posts at the start of the financial crisis — September 30, 2008
Such a clear alignment with accepted best practices in the field we believe also points back to the failure of the current paradigm. It is not sufficient to relegate warning to a simply structured occasional effort timed to coincide with some window of management attention. Warning has to be baked into the intelligence shop's most basic foundations, alongside opportunity / action analysis. The very nature of warning's tradecraft must also be re-assessed, to revisit once again the process by which scenarios are created and indicators modeled. (blog) N.A. September 30, 2008.
- CI Pro interview with Christopher Batio — September 29, 2008
Our CI function rests within our Marketing and Business Development Department, but we often work with our Library Research Services Team for support. I report to the Director of Marketing and the CMO of our firm. (blog) Ann Lee Gibson, September 29, 2008
- Financial crisis and changing paradigms of warning intelligence — September 29, 2008
These recent economic events very much represent intelligence surprise. And the rapid contagion dynamics within the financial markets prove that the events are likewise beyond the traditional scope of competitive intelligence, where it is rare that analysis takes into account such sweeping changes across the landscape and its players. The underlying causes are complex, but are clearly rooted - at least in part - in the lack of systematic warning intelligence coverage of the issues. (blog) N.A. September 29, 2008
- Lap top trade in — September 29, 2008
At a trade show, you probably have customer records, quotes, presentations, deals you are working on, your address book. e-mail and personal information you think is hidden but a good hacker can easily interpret. Just as I advise clients to clean out their wallets to the bare minimum and pack sparingly, so too, do I advise you to strip down the laptop. This is especially important if you plan to use your laptop as a demonstration piece in the booth. You don't want to give prospects access to everything. (blog) Julia O'Connor, September 29, 2008
- Prudence and analysis — September 29, 2008
Anyone who has a passing acquaintance with competitive intelligence knows that analysis lies at its heart. Analysis is everything CI professionals do with information they gather to identify patterns and produce intelligence their decision-making clients use to improve their decisions. (blog) Ann Lee Gibson, September 29, 2008
- Checking out Usernames; people finding and research — September 28, 2008
I noticed while Usernamecheck isn't perfect all the time, it has on several occasions for me thus far uncovered good free competitive intelligence to information on talent. (blog) N.A. September 28, 2008
- Ebook on blog marketing — September 27, 2008
One of the biggest challenges facing your company is that, like it or not, your competitors are or will be using blogs. Not only that, but by scouring the blogosphere they can get all kinds of competitive intelligence on what you're doing, what your customers think about you and your products, and where your company and the industry are going. (blog) N.A. September 27, 2008
- Ken Sawka, CI guru — September 27, 2008
Speculative analysis has a relationship to signposts. Signposts are indicative of future conditions that have impacts. They come from Indications and Warnings, which is a way of thinking that was originally invented by the military. Competitive intelligence professionals work with strategists to compare information to indicators. When there's a match, action networks should be activated immediately. (blog) Anika Savage, September 27, 2008
- Some corporate boards see benefits of scenario planning — September 25, 2008
A few corporate boards are using scenario planning to better prepare for crises. For example, Reynolds American Inc. held a mock board meeting in July that simulated the death of the chairman and CEO in a plane crash. (blog) Mitch Betts, September 25, 2008
- Benchmarking — September 24, 2008
While it may involve learning from one's competitors, benchmarking is more focused and narrowly defined than competitive analysis. Competitive analysis can be used in conjunction with benchmarking to identify gaps and provide strategic direction; however, benchmarking itself measures specific performance gaps between a company and its competitors. (blog) N.A., September 24, 2008
- CI pro interview with Jan Rivers of Dorsey & Whitney — September 24, 2008
This is the second in a series of interviews I'm conducting with CI professionals who work in law firms. My goal is to understand better their backgrounds, skills, reporting structures, contributions, and outlooks. (blog) Ann Lee Gibson, September 24, 2008
- Cold calling is going extinct — September 24, 2008
If you are patient and just keep listening you will be amazed at what you can find out. Over time you can recognize patterns and perhaps most importantly, trends. Cold calling sharpened my wit and powers of observation and directly led to projects where I would do CI or checking out the competition. Cold callers always know which way the wind blows because they are always taking the pulse from the street. I got to the point I could just about find out whatever I needed to know about a company simply by walking in and asking a few simple questions and appearing interested. (blog) Chris Squillace, September 24, 2008
- Do only for-profit firms use CI? — September 24, 2008
Competitive intelligence is not just for firms seeking to make profits. CI techniques can be used to develop an understanding of what "competitor" non-profits or similar entities are doing. Instead of using the information to "beat" the competitor, the information is used to understand the state of the art in non-profit organizational structures, creating awareness, generating revenue, and achieving goals. (blog) Parmelee Eastman, September 24, 2008
- How to recognize a blogging service — September 24, 2008
The word "blog" is often used a stereotype for sites that offer daily logs. But in essence, blog is a platform that most sites are built on these days. You can run diary blogs, news sites, and even corporate sites with blogging platforms such as Wordpress. But the good thing about services such as Wordpress is that you can easily figure out who's running them. (blog) "Panah" September 24, 2008
- Online education and the new literature of intelligence — September 24, 2008
Virtual education has for too long been an ignored but game changing force in the professionalization of intelligence. A significant percentage of those attending virtual courses are currently serving professionals. These students bring decades of practical experience to the classroom, and challenge educators to make theory relevant in ways that distinctly improve learning outcomes (blog) N.A. September 24, 2008
- The competitor analysis tool — September 24, 2008
La Piana's Competitor Analysis Tool helps you compare your nonprofit to other organizations in your market competing for the same resources. The comparison helps you identify your nonprofit's strengths and those of competitors. It also reveals areas where your nonprofit may want or need to strengthen its organizational capacity. This comparison helps clarify your nonprofit's competitive advantage. (blog) Becky Andrews, September 24, 2008
- The perfect law firm retreat — September 24, 2008
Your staff are your best source for competitive intelligence. Want to know what your competitors are up to? Ask your staff. They talk with their peers at other firms, and they know what's happening in your slice of the legal market. They also know (probably before you) when and why your clients won't pay their bills. (blog) Matthew Homann, September 24, 2008
- What kind of intelligence job are you looking for? — September 24, 2008
A poll asking "What kind of intelligence job are you looking for?" I don't check the site very often but was surprised to see today that some 383 people had answered the question. You can see the results below. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, September 24, 2008
- Ask the right questions — September 23, 2008
In anything we do that involves evaluating ideas, planning, or making strategic decisions, we should work with a checklist of critical questions. We need to make sure people consider the right things, ask the right questions, and avoid mental bad habits and thinking traps. ( blog/article) John Mahaffie, September 23, 2008,
- Competitive market analysis on a shoestring budget — September 23, 2008
No matter how much you think you know about your competition, no matter how much experience you have in your chosen field, without a clear understanding of the market for your business you might as well be driving blind. Big companies spend thousands of dollars to conduct competitive market analysis, but fortunately for those of you on a tight budget, you can do quite a bit of this yourself, without spending much at all. (article) Steve Pick, N.D.
- Corporate espionage allegations reveal storm in a teacup at pharma conference — September 23, 2008
There was a behind-the-scenes drama at the Pharma Competitive Intelligence conference in New Jersey last week involving allegations that the organizer of the conference engaged in "misappropriation of company assets" But a close look reveals that the allegations have less to do with corporate espionage and more to do with a gossip-mongering spat between rival conference organizers. (blog) Jim Edwards, September 23, 2008
- Web 2.0 tools demand a cautious approach — September 23, 2008
As companies look to cut costs and manage projects involving far-flung staff, many are investigating wikis, file-sharing services, and other consumer technologies to deliver Web-based collaboration inexpensively. Bringing these tools into a corporate environment presents thorny issues, however. Chief among them is security. (blog) N.A. September 23, 2008
- Anticipating corporate crises — September 22, 2008
The board of Reynolds American Inc. takes scenario planning to an extreme. During a mock board meeting in July, directors and executives of the tobacco maker simulated the death of Chairman and Chief Executive Susan M. Ivey in a plane crash. (article) Joann Lublin, Wall Street Journal. September 22, 2008
- Technology: landscapes — September 21, 2008
Patent Technology Landscapes are the high-level visualization of larger set of patent dataset precise to a select technology. These map a larger amount of breaks to greater amount of a small amount of detailed technological segments to visualize the technology co-relation, technology diversification and a large amount of technology trends. (blog) N.A. September 21, 2008
- Good information leads to good decisions — September 20, 2008
When decisions need to be made, information, data, and facts should normally win out over theory, speculation, or feeling. So how do product managers acquire good information - or at least the best information available? This means tapping into customer feedback, analyst reports, competitive intelligence, financial information, third-party publications, and any other source of data which can be compiled and intelligently applied within a decision framework. (blog) Jon Hiles, September 20, 2008
- Interview with Jim O'Brien, Regence — September 20, 2008
Jim O'Brien is a competitive intelligence practitioner with experience in the financial services industry and the insurance arena. Interview topics: What it takes to be a good Competitive Intelligence practitioner; The two fundamental types of CI people, and why you need both; How people happen into the CI field, and why there's no conventional training for it; How CI practice fits into various industries. (article). September 20, 2008
- Online social networking more popular in Singapore than overseas — September 20, 2008
Singaporeans frequent social networking sites and forums as well as blogs and personal websites more often than Australians and Americans, according to competitive intelligence service Hitwise, which measured the leading industry websites Singaporeans visited for a week in March. (blog) 'Alex,' September 20, 2008
- Business war games — September 19, 2008
Ben Gilad has just released his newest book on "Business War Games: How Large, Small and New Companies Can Vastly Improve Their Strategies and Outmaneuver the Competition." The Career Press, Inc., 2008. 222 pages, $19.99. A review of this book will appear in the November/December issue of Competitive Intelligence Magazine.
