Competitive Intelligence: Having Your Ear to the Ground

Jill Hurst-WahlHurst Associates, Ltd.

www.HurstAssociates.com

Copyright © 2004, Hurst Associates, Ltd. All rights reserved.

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What is competitive intelligence?

• According to SCIP:– “A systematic and ethical program for

gathering, analyzing, and managing external information  that can affect your company's plans, decisions, and operations.”

• CI believes that business decisions should not be made on instinct or intuition, but on information that has been gathered and analyzed (from your point of view).

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Keep it legal

• With 80% – 90% of all information part of public knowledge, you do not have to spy.

• If you find yourself lying about how to got a piece of information, then you’re likely not being legal or ethical.

• Thou shalt not steal, trespass, spy, lie, or break any law or moral code.

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The CI analytical process• Define the question

• Gather & organize data (CMS?)

• Synthesize/relate & filter the data

• Analyze appropriate data

• Prepare findings & draw insights

• Prepare recommendations

• Draft, review, approve and issue report

• Follow-up – update the process

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• CI should include tracking:

– Competitors

– New technologies

– Market trends

– Government regulations

• Remember that the process needs people.

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Information resources include

• The Internet• Free and fee-based databases• Industry reports• Financial analyst reports• Newspapers (hometown, hardcopy)• Business, trade and technical journals• Press releases• Industry and government experts

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Gathering info from the field

• You frequently run into your competitors – or the trails they leave behind – at service calls, sales calls, meetings, etc. You need to capture data from these encounters:– What are they doing?– Who are they working with?– What are they talking about?– What literature, articles, etc., are they

producing?

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Developing a plan of attack

• Knowing about your competitors is much easier if you gather information continually.

– Set a weekly/monthly reminder

• Gather what is easy (and accurate) from Internet sources.

• Do searches in NOVEL databases (and other high quality services) looking for analyzed/synthesized information.

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• If there is information you cannot find (or a source that is unavailable to you), have an information consultant continue the work for you.

• Have your employees report what they hear and see.

• Regularly report what you have found. Use it to help your company’s decision-making process.

• BTW know when to stop searching…

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How do you make CI a long-term activity?• Dedicate people and resources. ($)• Provide CI training opportunities.• Set information goals & deadlines.• Have project teams & management review

CI reports when making decisions.• Inform everyone about the activities, why

you are doing it, and how they can help.– You will never know who might come

across that one gem that you need.

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Resources

• Fuld, Leonard M. Competitor intelligence: how to get it, how to use it. John Wiley & Sons, 1985.

• Tyson, Kirk W. M. The Complete Guide to Competitive Intelligence (2nd Edition)by Leading Edge Publ., 2002.

• http://www.scip.org/ci/languagebi.pdf – a glossary of business intelligence terms.

• http://www.aiip.org – Association of Independent Information Professionals

• http://www.scip.org – Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals

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Resources: For Doing CI(A starter list)• NOVEL databases –

http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/library/novel/database/

• http://www.infotoday.com/supersearchers/ssci.htm – list of resources used by CI professionals

• http://www.fuld.com – Site contains CI tools.• http://www.factiva.com – collection of global

news and business information. ($)• http://www.businesswire.com• http://www.prnewswire.com