2008

November

• 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

• 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

• 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)

• The 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

• 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

• Competitive intelligence: monitoring competitive dynamics to anticipate industry change — October 9, 2008
  Slideshow of presentation at the LifeSciences Alley 83 slides. Arik Johnson. 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

• Twenty seven ways to get ahead in business — October 7, 2008
  Recommendations from small business advice website, including competitive intelligence. (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

• 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

• 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

• Do recent economic events represent an intelligence failure? — September 22, 2008
  Why were so many people, companies, industries, politicians, and experts of all kinds (including lawyers in my world) caught flat-footed? Was this an intelligence failure? (group) Ann Lee Gibson, 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 availa