- People inside your business do more damage — September 19, 2008
Businesses spend large amounts to protect their business from external threats like criminal actions, property damage, customer complaints, and other environmental incidents. However, reading the newspapers each day you see that businesses get hurt mostly by their own staff who do the wrong thing intentionally or unintentionally. (blog) Paul Baker, September 19, 2008
- Alexa, Alexa, Alexa — September 18, 2008
Not a week goes by that I do not have someone bring up Alexa reporting. Alexa is a website traffic measuring service that aims to provide free competitive intelligence to the masses. My problem with Alexa is that it's data is far from accurate. Here are a few examples. (blog) N.A. September 18, 2008
- Classic consulting quotes: the following Tuesday — September 18, 2008
Timmy's search for CI on a CPG competitor to the client has been found out, and he was chewed out over the phone by the VP of the target firm's sales & marketing organization. The head partner defused the situation, with two quotes that nicely tie this long story together. Quote #1: To the angry VP of the target firm: "I'm very sorry. This was a rogue consultant, and he will be dealt with appropriately." Quote #2: To Timmy: "Don't worry about it. Listen, for these next round of phone calls, we want you to focus on this other company. Try not to give out your phone number." (blog) September 18, 2008
- HUMINT and why it is important to an IT leader — September 18, 2008
HUMINT, a syllabic abbreviation of the words HUMan INTelligence, refers to intelligence gathering by means of interpersonal contact, as opposed to the more technical intelligence gathering disciplines. NATO defines HUMINT as "a category of intelligence derived from information collected and provided by human sources." some of the best information obtained is still the result of two people talking directly to each other in a local environment. (blog) Michael Kohlman, September 18, 2008
- Information intelligence tools, imorph — September 18, 2008
There are some things that money can't buy and Google cannot deliver in the first search result page. So, if your fortune or business depends on the availability of information on the right time, it is time to say hello to information intelligence tools. A talk with Dorai Thodla, founder and CEO of imporh.com (blog) N.A. September 18, 2008
- Intelligence professionals and educators take note — September 18, 2008
High speed wireless telecommunications, an ever expanding sensor network to provide information and feedback and the expected advances in computing power will likely combine with this wave of virtual worlds natives to blur not just en tertainment but everything. The educational and intelligence landscapes will not be immune; they will change completely in this augmented version of what we call reality. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, September 18, 2008
- The power of myths to (mis)interpret dramatic events — September 18, 2008
Neither analysts nor decision-makers are immune from the influence of mythology to interpret dramatic events. Although analysts might be justified in (and get away with) harnessing the power of myths when presenting actionable intelligence to decision-makers, we must guard against letting myths influence the hypotheses we test and the evidence we gather and consider (or fail to gather and consider). (blog) Ann Lee Gibson, September 18, 2008
- CI lessons from F&S's 2008 Growth & Innovation Congress — September 17, 2008
The same stigma that CI is more about data than insight and analysis seem to continue to plague the profession. The burden is on us to change this misperception. (blog) Karen Rothwell, September 17, 2008
- Government says Phorm is phine — September 17, 2008
The UK government has said the incredibly controversial Phorm software can be rolled out in the UK - but users must be told first and allowed to opt-out if they wish. The Phorm system, which anonymously tracks your internet usage so it can offer you targeted advertising, was secretly tested on a small group of BT users without their knowledge. Gary Cutlack, September 17, 2008
- Beware the trade show guy offering beer — September 16, 2008
Before you man your company's booth at the big industry shin-dig, you might have a shot of paranoia to go with your company's Koolaid... I'm meeting with the other charter members of the International Business Development Council. One of my fellow leaders is Ken Garrison, and the first thing he hands me when we meet is SCIP's fascinating book, "Conference And Trade Show Intelligence" which essentially maps out how you can outflank your rivals by chatting up trade show booth monkeys and getting them to blab. (blog) Jonathan Gilliam, September 16, 2008
- CI not at the table? — September 16, 2008
The chairman of Frost reported some results from their survey of over 500 CEOs worldwide. The results showed that CEOs see competitive strategy as their number one issue. At the same time only 37% reported having competitive intelligence people involved with strategy. The chair's take on the dichotomy was that CI people tend to be data gatherers and not strategic thinkers. (blog) Jon Lowder, September 16, 2008
- CI pro interview with Bill Fiora of Nixon Peabody — September 16, 2008
This is the first in a series of interviews I'm conducting with CI pros who work in law firms. My goal is to understand better their backgrounds, skills, reporting structures, contributions, and outlooks. (blog) Ann Lee Gibson, September 16, 2008.
- Ethics in intelligence, security and immigration — September 16, 2008
The University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg, Texas, will be hosting this conference November 20-22, 2008. Papers are invited on any subject related to ethical issues in the fields of intelligence gatherin, global security and immigration. The call for papers deadline is October 1.
- OC CIO roundtable minutes — September 16, 2008
CI (competitive intelligence) is a systematic and ethical program for gathering, analyzing and managing external information about your competitors, which can affect your company's performance. There are many sources of CI. The problem is not lack of information but the ability to use it effectively. (blog) Jim Sutter, September 16, 2008
- Sales explorer: a new path for sales training — September 16, 2008
Primary Intelligence has just launched a new product called Sales Explorer which gives companies the intelligence they need to help any salesperson get the direction they need for any sales scenario they face. Sales Explorer takes real sales situations in which your company has competed and extracts key points of the decision process for any sales scenario that matches the demographics of a new sales situation. (blog) Mark Larson, September 16, 2008
- Succeeding in this economic cataclysm — September 16, 2008
Businesses must not switch into panic mode. They should do their competitive intelligence to keep tabs on their competitors' movements and strive to engage their customers, in the face of their consumers tightening of their belts. The collapse of Lehman Brothers and the quick catch of Merrill Lynch shows that behemoths can go down without much warning, and the competition which are more financially sound now have opportunities at bargain prices and can fundamentally reshape their industries to their advantage. (blog) N.A. September 16, 2008
- Succeeding in this economic cataclysm — September 16, 2008
It is the lean midsize companies that can avoid panic mode, keep talented employees with security, and focus on products that can survive and thrive. They should do their competitive intelligence to keep tabs on their competitors' movements and strive to engage their customers, in the face of their consumers tightening of their belts. (blog) N.A. September 16. 2008
- Wikipedia, Wikiscanner and WikiLeaks — September 16, 2008
Typing in a search statement in Wikiscanner allows you to check the actual IP address, date and time when a person logged on to Wikipedia and then rewrote or deleted entries on the 2.83 million English-language entries there. Here is a link to “WikiScanner FAQ page” http://virgil.gr/31.html written by Mr. Griffith. (blog) Kathleen Crea, September 16, 2008
- Document marking and handling systems in private firms — September 15, 2008
We particularly like several of the marking structures we have seen in firms that do business across the Commonwealth countries. Such markings, including "Most Sensitive" or "Commercial in Confidence", are clearly observable yet do not invoke the same considerations as "Company Confidential" or more directly copied national security marking systems. (blog) N.A. September 15, 2008
- Market landscaping for competitive intelligence — September 15, 2008
Competitive intelligence for viewing a market landscape, helping in making strategic decisions, includes and filtering by litigation propensity. A query against a specific technology can result in an interesting set of data. To gain even further insight, the ability to filter based on the litigation history of companies could indicate how protective some players in the particular market landscape are or even the market in general. (blog) Vinod Kumar Singh, September 15, 2008
- Spy business — September 14, 2008
A few months ago, Bob Brenner was asked to tail Steve Jobs. A certain hedge fund wanted him to uncover the truth about Jobs' health after the Apple C.E.O. appeared frail and gaunt at Apple's July iPhone launch. Depending on the feedback, the hedge fund would shift its positions in Apple accordingly. Brenner, who works for Kroll, the $1 billion corporate intelligence consulting firm, said thanks but no thanks, citing ethical concern. As head of Kroll's business intelligence group in the U.S. and Canada, Brenner is an expert at digging up hard-to-find information, and working for hedge funds constitutes a growing part of his business. (article) Michelle Rafter, September 14, 2008
- It's all about performance — September 13, 2008
CI is well known in the industrial world and many companies employ CI experts to ferret our information about production capacities and equipment installations at competitors. The same principles apply to recruiting. You can gather information from competitors, vendors, and suppliers about where good people may be located. And, every time you actually find candidates with the right profile and skill set, ask them where more people like them are. (blog) Ghassan Samman, September 13, 2008
- Ex-Intel worker accused of theft — September 12, 2008
A former engineer at the Hudson facility of chip maker Intel Corp. has been charged with stealing trade secrets after taking a new job at rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. In a criminal complaint unsealed Tuesday, the FBI alleged that Biswahoman Pani of Worcester copied a host of confidential Intel documents, including 13 "top secret" company files containing highly sensitive design plans for future processor chips. (article) Hiawatha Bray, September 12, 2008
- How far will you go to interview a source? — September 12, 2008
Could we as CI researchers use the same aggressive techniques to obtain names of sources and strike up conversations? In some cases, we could. The biggest issue with adopting these techniques is cost. (blog) Parmelee Eastman, September 12, 2008
- Spy agencies turn to newspapers, NPR, and Wikipedia for information — September 12, 2008
Open-source information is both a curse and a blessing to intelligence professionals. It makes information far more accessible, sometimes more timely, and easier to disseminate. More people can be more informed in a shorter amount of time, even despite concerns about the reliability of some of the information. But it means a loss of power for those very intelligence agencies. (article) Alex Kingsbury, September 12, 2008,
- Ten ways companies leak their secrets and how to stop them without hardware or software — September 12, 2008
Companies willingly or unknowingly give away 10 times more confidential information than could ever be hacked from a network or stolen from a file cabinet. Employees, from golfing CEO's to helpful admins, cost their companies millions in lost business and fizzled strategies every day because trained business intelligence collectors and analysts take the bits gathered not only from employees, but suppliers, regulators, customers, the media, and even total strangers, and assemble them into accurate hypotheses about a company's future actions. (blog) George Dennis, September 12, 2008
- Competing complements — September 11, 2008
Over the last two decades, an increasing number of industries have evolved from vertical integration to more horizontal structures where firms design and manufacture components that are later assembled by third parties for the final customer. In these horizontal industries, firms may be "complementors," rather than customers, suppliers, or competitors. In these industries, complementor analysis may be as important as competitor analysis. (working paper) Ramon Casadesus-Masanell, September 11, 2008
- Ispionage.com - competitive paid search monitoring — September 11, 2008
Ispionage.com is a new pay per click competitive intelligence tool that allows marketers to set up competitive alerts tied to keywords or ads across the three major advertising engines. (blog) Jason Laveglia, September 11, 2008
- Know your home-based business competitors — September 11, 2008
Competitive Intelligence is not illegal, and it is a necessary tool for all businesses to use research of their competition to improve their Home-based business Online and gain advantage over the competition. Select an advertising competitive intelligence tool to track marketing efforts. (blog) N.A. September 11, 2008
- A critical review of competitive intelligence basics — September 10, 2008
Find out the reality regarding Competitive Intelligence and determine if it is ideal for you at this time. Please go over our unprejudiced review of Competitive Intelligence. (blog) Brian Garvin and Jeff West, N.D
