Achieving a strategic focus for competitive intelligence

✍ Scribed by James R. Langabeer II

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1998
• Weight: 89 KB
• Volume: 9
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 1058-0247
• DOI: 10.1002/(sici)1520-6386(199801/03)9:1<55::aid-cir9>3.0.co;2-3

✦ Synopsis

Competitive intelligence professionals know how to collect data. What I have found we struggle with is knowing what data we should be collecting. While data has become virtually a boundless commodity, available in varied formats and locations from millions of print publications to Internet sites, truly meaningful information is a limited asset. As such, the process of filtering through billions of bits and bytes for precious information on competitor and market activities requires some degree of prioritization of resources, because re-engineering and process improvement have left most corporate functions with scarce resources.

For instance, I am aware of planning and intelligence units that subscribe to over 20 data clearinghouses and Internet news groups, utilize various private information services such as Find/SVP and Standard and Poor's, and purchase over 100 journals and industry publications. Needless to say, while staff members learn a great deal about a lot of things, they consume valuable temporal resources simply ingesting data. On the other hand, much smaller units can be much more productive if they know which information is most valuable to them, and focus their analyses on only a handful of publications, services, and networking opportunities.