- Arm yourself with knowledge — September 10, 2008
Market research and competitive intelligence is an ongoing research task for any business. The information is critical in maintaining an edge in the market, especially in this time of more aggressive business and global competition. (blog) N.A. September 10, 2008
- Crowdsourcing OSINT — September 10, 2008
The "crowdsourcing" approach out of Mercyhurst College's intelligence studies program is a new aggregation model for open source acquisition. Although innovative, it raises as many questions as it might produce answers. The most critical issue that we see in crowdsourced OSINT strategies is the problem of denial and deception. (blog) N.A. September 10, 2008
- Gain valuable market insight in 10 minutes flat — September 10, 2008
Are you looking to enter new markets or better serve your existing markets? If so, here's a technique that will allow you to gain insightful market research and learn best practices quickly. And for no cost, thanks to Google. This process provides me with significant competitive intelligence on current practices in the industry. (blog) Dave Lavinsky, September 10, 2008
- Gathering information about your competitors — September 10, 2008
The next step in a competitive analysis is gathering information through competitive intelligence (CI). CI is the practice of gathering, analyzing, and disseminating information on what the marketplace requires (the demand), about how and you and your competitors meet these requirements (the supply), and how each strives to meet market needs better than others (the competition). (blog) Kelly Robbins, September 10, 2008
- Glassdoor.com — September 10, 2008
Glassdoor.com is a site that asks people to review their employers (or future employers) and provide salary information for their jobs. In return they get access to the same information for any company that's out there, including their own. (blog) Jon Lowder, September 10, 2008
- Classis consulting quotes — September 9, 2008
He's absolutely hammered the sales and marketing division of a particular CPG all week, calling ex and current employees in his quest to dig up the competitive intelligence information the engagement manager has asked him to collect. Timmy's exuberant calling of dozens of currently employed people in the sales organization of a major CPG has been detected. People at the target firm starting talking to each other, recognizing that they were being probed, and raised the issue to management. (blog) N.A. September 9, 2008
- Drafting stock purchase agreements — September 9, 2008
A service provided by www.RealDealDocs.com provides easy access to millions of these types of legal agreements and clauses from top law firms and public companies. For lawyers and other business professionals who work with and draft these types of agreements, it is extremely useful to be able to quickly find these types of legal documents to gain competitive intelligence. (blog) John Siegler, September 9, 2008
- Know your enemy — September 9, 2008
Your personal desire to be #1 in the industry, control 90% of the market share or put your rival competitor out of business, is of no interest to your stakeholders unless doing so achieves the profits your company has targeted for the year. Every business has constraints, but a thorough competitive analysis will help you identify where to go to battle and where to lay low. (blog) Jason Futch, September 9, 2008
- Twitter, now a lead generation tool? — September 9, 2008
By going to search.twitter.com, anyone can search Twitter conversations about specific topics like your company or competitors in real time. Another cool thing about search.twitter.com is that you can monitor that term effortlessly by subscribing to an RSS feed for that specific term. (blog) Dominic Litten, September 9, 2008
- Analyzing competitors - a marketing activity — September 8, 2008
A well designed system provides company managers with timely information about competitors and responds better to requirements of more information when needed in response to significant new about the actions of a competitor. (blog) KVSSN Rao, September 8, 2008
- Blog's impact on business — September 8, 2008
True competitive intelligence requires understanding how diverse audiences perceive your company. These audiences include customers, prospects, suppliers, distributors, competitors and financial markets. To keep abreast of market activity influencing your business, you need to understand how your company is viewed as a whole, as well as how your brands, pricing and customer experience are seen. (blog) September 8, 2008
- Dilbert's comment on ‘Best practice' — September 8, 2008
Be in control of your future by setting the present. You, as a manager, should be the one that defines what should be the best practice to be used in your area. I personally think this should be part of your organization competitive intelligence internal process, by mapping this effort with the "Intelligence Cycle". (blog) Yohan Albo, September 8, 2008
- Learn about competitive intelligence basics — September 8, 2008
There are quite a few Competitive Intelligence Methods we use when attempting to decide which vertical or markets we want to compete in. And before we do, we like to analyze what we're up against. Here are a few awesome techniques we use almost every day we are working on Virtual Real Estate. (article) Brian Garvin, N.D
- Some CI guides for podcamp attendees — September 8, 2008
Hopefully I was able to provide some valuable insight at Suki Fuller's session on Competitive Intelligence and Social Media. Several of the folks at the session asked what some of the best resources were for learning how to conduct competitive intelligence. With that in mind I thought I would provide some sources that I've found useful. (blog) August Jackson, September 8, 2008
- The undeniable value of differentiation — September 8, 2008
Before you can actually identify a truly effective differentiator for the product offering, a good amount of competitive intelligence needs to be done within the appropriate vertical niche market. Begin by reviewing all products and services that could be perceived as competitors in that niche market and define the differentiator from there. (blog) Karl Augustine, September 8, 2008
- Tracking your competitors online — September 8, 2008
Being that this is an online marketing blog and having a strong interest in competitive intelligence, it only makes sense to focus on competitive intelligence. I came across two articles recently that readers should find interesting. (blog) Marc Porcelli, September 8, 2008
- What is a KM software application? — September 7, 2008
Crisis handling involves such things as meeting CEO requests for new competitive intelligence in an area of high strategic interest for an enterprise, and directing rapid development of a KM support infrastructure in response to requests from high level executives. (blog) Joe Firestone, September 7, 2008
- Decision framework for competitive analysis — September 6, 2008
For every promising business opportunity or market segment that you may choose to pursue, there is a decision pattern that can be used to guide a quick, but effective competitive analysis. (blog) John Fitch, September 6, 2008
- Forecasting through games — September 6, 2008
There is a long history of modeling, simulation, and gaming within the intelligence community. A more immediate implementation, attempting to use massively multiplayer structures for long term analysis challenges. The Institute for the Future will launch its new project, Superstruct, on 22 September, which will attack what appears to be a catastrophic scenario using an alternative reality gaming architecture for distributed participation. (blog) N.A. September 6, 2008
- Ethics in intelligence, security and immigration — September 5, 2008
The Moral and Social Significance of Gathering and Managing Information and Borders in the Global Community, an upcoming conference hosted by The University of Texas-Pan American in Edinburg, Texas, November 20-22, 2008. The deadline for submissions is October 1. Some suggested topics are: Ethical issues in global intelligence, Ethical issues in competitive intelligence, (blog) Amy Wuest, September 5, 2008
- NYTimes measures the words they used at the conventions — September 5, 2008
If you work for a business, analysis of competitor press releases, analyst quotes, and industry coverage can help to provide some competitive intelligence, and perhaps predict how the public will think about an industry in otherwise uncertain times. (blog) ‘KDPaine,' September 5, 2008
- Signaling complexity — September 5, 2008
Monitoring corporate signaling practices can and should play an important role in competitive intelligence practitioners' repertoires. Changes to dividend policy are often regarded as one of the most salient signaling mechanisms. More often than not, however, organizations will use a suite of signaling techniques tailored to meet the unique environment in which they operate. (blog) William Dragon, September 5, 2008
- Competitive intelligence software — September 4, 2008
Fuld & Co. released an updated version of their independent view of Competitive Intelligence Software. Although there are no clear winners, Cipher, Coemergence, Strategy Software and Wincite all come out well, with each of them scoring 'excellent' for planning and direction. These four packages also scored well on the report and inform functions. Press release, September 4, 2008
- Industrial espionage — September 4, 2008
Theoretically the difference between espionage and legal information gathering is clear. In practice, it is quite difficult to sometimes tell the difference between legal and illegal methods. Especially if one starts to consider the ethical side of information gathering, the border becomes even more blurred and elusive of definition. (blog) N.A. September 4, 2008
- Three ways to prevent startup death — September 4, 2008
The truth is you have competitors. Ideas are not insular. Intelligent, talented people are everywhere. If you're solving a compelling problem, chances are someone else is trying to solve it too. And in order to beat them you need to know who they are, what they do, who they're partnering with and, simply: just out-execute them. If you still don't think you have any competitors, here are some tips on finding them. (blog) Redg Snodgrass, September 4, 2008
- Is global analysis really possible? — September 3, 2008
We all know that economies are global, the world is flat (or lumpy), and that you can't just assume all markets are the same. Thus, all competitive analyses must be global to be effective. Can you really produce analysis that is "global?" (blog) Eric Garland, September 3, 2008
- Money, money, money.... — September 3, 2008
I get a lot of competitive intelligence through the market. We as a company keep up to date on the latest trends, we see the companies buying, browsing, chat to our competition at trade shows (those who can afford to attend), and get internet alerts when new vendors pop up (at a rate of at least one a month). So we have a pretty good insight into what is really going on, particularly where client wins are concerned, and where and how much money is flowing. (blog) Mark Turrell, September 3, 2008
- Patents.com for free patent searches on the web — September 3, 2008
Taking a look at Patents.com, I immediately began thinking of how might people outside the product development and startup realms benefit from this service. First of all, they might benefit by taking a look at Patents.com for some ideas on how to design a slick, handsome, user-friendly Web site. (article) Hope Leman, September 3, 2008
- Social networking: not just for teens — September 3, 2008
Social networking websites have grown up and are becoming important tools for lawyers, firms and companies. From keeping track of colleagues, to finding referrals and introductions, to vetting an expert witness, these "profiles on steroids" can provide critical competitive intelligence to help your practice blossom. (blog) N.A. September 3, 2008
- Collecting information on your competitors — September 2, 2008
Collecting information about your competitors makes good business sense. However, you must do so in an ethical and reasonable way. CI from public sources, customers, and third parties can help businesses anticipate market opportunities, trends and competitive strengths and weaknesses. These guidelines provide a step-by-step guide for acquiring the information you need without crossing the line. (blog) N.A. September 2, 2008
- Discover the dos and donts of competitive intelligence — September 2, 2008
Collecting information about your competitors makes good business sense. However, you must do so in an ethical and reasonable way. Competitive intelligence from public sources, customers, and third parties can help businesses anticipate market opportunities, trends and competitive strengths and weaknesses. These guidelines provide a step-by-step guide for acquiring the information you need without crossing the line. (blog/article) n.a. September 2, 2008
- Tracking blog posts and comments — September 2, 2008
Tracking what people say on blogs can be important to legal professionals for image monitoring (What are people saying about you, your firm, your clients?), competitive intelligence (What are people saying about the competition?), personnel (What is being said by and about potential employees?) and litigation (What is the buzz about your case and your clients? Are your jurors or expert witnesses blogging or commenting on other blogs?) (blog) Bonnie Shucha, September 2, 2008
- Risk intelligence: applying KM to information risk management — September 1, 2008
The purpose of this paper is to show how the core knowledge management (KM) principles of business focus, accountability and operational support can be applied to information risk management to create risk intelligence. (article) French Caldwell, v38/2 1008 p163-166.
August
- Build a blog-monitoring dashboard — August 31, 2008
Everyone's blogging. Some of them are talking about you, your company and your competition. What they say matters - it influences how others see your organization and it can provide deep insight into the strategies of your competitors. (blog) Randy Woods, August 31, 2008
- Never, ever ignore a decision-maker's psychology — August 30, 2008
This reminder is especially important to law firm competitive intelligence professionals who support their firms' business development efforts. CI professionals working in law firms should be able to develop psychological profiles of prospective clients, particularly those who make the final hiring decision. (blog) Ann Lee Gibson, August 29, 2008
- Ethical minefields of law firm CI — August 29, 2008
A lawyer writing in the National Law Journal is urging state bars to set standards for law firms gathering competitive intelligence before an embarrassing example comes to light and damages the reputation of the legal profession. (blog) Debra Cassens Weiss, August 29, 2008
- Fly swatting and competitive strategy — August 29, 2008
Recent findings from a Cal Tech research study, published in the journal Current Biology, and reported today by the BBC, reveals interesting parallels between the neurological make-up of houseflies and effective competitive strategy. (blog) Ken Sawka, August 29, 2008
- Protecting your interests — August 29, 2008
Tradeshows offer the most overt intelligence gathering environment imaginable. There is no other place where you can find all of the companies in one industry gathered in a convenient location, with all their offerings on display. Helpful booth staffers will answer questions, often those questions that should raise red flags among an exhibiting team. (blog/article) Susan Friedmann, August 29, 2008
- What are the ethical limits of CI? — August 29, 2008
Competitive intelligence is a systematic method of collecting and analyzing information on individuals, business entities and competitors. Much has been written in the business world about the ethical obligations in the gathering and use of CI, but what about the legal world? (article) N.A., August 29, 2008
- Contractors account for a quarter of US spy operations — August 28, 2008
Private contractors account for more than one-quarter of the core workforce at U.S. intelligence agencies, according to newly released government figures that underscore how much of the nation's spying work has been outsourced since the Sept. 11 attack. (article) Greg Miller, August 28, 2008
- From competitive intelligence to counter intelligence — August 28, 2008
The following books illustrate that mundane attacks, which so often succeed, represent an enormous drain on our economy. To work both sides of the street, the Competitive Intelligence professional should understand these attacks. They will understand the risk better than anybody and should educate his colleagues about the risks and solutions. (blog) Richard McEachin, August 28, 2008
- Proactive Worldwide opens Shanghai office — August 28, 2008
U.S.-based competitive intelligence (CI) firm Proactive Worldwide, Inc. announced that it is opening an office in Shanghai, China in September 2008 to facilitate the company's global operations. Business Wire, August 28, 2008
- Competitive intelligence — August 27, 2008
When I was informed that my primary task at ReadyTalk would be garnering competitive intelligence (CI) for the web conferencing industry, I was intrigued by the idea but did not know what to expect. To my surprise I discovered that CI is much bigger than I had imagined. It is a multibillion market and with today's ever changing business environment it is as important as ever. (blog) Paul Newpher, August 27, 2008.
- Competitive intelligence analysis: Google Insights for search — August 27, 2008
Insights for Search is one of the most awesome research tools you'll use. In the final post in this series we cover Google Insights from Search and go back to good old keywords and mining search behavior by our customers to find actionable insights. (blog) Avinash Kaushik, August 27, 2008
- Competitive intelligence....for wineries? — August 27, 2008
It stands to reason that every industry has a use for competitive intelligence. But when your product's growing outside for all to see, it's only a matter of time until someone decides to use satellite images to check out their crops. (blog) Lucas McDonnell, August 27, 2008
- Considering a research agenda for intelligence — August 27, 2008
One of the consistent problems that has bedeviled the academic exploration of the intelligence profession is the constant attempt to re-invent what has already come before, rather than refining accepted tradecraft or exploring new ground. Too many in the field seek to create their own buzzwords and diagrams, and elevate citation over substance. N.A. August 27, 2008
- Lithuania: corporate spying a threat to national security — August 27, 2008
The Lithuanian Ministry of Economy has released a national economic security improvement program that names corporate espionage as one of the leading threats to the nation. The Ministry of Economy said that the state does not commit enough resources to ensuring the security of strategically important companies. N.A. August 27, 2008
- You can look but you better not touch — August 27, 2008
Frankly, I was never worried if some law firm or other firm CI manager was going to use my musical Web site or Linked In profile to gain questionable information about my firm's marketing tactics or business development prospects. However, I have begun to recognize that promoting the use of social networking and other self-informational sites for business development has its downside. (blog) Russell Lawson, August 27, 2008.
- Requirements management for the new generation — August 26, 2008
We frequently revisit the question of how the generation after next will change the activity of intelligence. As in many other areas of the workplace, generational changes tend to manifest themselves most visibly through technology. N.A. August 26, 2008
- Additional layers in the forgotten history of commercial intelligence — August 25, 2008
As part of our continuing interest in the privatization of intelligence, we have sought to surface a number of long forgotten antecedents to the modern incarnation of professional intelligence activities that were conducted in both the early government contracting environment and the purely commercial world. N.A. August 25, 2008
- CI oversight - paranoia and limits — August 25, 2008
There is a great "conversation" going on in the Competitive Intelligence world over the ethical requirements that law firms should require their CI professionals to uphold. CI professionals in the legal environment usually hit the "ethical" line long before they hit the "legal" line when it comes to CI information gathering. (blog) Greg Lambert, August 25, 2008
- Evaluation of competitive intelligence effectiveness — August 25, 2008
Nigeria Liquefied Natural Gas Limited (NLNG Ltd) proposed migration from market research to business intelligence with special emphasis on competitor intelligence. Evaluation of the effectiveness of CI also utilizes the implementation and application used by Shell. (content may not be original) (blog) N.A. August 25, 2008
- Time to get into the competition — August 25, 2008
Long-term visionary planning involves strong competitive analysis, a rigorous understanding of your particular marketplace and its future, an even more rigorous understanding of what consumer or business problem you're solving and a thorough knowledge of what the end game is. (article) Tony Wanless, August 25, 2008
- What are lawyers' limits? — August 25, 2008
Competitive intelligence (CI) is a systematic method of collecting and analyzing information on individuals, business entities and competitors. Evidence shows that law firms are taking CI seriously. More law firms are hiring professionals trained in the gathering and use of CI, and at least one vendor offers a software program that compiles legal, financial and business content combined with tools to create informative and tactical reports. Much has been written in the business world about the ethical obligations in the gathering and use of CI. But what about the legal world? To what ethical principles should lawyers adhere? (article) Melissa Ruman Stewart, August 25, 2008
- Business, listening strategically — August 24, 2008
Competitive intelligence, is a systematic process for monitoring sources and gathering information. That information is aggregated, processed to bring out the important points, and distributed to others who can use it to make decisions. The final step in the strategic listening chain is to provide feedback to those who provided raw information, and to get feedback from those who used the processed information (or intelligence) we provided. (blog) Robert Abbott, August 24, 2008
- Paranoia and law firm CI — August 24, 2008
Although I appreciate and sympathize with these discomforts, I cannot support the conceit that lawyers and their employees will behave professionally and appropriately only when their good taste, common sense, and morals are even more highly regulated by local state bar associations. (blog) Ann Lee Gibson, August 24, 2008
- Best of intelligence insights: part 1 — August 23, 2008
One of the temptations in the intelligence field and many other disciplines or activities is the desire to constantly discover more and learn more. I thought it was a good time to review and state what are in my opinion the best intelligence insights I have come across so far. (blog) Joseph D'Andrea, August 23, 2008
- Teach us what you know — August 23, 2008
One smart company ran a Teach-Us-What-You-Know programme, effectively asking new hires to show-and-tell whatever they knew (that after all was probably the reason they got hired) before their fresh perspectives were tainted by internal received wisdom. (blog) Geoffrey Morton-Haworth, August 23, 2008
- CI and LinkedIn redux — August 22, 2008
The patterns the author thinks she found (and, for some reason, values) in the LI data she reviewed could have been investigated much more accurately by reviewing law firms' Web sites, Martindale data, and LexisNexis and Thomson info-aggregator tools. (blog) Ann Lee Gibson, August 22, 2008
- Leaping over the intelligence-decision gap — August 22, 2008
What is the process by which competitive intelligence prompts a decision or strategy that is implemented and subsequently managed? Frequently, even companies that possess world-class competitive intelligence functions struggle with turning credible, insightful, actionable intelligence into a clear strategy, decision, or course of action. (blog) Karen Rothwell, August 22, 2008
- Microsoft maximizes competitive intelligence — August 22, 2008
According to Dr. Linda Henman, Microsoft's commitment to a brand makeover represents how companies can use both market research and competitive intelligence to drive their strategies by better responding to change. Dr. Henman suggests ten steps any company can take to improve its competitive advantage by improving competitive intelligence. (Press release) August 22, 2008
- Only you should row your business' oars — August 22, 2008
Ask yourself: Are you paddling or floating your canoe down the river of your business life? If you're floating, then you're on the defense. If you're paddling, then you're on the offense. Take for instance that big boulder in the river known as "competitive intelligence," which refers to the knowledge needed to implement successful competitive strategies. If you haven't got a handle on this, it can spell disaster to your business. (article) Maureen Stephenson, August 22, 2008
- Calculating ranking: an Olympic example — August 21, 2008
Sometimes, the number of mentions was not the best indicator of importance-in some cases, it was which ones that were mentioned first that was the key. You must not simply calculate importance (or any other score) in a number of ways and decide which finding you like best, but instead, think carefully before you begin your study and decide which method will best answer your research questions. (blog) Ron Sathoff, August 21, 2008
- Unintended learning objectives — August 21, 2008
Unintended higher order effects seem to be cascading from academic intelligence studies programs. A far too high percentage of these students emerge from the sheltered cloister of their institutions bereft of key competencies that one would expect from an entry level intelligence professional, yet implacably infected with a degree of arrogance that is simply breathtaking in its scope and ignorance. (blog) N.A. August 21, 2008
- Weathering the Economic Storm with CI — August 21, 2008
Competitive Intelligence, or CI, is not new but it has lately been adapted to the legal industry as law firms begin to function more like businesses in order to sustain the rising market competition. CI can be a particularly useful tool in the framework of identifying possible lateral hires, evaluating merger candidates, developing alternative billing practices or simply identifying a firm's strengths and weaknesses. The goal of CI is to provide law firm decision-makers with actionable insights into the competitive landscape of the firm, which includes internal and external factors. (article) Monica Almendarez, August 21, 2008
- LinkedIn targeted by law firm CI pros? What am I missing here? — August 20, 2008
What is the big downside to your competition knowing that you have satisfied clients and that you are working your contacts on LinkedIn? Frankly, the information you can pull from LexisNexis about cases, clients, and jurisdictional penetration are more reliable, complete and possibly more efficient than time spent lurking on LinkedIn. (blog) Jayne Navarre, August 20, 2008
- Managers or leaders? — August 20, 2008
The issue for CI professionals is defining which competitors are run by leaders and which by managers and what are the implications for the stability of those firms and the predictability of their behavior. (blog) Parmelee Eastman, August 20, 2008
- Managers or leaders? — August 20, 2008
The issue for CI professionals is defining which competitors are run by leaders and which by managers and what are the implications for the stability of those firms and the predictability of their behavior. (blog) Parmelee Eastman, August 20, 2008
- Confidential data exposed — August 19, 2008
The blunder was uncovered by a (not named) competing firm who were conducting competitive intelligence on The Princeton Review. If you need an encouragement to make sure that your house is in order and your data secure, and the threat of identity thieves isn't enough for you, then maybe the thought that a business rival might take your blunder to the press will do it. (blog) Graham Cluley, August 19, 2008
- IDEA to replace SEC's EDGAR — August 19, 2008
Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Christopher Cox unveiled the successor to the agency's 1980s-era EDGAR database, IDEA, which will give investors far faster and easier access to key financial information about public companies and mutual funds.. Based on a completely new architecture, it will at first supplement and then eventually replace the EDGAR system. The decision marks the SEC's transition from collecting forms and documents to making the information itself freely available to investors to give them better and more up-to-date financial disclosure in a form they can readily use. Press release, August 19, 2008
- SCIP09 Keynote set! — August 19, 2008
We're excited to report we've found our person for the job! Michael Treacy, author of Double-Digit Growth and The Discipline of Market Leaders, will be with us. With our conference theme of "Growth in Challenging Economic Times," we feel that all conference attendees will gain nsights they can apply at their organizations. (blog) Derek Johnson, "August 19, 2008
- The uncanny valley and the virtual briefer — August 19, 2008
There is a strong case for the further development and implementation of virtual briefers, at least in certain situated instances. The private sector intelligence shops may adopt such virtual briefers first, as they have also been the early adopters of podcasts, webcasts, and other innovative delivery options. N.A. August 19, 2008
- Competitive Chatter analysis — August 18, 2008
The freewheeling and anonymous nature of social media encourages people to say things about your company, your brands, and your competitors that they would never dare utter in a focus group. Today, instead of an opinion taking months to find its way through one thousand people, that same freewheeling opinion can streak through one thousand people in minutes, maybe even seconds. (website) N.A. August 18, 2008
- Competitive intelligence analysis: Google ad planner — August 18, 2008
Google's Ad Planner is less a competitive intelligence tool and more a tool that gives fantastic insights into understanding behavior of visitors to your website in context of the broader ecosystem. (article) Avinash Kaushik, August 18, 2008
- How not to get hacked in Chinese surgery — August 18, 2008
Ultimately, the key to designing a successful corporate security program in a new market is to rely on competent human intelligence. The most robust corporate security programs are built on reliable business intelligence professionals who can help navigate unfamiliar environments and effectively mitigate risk. Richard Gould, August 19, 2008
- Is competitive intelligence ethical? — August 18, 2008
Competitive Intelligence is one of these areas with a significant grey area between what is considered right and that which is not. There are a significant number of ways to retrieve information about a competitor through publicly accessible sites and databases, so as one may wonder, where is the line drawn? (blog) N.A. August 18, 2008
- Merger leaks: barbers and Yahoo! — August 18, 2008
In competitive intelligence, we often lack a perfect set of data, so we do a lot of analysis to fill in the blanks. Sometimes, though, you actually can find the dead-on-data you're seeking. You've nailed it. That's a lesson I learned at a barber shop a few weeks ago. I realized just how much information people will spill while sitting in the chair - a lot of it could be dead-on-data, critical to a company. (blog) Leonard Fuld, August 18, 2008
- Trade show success: the power of asking questions — August 18, 2008
One of the first questions your team should ask is some variation of "Who are you and what do you do?" Never, ever rely on badges. You want to determine identity quickly for a number of reasons, but the primary one is this: Knowing who you're talking to allows you to deliver information in the most appropriate fashion. (blog) Susan Friedmann, August 18, 2008
- When the sale doesn't happen — August 18, 2008
Companies, sales managers, and sales people are always looking for competitive intelligence. It is important to know who is eating your lunch. Is there a trend? What are they doing that you are not? If you don't know a particular competitor is kicking sand in your face, you can't develop a strategy to defeat them. (blog) Lee Salz, August 18, 2008
- Compete intelligently with competitive intelligence — August 17, 2008
Lack of information about the competitors also explains why some companies in an industry excel and achieve hegemony while others, sometimes with far superior resources, struggle to survive. Competitive Intelligence assumes greater importance for Internet based businesses because of the ease of gathering such information, in this medium. In this issue we will discuss the importance of Competitive Intelligence, the best practices to gather such information and the interpretation of such information. (article) N.A., N.D.
- Free analysts style manual — August 17, 2008
Bill Welch has just finished packaging the Style Manual for use in our writing, presentation and communications classes here at Mercyhurst. He integrated the practices from a number of other style guides (including ones from DIA and CIA) as well as his own considerable experience to put together a concise manual focused on the essentials of style for the intel analyst engaged in national security, business or law enforcement work. (blog) Kristan Wheaton, August 15, 2008
- Time for a new ‘C-level' director — August 17, 2008
The chief customer officer, or CCO covers areas of customer interaction and impact, for example, competitive intelligence, customer relationship management or CRM, customer service and any public statement responsibilities. (article) Cornell Wright, August 17, 2008
- Words of marketing wisdom - know thine enemy — August 17, 2008
Analytical intelligence is simply becoming aware of and analyzing all information regarding your product or service, your competitors, and all other things that touch your segment of the industry. Competitive intelligence influences all aspects of your marketing and branding efforts. (blog) ‘Betman,' August 17, 2008
- Creating competitors — August 16, 2008
We often think about how to compete against competitors effectively. It's our job. However, while a lot of great work has been done around anticipating competitors moves (or new market entrants) using various radar models, not a lot has been said about how companies effectively "create" their own competitors. (blog) Dan McHugh, August 16, 2008
- Creating competitors — August 16, 2008
We often think about how to compete against competitors effectively. It's our job. However, while a lot of great work has been done around anticipating competitors moves (or new market entrants) using various radar models, not a lot has been said about how companies effectively "create" their own competitors. Dan McHugh, August 16, 2008,
- Web 2.0 tools demand a cautious approach — August 16, 2008
As companies look to cut costs and manage projects involving far-flung staff, many are investigating wikis, file-sharing services, and other consumer technologies to deliver Web-based collaboration inexpensively. Trade secrets, customer lists, and competitive intelligence must be carefully guarded. (article) Phil Hippensteel, August 16 2008
- Competitive intelligence versus industrial espionage — August 15, 2008
Every organization should be aware of the types of techniques competitors use to gather intelligence on their business or operations. It sometimes catches you by surprise to learn of the types of activity your competitors engage in. (blog) Richard Stiennon, August 15, 2008
- Mining patent data for competitive intelligence — August 15, 2008
Patent are the source of the technological innovation and detailed mining of patent literature is proven to be useful of the Completive Intelligence. This article attempts to analyze importance and methods for the patent data mining and their future use in the competitive intelligence. Vinod Singh, N.D.
- What's in an intelligence professional curriculumn — August 14, 2008
One of the enduring challenges of the field's ongoing professionalization: the widespread disagreement regarding what exactly prospective candidates and serving practitioners ought to be taught in an entry level and continuing education programs. One would think that this should be a largely uncontroversial matter. After all, there is widespread agreement regarding a number of the common skills and tasks required of intelligence professional. (blog) N.A. August 13, 2008
- LinkedIn: a competitive intelligence tool — August 13, 2008
Competitive intelligence professionals are just as fascinated with social media as business developers, yet for very different reasons and with very different perspectives. CI pros are using the information freely given on these sites to better position their own firms and to better understand their competitor firms. (article) Shannon Sankstone, August 13, 2008
- Why now is the time to take a closer look at scenario planning — August 13, 2008
Scenario planning encourages managers from different parts of the company collaborate to offer their unique insights about the external environment. It also facilitates the consideration of prevailing environmental trends, likely competitor behavior, and external threats. (blog) Karen Rothwell, August 13, 2008
- Competitive Intelligence — August 12, 2008
Competitive Intelligence enables better coordination among industry players, and is an essential ingredient in the smooth functioning of today's 21 century market; because when companies compete without an understanding of the competition, the customer is the only winner. (article) Raidan Al-Saqqaf, N.D.
- Competitive intelligence and multitasking — August 12, 2008
I often analyse job ads when looking at a target company and one type of ad raises a red flag indicating poor management. Whenever I see an employment ad for a person who can multitask, I know the poor soul who gets the job will have an inept and incompetent boss. When I see this type of ad, I know that I have found a weakness in the opposition's organisation. (blog) Richard McEachin, August 12, 2008
- Michael Phelps teaches golden marketing lesson — August 12, 2008
My client wants to know where the competitors are. Where do they excel? Where do they fall short? What are the opportunities and threats that can help or hurt their business? Are we truly a leader or is someone else threatening our existence? These are all valid and important questions for any business to ask every single day. (blog) Brian Koning, August 13, 2008
- MySpace...Suicide...Competitive intelligence? — August 12, 2008
One of the first things you will hear when discussing competitive intelligence, is that CI is the ethical gathering of intelligence. Usually, the ethical line is reached before you get to the legal line. However, the bringing up of the Drew case may move the legal line so far in that what you think is "ethical" may turn out to be "illegal." And that is a concept that many of us may find hard to follow. (blog) Greg Lambert, August 12, 2008
- The literature of cryptologic intelligence, declassified — August 12, 2008
Whole volumes of the intelligence literature produced within one of the oldest of the nation's organizations are too often ignored by academics and other practitioners outside of the narrow field of signals intelligence. The literature of the technical side of the house tends to be exceptionally arcane - even by the eccentric standards of the rest of the IC. (blog) N.A, August 12, 2008
- CI sense — August 11, 2008
CI Sense is a trademark watch service with a slick, Ajax-powered app at its core. The target audience is marketers and brand managers who want to keep on top of competition. Includes quick screencast. (blog) Darren Barefoot, August 11, 2008
- Ethics and competitive intelligence — August 11, 2008
Time and time again over the last few years we keep hearing about the questionable ethics involved in competitive intelligence efforts. But let's face it, lies, spies, and deceit sells stories, while high standards and integrity does not. Is unethical so bad, if it is not illegal? Where is the line? Would you cross it? (blog) Rachel Walker, August 11, 2008
- Taking stock of the blogged literature of intelligence — August 11, 2008
The rapid development in 2008 of a large number of increasingly active bloggers addressing the private aspects of competitive intelligence and business intelligence. This community had the means and history of rapidly adopting technologies to new ends. Yet these practitioners remained for the most part strangely silent until this year. Much credit for surfacing this growing community's online writings should be given to SCIP, who now makes the highlights of this literature a centerpiece of the organization's own online presence. (blog) N.A. August 10, 2008
- So what exactly is competitive intelligence? — August 10, 2008
Simply put, in my own words, CI is a highly concerted effort by an organization to gain knowledge about other organizations that compete in the same market place, and plan its own course of action based on the gained knowledge. (blog) N.A. August 11, 2008
- Competitor analysis — August 9, 2008
Competitor analysis in marketing and strategic management is an assessment of the strengths and weaknesses of current and potential competitors. This analysis provides both an offensive and defensive strategic context through which to identify opportunities and threats. Competitor profiling coalesces all of the relevant sources of competitor analysis into one framework in the support of efficient and effective strategy formulation, implementation, monitoring and adjustment. (blog) Michael Bailey, August 9, 2008
- Competitive intelligence doctrine and diplomacy — August 8, 2008
Competitive Intelligence is more than research skills. It is communication and diplomacy. It is about building mass support for what must be done. Competitive Intelligence is also about project management. (blog) Richard McEachin, August 8, 2008
- Disruptive or incremental innovation? — August 8, 2008
More companies seek to be the next disruptive innovator in a major market. Many are looking for a better understanding of who are today's emergent disrupters and what are their key areas of
innovation focus. To highlight these current disrupters, this article will focus on three types of disruptive innovation: those which are driven by technology, business model and consumer value. (article) Damien Duhamel, August 8, 2008
- Passion — August 8, 2008
In the most recent issue of the CI magazine, Joe Goldberg referred to passion in our organization. I've spent the last twelve years of my working career in the association world and, like anyone who lives in that world; I can tell you that we see passion all the time. The passion can be for a cause or in the case of SCIP for a profession. We need that passion. We depend on that passion. Ken Garrison, August 8, 2008
- Syndicated research providers benchmarking survey — August 8, 2008
Competitive intelligence consultancy Cipher has opened a call for survey respondents for their Syndicated Research Providers Benchmarking Report. The Report seeks to help CI practitioners benchmark the quality of content and services they receive from these market research providers.
- Business intelligence for HR — August 7, 2008
Business intelligence (BI) can be used in HR to improve results across all aspects of the organization -candidate screening, performance appraisals, cost-containment, retention and productivity. Romain Couet, N.D
- Competitive intelligence — August 7, 2008
CI is the legal, ethical and systematic method of gathering meaningful and often hard-to-obtain data and, through analysis, transforming it into intelligence that is actionable. CI enables senior managers in companies of all sizes to make informed decisions about everything from marketing, R&D, and investing tactics to long-term business strategies. David Carpe, N.D.
- Information and business intelligence — August 7, 2008
Information and intelligence are prized possessions for individuals, organisations and nations, following the premise that information helps in intelligent decision making. The concept and tools of business intelligence thrives on huge sets of data, and attempts to discover patterns in data especially relating to human behaviour. Shalini Urs, N.D
- Interviewing and elicitation in competitive intelligence, — August 7, 2008
This article is about the ups and downs of elicitation - this is not identical to interviewing. Elicitation is most commonly used in fields ranging from law enforcement and military interrogation on through to litigation, due diligence and competitive intelligence. David Carpe, N.D.
- Missed opportunities: talent intelligence — August 7, 2008
For years now, thought leaders have been advising organizations to embed formal competitive-intelligence-gathering activities into their onboarding processes, yet few actually have. When a recruiter learns of actions in a competitor, rarely do the managers who could leverage such information hear of it. N.A., August 7, 2008
- The future of competitive intelligence — August 7, 2008
A video of a presentation to CI professionals at this year's SLA Conference in Seattle is now available. Analyzing trends across information sets - covered in this video - is an especially interesting component of what we do, and it will continue to grow in importance over time. (blog) John Mahoney, August 7, 2008
- The next wave in competitive intelligence? — August 7, 2008
The China Institute of Competitive Intelligence (CICI) is promoting its 4th Annual Competitive Intelligence International Annual Conference from November 13-15 in Shanghai. The China Institute of Competitive Intelligence claims that CI in China is on the rise. (blog) N.A. August 7, 2008
- Competitive intelligence — August 6, 2008
Competitive intelligence (CI) aims to assess and predict competitive developments which can affect an organization's performance. The goal of CI is to guard a company's long term profitability. Companies that understand CI create, run and use CI as an early warning system. Companies that don't, waste resources of monitoring competitors' every move with no clear effect on their own performance. Ben Gilad, N.D.
- Fibre delivers much more than faster connections — August 6, 2008
Size matters to the media. Incremental innovations in odd places can be safely ignored. Straws in the wind can be blown off course. But those who make a living from being masters of competitive intelligence have learned not to ignore the signs of a new trend. (blog) David Brunnen, August 6, 2008
- Analyzing the perfect storm — August 5, 2008
From what I've experienced, competitive intelligence often makes these same kinds of mistakes. Researchers will ask performance and satisfaction questions that are well-designed and worded, but will often forget to put these responses into the proper perspective by asking the appropriate contextual questions. (blog) Ron Sathoff, August 5, 2008
- Competitive intelligence analysis: Google trends for websites — August 5, 2008
If you are on the web, or do Web Analysis, it is a real crime if you don't tap into the reams and reams of competitive intelligence data that is available online. It is a core component of a successful Web Analytics 2.0 strategy. This post, the first of three, attempts to share the kinds of analysis you can do in the area of Search, Websites, Display and Ads (content networks). (blog) Avinash Kaushik, August 5, 2008
- Interview with Chris Cox of OPSA — August 5, 2008
I asked Chris Cox, the president of The Operations Security Professional's Association, if he would be interested in an interview explaining a little more about his organization, and he fortunately agreed. Competitive Intelligence is a close relative of OPSEC, and involves looking at the competitive climate and finding ways to excel by finding and targeting under-utilized markets. (blog) ‘Chelle' August 5, 2008
- Competitive intelligence Asia — August 3, 2008
Although Competitive Intelligence is certainly not new to Asia (refer to Sun Tzu's ancient "Art of War" for some fine ‘Made in China Competitive Intelligence' basics) too many strategic decisions are often based on rather dubious statistics, when they should be based on rational market facts and economic needs. (blog) Damien Duhamel, August 3, 2008
- Guide to competitive intelligence — August 3, 2008
If you don't fully understand what's happening in your competitive marketplace, it's difficult to make good strategic decisions for your business. Or, if you are simply being outsold by the competition, it may be time to find out why and what you can do about it. Accurate competitive intelligence can be an invaluable asset. Here are some things you should know about competitive intelligence. Jason Agard, N.D.
- Law librarian survey 2008 — August 1, 2008
This new survey focuses on the role law firm librarians play in competitive intelligence. You'll also find some interesting information regarding negotiating vendor contracts. (blog) Abbie Mulvihill, August 1, 2008
- Study: U.S, Europe lag in competitive intel technology — August 1, 2008
A survey by advisory firm Fuld & Company finds that companies in Israel, India, Sweden and Brazil are on average using more sophisticated competitive intelligence technology than ones in the United States, Great Britain, France or Germany. Fuld & Co. found no clear winner, as the packages overall performed better or worse in certain areas than others. Chris Kanaracus, August 1, 2008
July
- Conferences and trade shows: are your employees saying too much? — July 31, 2008
For the same reasons that conferences and exhibitions represent such valuable intelligence gathering opportunities, they also pose intelligence risk. Natural human tendencies make it more likely that participants at a trade show or conference are disclosing more than they should about their companies. (blog) Ken Sawka, July 31, 2008
- Employees misuse firm's facilities — July 31, 2008
The fourth survey in the World of Work series tries to understand the changing scenario at workplaces in India. The study titled Nothing Ethical about Ethics encapsulates views of the corporate workforce on workplace ethics across eight cities in India. Nearly 62 per cent of the respondents were willing to use any means to get competitor information. (blog) N.A. July 31, 2008
- Want to be a speaker at SCIP's 2009 conference? — July 31, 2008
If you're interested in being a speaker at the largest (in terms of attendees) conference dedicated specifically to competitive intelligence then you will be glad to know that SCIP has posted its call for presentation proposals. From my days at SCIP I can offer a piece of my own advice for those who are CI providers. (blog) Jon Lowder, July 30, 2008
- What is intelligence? — July 31, 2008
Intelligence seems to be something that can be explained in many different ways. Also, in many management publications, organisational intelligence is a hot issue. But what does intelligence mean in this context, for example when we are talking about Business Intelligence? (blog) Mariska Bulten, July 31, 2008
- A wiki for customer knowledge in my company? — July 30, 2008
Here I am toying with the idea of introducing Entreprise 2.0 wiki and blog concepts. I feel both could be excellent for knowledge sharing, interaction, reporting, meeting planning, well a new way of getting a return of investiment on the market research, statistical analysis and competitive intelligence work my team does. (blog) N.A. July 30, 2008
- Biogeochemistry and the need for an interdisciplinary approach to business — July 30, 2008
The need for interdisciplinary approaches to business. One was with a couple of smart managers from a Canadian bank, who argue that in order to deal with the challenges of customer analytics, they need people who understand math and statistics, marketing, and softer research techniques such as ethnography and competitive intelligence. "We need people who are both artists and scientists," one commented. (blog) Tom Davenport, July 30, 2008,
- Del Monte gets social — July 30, 2008
Del Monte is hoping to capitalize on social networking as a marketing tool, to help the company get closer to its customers and create the kind of products consumers want. Done right, these online communities can create an almost one-to-one interaction and raise marketing intelligence to new levels. Social networking adds an entirely new dimension to marketing. The technology isn't cutting edge. We're simply applying it creatively and finding new ways to analyze and interpret data. That's where the true value lies. Samuel Greengard, July 30, 2008
- How do you define CI? — July 30, 2008
Curious about what a person would see if they searched Google for the definition of competitive intelligence, I came up with the usual 1M+ results. Below, in order of appearance, are the top 10 definitions. (blog) Bonnie Hohhof, July 30, 2008
- How to think about thought leadership — July 30, 2008
Professional services firms need to learn from other industries in beginning to build effective market and competitive intelligence capabilities. Effective intelligence would enable them to have answers to the kind of questions triggered by the partners' requests. (blog) Paul Gladen, July 30, 2008
- Three ways to smell your competition a mile away — July 30, 2008
How do you know that your competition is planning to launch a new product? Always be on the lookout for the Big Three: Trademark, Domain Name & Slogan. (blog) N.A. July 30, 2008
- Why and how CI will become more strategic — July 29, 2008
Being in charge of competitive intelligence where I work, I'm obviously sold on the idea that the role must become more strategic. I can only agree that a paradigm shift is needed. But I must say we can start by closely looking at how we translate information in strategic customer knowledge. (blog) N.A. July 29, 2008
- Business intelligence solutions for the retail industry — July 28, 2008
Retailers are now paying significant attention to BI software, specifically in the areas of merchandise intelligence (including merchandise planning, assortment, size, space, price, promotion, and markdown optimization), customer intelligence (including marketing automation, marketing optimization, and market basket analysis), operational intelligence (including IT portfolio management, labor optimization, and real estate site selection), and competitive intelligence. (blog) Mitchell Dubin, July 28, 2008
- Competition among law firms — July 28, 2008
How do law firms, particularly defense, exploit these marketplace realities? Competitive intelligence is everything. Monitor and deconstruct what the best are doing and not doing. (blog) N.A. July 27, 2008.
- Patent searching an effective tool for CI — July 28, 2008
Patent searching can give insights into the state of the art across any technical field. It can provide a platform to monitor the competitors activities by revealing which companies are involved in a field of technology of your interest. Patent searching data can also reveal the technological road map to a particular invention, the science or logic behind the invention, and its intended application. Vinod Singh, N.D. (7/08)
- Reasons for text analytics — July 28, 2008
I've been working a lot lately on SNS (social network) analysis and also of course on CGM (consumer generated media) analysis using text mining techniques. I also frequently get asked "what type of consumer insights information is available on the web?" and "why should we be doing it?". Of course the answers to these questions are many ranging from competitive intelligence to customer service. (blog) Tom Anderson, July 27, 2008
- The daily grind — July 28, 2008
I’ve settled into my project and made fairly good progress. At P&G, strategy sits with the finance division, so I’ve had the pleasure of working on a competitive intelligence project. (blog) Michael Cobb, July 28, 2008.
- Connecting with customers: do you use a blog or newsletter? — July 27, 2008
I've used both newsletters and blogs in my business operations. I find that it is critical to understand your customer. This means understand not just the demographics, but the "psychology" of your customers (in competitive intelligence, we call this "psychographic profiling"). (blog) Jane Chin, July 27, 2008.
- Tracking private aircraft — July 27, 2008
Aurora WDC Director of Research, Derek Johnson, produced the podcast presentation on how to track private aircraft and its role in the competitive intelligence process. (video) N.D.
- Strategic link building and competitive intelligence — July 26, 2008
The second method is to employ some competitive intelligence tools. Would you like to find out which sites are responsible for sending traffic to your competitor's pages, including search engines and the search keywords that were used? Competitive Intelligence tools provide you with the means to monitor your competitor's web sites and to identify their major traffic sources. (blog) N.A, July 26, 2008
- Competitive intelligence used to make or justify decisions? — July 25, 2008
Does your organization use CI information to make decisions or to justify decisions? As a CI professional, there is nothing more frustrating than working hard to obtain information which is regarded as useless by the recipient, or even worse, criticized as incorrect because it does not support the existing "truth" of management. (blog) Parmelee Eastman, July 25, 2008
- Corporate filing searches on the British Islands — July 25, 2008
Starting a competitive intelligence research project, an investigation, or due diligence research usually entails a detailed look at the corporate filings, share structure, and accounts of the target or subject company. (blog) Richard McEachin, July 25, 2008
- Secret of strategy — July 25, 2008
To develop the best strategies you must understand the world outside your organization. Quantify and qualify, not just absolutes, but trends. Key areas for focus include competitors, technology, market size and trends, your clients' industry health, macroeconomic trends, availability of key resources (people and materials) government regulations and other political considerations, and changes in demographics and psychographics-like customer taste. (blog) ‘Kevin', July 25, 2008
- Seven roles of highly competent salespeople — July 25, 2008
Post-Sale Expectations: In this role, you will communicate customer concerns regarding quality, perceptions, and problems back to appropriate members of your firm. You will also collect competitive intelligence and communicate that back to marketing and product development team members. You will also leverage political networks inside and outside your organization to help facilitate necessary changes or decisions. (blog) Brian Lambert, July 25, 2008
- Five strategies to use LinkedIn for recruiting talent — July 24, 2008
LinkedIn is a great tool for researching companies. Uncheck the "current companies only, see who has left the organization, the average length of tenure, and possible trends. Think and search creatively, you may be surprised at the amount of information you can find. (blog) Jason Buss, July 24, 2008
- The ROI of a Competitive Blog — July 24, 2008
With the development of this new and powerful method of collecting consumer opinion, Kahuna Content has recognized this competitive threat and has released a unique white paper which discusses calculating return on investment of a competitive blog. By doing so, you may begin to improve your competitive intelligence function in social media and get a handle on how dangerous your competition has become in this new area of consumer research. July 24, 2008
- Be a networking maven — July 23, 2008
The second important group with which to network are your peers. Fellow competitors can be a wealth of information and competitive intelligence. Trade shows again are an ideal avenue to develop these relationships. Alternatively, you can simply visit competing stores to say hello. There are often issues that peers have in common and can provide mutually beneficial interchange. (blog) N.A. July 23, 2008
- Can an organization's relentless quest for market share drive employees to break the law? — July 23, 2008
According to articles in The Wall Street Journal, a former Hewlett-Packard Co. vice president pled guilty earlier this month to stealing trade secrets after passing a confidential email from his previous employer, International Business Machines Corp., to senior H-P executives. Another more interesting explanation -- that ethical foul-ups are a symptom of companies' misguided efforts to increase market share. (blog) W. Dragon, July 23, 2008
- A summer in Colorado — July 22, 2008
I have been at ReadyTalk for one month now and my efforts have been focused on competitive intelligence. This requires me to perform infinite research on a number of ReadyTalk's competitors. In the past few weeks, web conferencing has become my new best friend. I can tell you who the market leaders are, what features each service offers and why a "free conferencing" service is not really free conferencing. (blog) Paul Newpher, July 22, 2008
- Research internships — July 22, 2008
Research Interns contribute significantly to the success of research deliverables(i.e. candidate identification, competitive profiles, labor market trends) through their participation in the research and analysis of the designated sourcing channels that impact the successful selection and timely placement of critical positions at Booz Allen Hamilton. Armed with strong analytic skills, intellectual curiosity, and a passion for research, Research Interns first strive to identify and develop the best solutions to these important business challenges, and then work to deliver these solutions to our teams. N.A. July 21, 2008
- A mole in your competitive intelligence devise? Possible! — July 20, 2008
The case of industrial espionage which currently opposes the French giant Renault and the automobile weekly magazine "Auto Plus" reveals a type of informational threats that competitive intelligence responsible generally prefer to occult: the existence of moles within the company! (blog) Guy Gweth, July 20, 2008
- Comparative metrics - how many people visit my competitor's website? — July 20, 2008
How many people visit my competitor's websites? Accurate answers are critical to making good business decisions. The common tools that people use to compare metrics are Comscore, Alexa, Compete.com, Nielsen NetRating, Hitwise and others. Each has some advantages and disadvantages. To understand how the numbers are calculated we should understand how the ratings are acquired. (blog) "Triona." July 20, 2008
- Competitive intelligence: construct exploration, validation and equivalence — July 20, 2008
Little empirical research has been conducted on competitive intelligence (CI). This paper aims to contribute to the quantitative strand of the CI literature by exploring and validating the theoretical constructs of the CI process. Businesses involved in CI should take note that an improvement in their formal infrastructure, employee involvement and internal information processes could enhance their CI capability. Andrea Saayman et. al., ASLIB proceedings, v60/4, 2008, p383-411. (fee)
- The impact of web 2.0 on competitive intelligence — July 20, 2008
Dow Jones recently hosted a webinar given by Cynthia Cheng Correia on CI in a collaborative world, focusing particularly on processes rather than services. The webinar is available for download here. (blog) Mary Ellen Bates, July 20, 2008
- HSU to offer businesses customized research, — July 19, 2008
Humboldt State University's Office for Economic and Community Development (OECD) has launched a customized research initiative designed to make regional high-growth companies more competitive in national and global markets. Called Competitive Intelligence, the program's pilot year will be anchored by Adrienne Harling, a regional research consultant with a master's degree in library and information science. N.A. July 19, 2008
- Dow Jones Webinar, the impact of Web 2.0 on CI — July 18, 2008
I pulled out some good insight for myself and how we're using portions of Web 2.0 at Microsoft. Content & Information is moving towards Collaboration and Knowledge. Web 2.0 can have a massive effect on how we currently plan and project manage. There is still a need for a clear framework for collection and idea of what you end result you are looking for - otherwise you end up with the firehose, rather than a funnel. (blog) Dan McHugh, July 18, 2008
- What's your competitor twitting about? — July 18, 2008
Microblogging - Twitter, Identi.ca, Plurk etc., all started with Twitter well over a year ago. There is now however, potentially valuable business intelligence in Microblogs. One has to know what they are looking for however. So in what ways can you gather insights for business intelligence via Microblogs? (blog) Giles Crouch, July 18, 2008
- Analyze your competitors for a successful internet marketing strategy — July 17, 2008
Competitor profiling coalesces all of the relevant sources of competitor analysis into one framework in the support of efficient and effective strategy formulation, implementation, monitoring and adjustment. Competitor Analysis is an important element of the strategic internet planning process. Competitors' analysis is not a one time thing but a regular process that is needed to stay ahead. (blog) ‘Schilpi,' July 17, 2008
- Business development and the new library — July 17, 2008
Regardless of the structure of a firm's business-development activities, administrative departments need to work with attorneys to present the best possible face when the attorney steps in front of a potential client to make a pitch. Most business-development requests are last-minute. The librarian should get together with the competitive intelligence or marketing department, if they are not already involved. Jaye Lapachet, July 17, 2008
- Buzz pocket mining — July 17, 2008
Some call it "buzz monitoring," or "online anthropology," or even "conversation mining." Whichever term you prefer, like bees forming around tasty pockets of pollen, social media conversations form around central areas of interest. Those "buzz pockets" are tasty, informational prizes and they can be mined to reveal information of a highly competitive nature. (blog) N.A. July 17, 2008
- Cipher IntelAnswers — July 17, 2008
Cipher announced the launch of IntelAnswers, a cost-effective competitive intelligence reporting service. Analysts can create their own personalized reporting mix, choosing between Strategic Trend Reports, Newsletters and/or Company Profiles. PR July 17, 2008
- Global strategic technologies analysis — July 17, 2008
Various studies show that technologies companies that actively scan the global landscape for competitive technical intelligence generate significantly higher growth rates and profitability than those that don't. In fact, the 2006 IBM Global CEO Survey on Technology Innovation reported that companies with effective programs of global scanning grow their revenues 33% more per year than other companies. (blog) Greg Narog, July 17, 2008
- Competitive intelligence practitioners moving beyond five forces — July 16, 2008
Most of us have used Porter's Five Forces model when analyzing their industry. But how many of us apply the rigor of Porter's other analytical technique, the Four Corners model to scrutinize specific competitors? This extremely valuable tool integrates an understanding of a competitor's drivers, strategies, capabilities and assumptions to determine what players are likely to do and recognize the "why" behind their actions. It is an essential tool for CI practitioners to master. (blog) Karen Rothwell, July 16, 2008
- A talk with a strategic planning manager — July 15, 2008
I made special effort to arrange myself to speak with a strategic planning manager in the U.S., to understand more about his roles and how I can make it to a similar role within my company. He commented that different business units in the company approach strategic planning differently. For his business unit, there are full-time roles in S.P., although they are not many. For my business unit, a lot of competitive intelligence responsibilities is given to external consultant companies. (blog) N.A. July 15, 2008
- SWOT analysis an essential tool in strategic planning — July 12, 2008
SWOT Analysis is an essential tool in Strategic Planning. It is a complex process that entails many data analysis in the external as well as internal environment, assumptions, scenarios and risk factors. This TQM article address how SWOT analysis can be part of the overall Strategic Planning Process. (blog) N.A. July 12, 2008
- Beyond buzz: building a talk culture — July 9, 2008
insights (a.k.a. "really listening") -- identifying customer habits, market trends, and competitive insights through quantitative research and secondary techniques such as listening to customers, looking at online communities, and reading blogs. Evolves from traditional market research and competitive intelligence. (blog) Lois Kelley, July 9, 2008
- Blogging mandatory or voluntary? — July 7, 2008
Some organizations might integrate blogs within formal work practices and business processes so there may be situations when in fact, blogging is required. For instance, perhaps a company decides that competitive intelligence analysts should blog their personal insights about what they are seeing in the market. (blog) Mike Gotta, July 7 2008
- Jigsaw: supporting investigative analysis through interactive visualization — July 1, 2008
Investigative analysts who work with collections of text documents connect embedded threads of evidence in order to formulate hypotheses about plans and activities of potential interest. We have developed a visual analytic system called Jigsaw that represents documents and their entities visually in order to help analysts examine them more efficiently and develop theories about potential actions more quickly. Jigsaw provides multiple coordinated views of document entities with a special emphasis on visually illustrating connections between entities across the different documents. (article, PDF) John Staska, Carsten Gorg, Zhicheng Liu, Information Vlsualization, 2008 v7 p118-132
June
- AdsSpy.com - competitive intelligence tool — June 27, 2008
So there is yet another competitive intelligence tool our there, made to easily find site network relations on the push of a button. It does this by finding all sites running under one Adsense-Account that is the same Adsense-Account of a site you specify. (blog) Hiren Ponkia, June 27, 2008
- A selection of books to understand CI — June 26, 2008
To understand the wide meanings and applications of Competitive Intelligence necessitates books very different in nature. In this overview we present a selection of books that we used during the course of Competitive Intelligence either in academics or in continuing education. (blog) N.A, June 26, 2008
- Back from SLA2008 — June 25, 2008
Competitive Intelligence (CI) is an fast growing component of corporate and academic research. When done well, it can offer an organization significant strategic advantages. When done poorly, an organization can find itself off balance in the marketplace, wasting resources, focus and time by being totally reactive. (blog) John Mahoney, June 25, 2008
- Bill Gates unfiltered — June 23, 2008
So the idea is, How can you do better sales analysis or personnel review or competitive analysis or see what you're customers are thinking? We think you will want to use a display where your whole desk is a display--or your white board will be a display. Elizabeth Corcoran, June 23, 2008
- Behavioral targeting and competitive intelligence — June 18, 2008
The core mission of behavioral marketing is to deepen marketers' knowledge of who consumers are and what they want. In practice, however, most marketers so far have used behavioral platforms primarily for placing their own brand and product promotions. In so doing, Hal Wurster, managing director, Automotive, at Compete, explains below, they are closing themselves off from critical behavioral intelligence about how consumers see their brand and product in comparison to rivals. Phil Leggiere, June 18, 2008
- Blogs, podcasts & newsgroups for CI — June 17, 2008
In a session about how to use blogs, podcasts, and newsgroups for competitive intelligence, Cynthia Cheng Correia covered the basics of competitive intelligence and how to evaluate and select blogs, podcasts, and newsgroups for competitive intelligence. (blog) J. Baumgarten, June 17, 2008
- What do you do after you log off? — June 17, 2008
I moderated a SLA Legal Division sponsored CE at the SLA Conference called "What Do You Do After You Log Off" presented by Mary Ellen Bates. Mary Ellen's presentations are always thought provoking and extremely useful at the same time. Without trying to cover the 4 hour program, I thought I would highlight some of the ideas and resources she talked about for use in packaging and delivering information as well as sources for producing statistics. (blog) Nina Platt, June 17, 2008
- Black PR is not just a subset of disinformation — June 13, 2008
There is a big dispute over the PR community whether or not, the Black PR strategies are entirely based on lies and deception. The main objectives of BPR tactics are to find the dirty secrets of the target and turn them against it in a profound communication campaign. For example if you are really good at any kind of research or competitive intelligence, there is nothing wrong of widely exposing the unpleasant truth about your target, especially when this is in a common public interest. (blog) NA, June 13, 2008
- Careers in intelligence.... — June 13, 2008
Careers in intelligence can be a blessing and a curse. I have learned that my analytical brain tends to lock on to whatever is available in the moment - much like you can find yourself blandly reading the same billboard at a stoplight over and over again. (blog) Michael Sperger, June 13, 2008
- Are SEO forums still needed? — June 3, 2008
The forums are the purest place of creative, collective and competitive intelligence. Aside from information on tactics and technique, I have learned more about people and the companies they work for trolling the forums than any other venue except face-to-face encounters. (blog) John Carcutt, June 3, 2008
- Seven buzz monitoring sites to watch — June 3, 2008
Earlier I reviewed eight search sites spanning a range of specialized subjects, including local, social, and mobile. Since then, I've been keeping tabs on dozens of innovators, many of which will be featured in future roundups. This week, we'll review some of the most useful and interesting tools that you can search for brand monitoring, competitive intelligence, and campaign planning, to name just a few ways you can use them. (blog) David Berkowitz, June 3, 2008
- Words of marketing wisdom: know thine enemy — June 3, 2008
Analytical intelligence is simply becoming aware of and analyzing all information regarding your product or service, your competitors, and all other things that touch your segment of the industry. Superior competitive intelligence can allow you to better price your product or service. It can also clue you in as to what drives a purchase decision by customers interested in your product. (blog/article) Janice Jenkins, June 3, 2008
- Avoid undue diligence like the plague — June 2, 2008
Due diligence is the verification of information given to an investor by a startup in contemplation of a potential investment. Undue diligence, the solicitation of information for competitive reasons, is perhaps the most unsavory you can commit against a startup. (blog) Alexander Muse, June 2, 2008
- Know thine enemy — June 2, 2008
Analytical intelligence is simply becoming aware of and analyzing all information regarding your product or service, your competitors, and all other things that touch your segment of the industry. Superior competitive intelligence can allow you to better price your product or service. It can also clue you in as to what drives a purchase decision by customers interested in your product. (blog) Janice Jenkins, N.D
- Published research is only the tip of the iceberg — June 2, 2008
One of the worst things that can happen to a vendor sales representative or a vendor executive is being blindsided by a piece of information that they did not know existed - but should have known. Industry analyst commentary is a prime source of "gotcha" moments There are a number of ways that analyst opinions get into the marketplace with more being invented on a seemingly regular basis. (blog) N.A. June 2, 2008
May
- Increasing your company's competitive intelligence — May 31, 2008
Perhaps you run a small business and have a belief that you simply don't have the time to consistently monitor your competitors and your market as you should. Tasking your existing employees with developing competitive intelligence for small portions of the overall endeavor isn't that time consuming, and it will allow them to feel like they are part of the strategic planning process. (blog) N.A., May 31, 2008
- Take advantage of competitors during recessions — May 30, 2008
John A. Quelch, the Lincoln Filene Professor of Business Administration at Harvard Business School, offered eight suggestions in his March 3, 2008 blog posting "Marketing Your Way Through a Recession." But his suggestions also apply to organizations seeking to take advantage of competitors during down economic periods. (blog) Parmelee Eastman, May 30, 2008
- Why CI is essential to effective thought leadership — May 30, 2008
A recent survey by the Economist Intelligence Unit shows that B2B companies are rapidly installing sophisticated global business intelligence systems. For B2B companies, demonstrating distinctive thought leadership has become the most effective marketing tool at their disposal. (blog) Karen Rothwell, May 30, 2008
- A framework for competitive intelligence education — May 29, 2008
In spring 2004, Alain Juillet created a commission for education, inviting 14 experts (I was one of them) to work at the elaboration of a national framework destined to become the "label" for CI studies. After nine months of brainstorming and knowledge management, the team published the a framework for CI education, built on the five pillars of CI knowledge as it should be taught. (blog) Franck Bulinge, May 29, 2008
- Intelegia content on SlideShare — May 29, 2008
I have created a SlideShare account in which I have posted some Powerpoint presentations that will provide you with some insights behind internet intelligence methodologies used here at Intelegia: internet intelligence approach and effective competitor monitoring. (blog) Ian Smith, May 29, 2008
- People intelligence - finding key people in an organization — May 29, 2008
As a part of competitive intelligence, we are regularly faced with the challenge of finding an organization structure or the key people in an organization. There are a lot of companies providing such services for a fee - many of them also have online paid databases that you can deep dive into. I recently came across two sources, which are taking the concept of people intelligence to another level. (blog) Gagan Kaul, May 29, 2008
- How companies respond to competitors: a McKinsey Global Survey — May 28, 2008
Companies don't react to competitive threats in the way management theory says they should, according to a McKinsey Global Survey. Instead of undertaking extensive, sophisticated analyses when faced with a competitive threat, most companies assess just a few responses, and they often choose the most obvious one. These practices give companies an opportunity to seize a competitive advantage by understanding how their competitors are likely to react to their moves. May 28, 2008
- Being smart about competitive intelligence — May 27, 2008
Your product marketing managers are usually the ones charged with being the keepers of competitive information. But they often struggle to meet the demand for current, relevant competitive information. I recommend you send the practices below to them so they can do a better job gathering and disseminating competitive intelligence on an ongoing basis. (blog) Sridhar Ramanathan, May 27, 2008
- Don't get complacent — May 27, 2008
It's obvious why it's so important to find out why your company loses business to competitors, but knowing why specifically your company is winning is just as valuable. Overall, you can collect an extensive amount of very valuable information from an assessment of competitive evaluations your company won. (blog) Thayne Johnson, May 27, 2008
- Emotional responses — May 26, 2008
One of the areas I emphasise is that when looking at a competitor you should try and look at things from their perspective. Just because something looks stupid or illogical to you doesn't neccssarily mean that it is stupid and illogical. It could also be that the competitor is viewing something from a different angle to you - and that if you switched viewpoints it would make perfect sense. (blog) Arthur Weiss, May 26, 2008
- Spice buyer has flavorful life traveling around the globe — May 26, 2008
While spice buyers meet face to face with farmers and look over their crops, market intelligence experts in the background for McCormick keep up with what governments are doing, study a country's economy and analyze the psychology of farmers. (AP) May 26, 2008
- Good shows in bad times: exhibiting when your industry is in crisis — May 24, 2008
Competitive intelligence is always important, but seldom as much so as when an entire sector hits hard times. Fortunes can be made and lost in the blink of an eye, which is why it is important to keep a careful eye on what your competitors are doing. Make sure to have one or two qualified staffers walk the show and gather market intelligence. (blog) Susan Friedmann, " May 24, 2008
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