How to Build an
Internal Intelligence
Network
10
Creating Internal Networks:
The Why and How
Martha Singer
When I started the competitive intelligence function at the Automobile Club of Southern California, the
executive who hired me said he was sure all the competitive information needed was already somewhere
in the organization. He believed all I had to do was find it and pull it together.
If you are a company veteran chosen to initiate a competitive intelligence (CI) function, a major reason
for your selection was your existing extensive internal networks. Since I came from outside the
organization, developing internal networks was clearly my priority. However, whether you’re experienced
or new to your company, you’ll find that nurturing your internal networks is crucial to the effectiveness of
your new CI function.
In truth, much of the raw information you require is already known by company employees or they know
somebody who knows, or it’s filed somewhere in company records. Unearthing that information is a
major reason for creating internal networks. A few of the many valuable benefits your networks can
provide are:
•
•
•
•
Internal expertise, such as technical understanding of product or production or cost
differences.
Insights from employees who have worked for competitors, such as how a competitor might
react in a given situation.
Feedback from sales, such as competitors’ marketing approaches or customer complaints.
Industry or other external contacts accessible otherwise only to people in certain positions.
NETWORKS AS A FIRST STEP
A technology-savvy analyst may claim that the internet, databases, and a computer are all you need to
find whatever competitive information you want. Not so.
People relationships are essential for intelligence gathering in a new CI function. Obtaining, confirming,
and understanding information is just part of the value your internal networks provide. Information
available through these networks extends well beyond the information available from published sources.
Whether you are an experienced networker, an introvert (but great analyst) who doesn’t really want to
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meet people, or anyone in between, build effective internal networks as one of your first CI-related steps.
When I built and maintained internal networks, my CI program had increasing success. When I neglected
creating or maintaining internal networks, my success was not sustainable.
Internal networking begins, just as your CI program does, with key intelligence topics (KITs). Focus the
methods you use for building internal relationships on the information, insights, and relationships needed
to address KITs, either explicitly or implicitly. Later in this chapter I will relate my approaches, along with
comments from a few SCIP colleagues, about the avenues you can use to develop internal networks.
While each organization differs and your circumstances will vary over time even within a single
organization, you always start with the KITs.
Along with tips on how to create and maintain internal networks, I have several cautions. First, internal
clients and internal sources of information should understand and follow the ethics behind CI work.
Second, while you want to understand the perspectives of your company and its executives, a new CI
function must maintain its own wider view of the marketplace, customer trends, and other external
influences on the company’s business.
CREDIBILITY
When starting a CI operation, instill credibility for your team and a sense of importance for your function
as quickly, yet soundly, as possible. You will find skeptics among individuals who:
•
•
•
Never heard of competitive intelligence or associate it with questionable activities.
Don’t know the people involved (perhaps including you) in the new CI function.
Believe they already know everything.
What’s a newcomer who doesn’t even know the business or someone who is creating a function he’s never
performed himself going to tell anybody? Why does the company need one more group of bureaucrats
adding to overhead?
Seek help from veterans
Particularly if you or your leading staff members are new to the company, the quickest way to gain
credibility with experienced employees is asking them to help you learn about the business. Building
relationships with veteran, front-line, or operational employees (depending upon the business) can quickly
make your team knowledgeable about key issues. If you know the business well but CI is new to your
company, you can use your conversations with the current members of your networks to explain how the
new function can help the company prosper.
At the Auto Club, my primary KIT and first project involved a senior product manager and operational
managers who were company veterans. Working with them to develop an outline for the project created a
network as well as developed credibility that lasted throughout my tenure.
Visible senior backing
Having the backing of senior management is another credibility aspect required when you start a CI
function. Whether you have long experience in the company or are a newcomer who has been asked to
form the unit, a very visible endorsement from the CEO or other top executives establishes the new
function as a valuable addition to the company. Perhaps the most effective way to demonstrate CI’s
importance is to have senior management internally announce at an executive staff meeting the key
intelligence topics you are charged to analyze.
A simple announcement that the CI unit reports to a C-level executive or another powerful individual
may create sufficient credibility for your team to gain an individual’s cooperation, especially when you
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begin to network and collect information. Behind the announcement, of course, you must develop a
robust relationship with the executive to whom you report.
Truly understanding the business and building strong relationships with senior management develops
credibility that later becomes your shield. The executives who believed I understood their product line and
with whom I had built the best relationships were much more likely to accept my recommendations. They
were even more open to those suggestions that deviated from their views and implied changes they hadn’t
wanted to make.
DEVELOP CHAMPIONS
The CI function already has an automatic champion in the person who hired you or asked you to take
responsibility for it. However, personnel changes frequently happen, so you must continually recruit
intelligence champions throughout your company management. When hired by my last employer, I built
relationships with my highly skilled immediate supervisor and a smart but friendly director, both of whom
had the ear of the CEO. They were stalwart champions for my function and me.
Over time, my immediate supervisor left and my favorite director moved up. As my skill in building
relationships varied, so did my influence. While my former director remained a champion, he became
further removed from my projects. Good relationships with my superiors yielded success, but if I
neglected to work on creating a good rapport with them, I was less successful.
Some organizations have consensus-style decision-making. This situation requires you to build
connections with as many vice presidents as possible. In my case, having many supporters in the executive
suite allowed me to work in a location that provided more exposure to field operations and a shorter
commute compared to others in my business unit. Individual projects for various vice presidents also
provided me knowledge of more functions, reinforced my credibility, and broadened my view of the
competitive landscape.
INFORMATION EXCHANGE
When considering internal networks, their first value is helping you obtain the information you need to
do your job. I’ll mention it later in the chapter to emphasize other reasons for building relationships.
However, much networking efforts involve exchanging information with fellow employees.
(A word here about searching data online and tapping your internal networks: they are complementary
activities, not either-or choices. Published information becomes more meaningful when you discuss it with
an employee who knows more about the competitive situation than what the competitor’s lawyers will
allow in their press release or filing. Conversely, comments from the field can tip you to search for more
revealing facts about a competitor or marketplace situation.)
Your information requirements include:
•
•
•
•
Internal expertise, such as understanding a competitor’s financial or legal filings.
Insights from employees who have worked for competitors, such as the decision style of a
competitor’s CEO.
Feedback from the field, such as findings from a trade show.
Industry or other external contacts accessible otherwise only to executives.
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Table 1
Key Internal Information Exchange
BUSINESS UNIT
MAY GIVE YOU
YOU MAY GIVE
Executives
• KITs
• high-level reports and industry
contacts not accessible to lower
ranks
• introductions to others
• credibility
• great information, analysis and
recommendations based upon KITs
• big-picture, long-term perspective
Executive suite (admin
staff)
• clues to actual priorities, moods
• best way to get approvals
• alliances, rivalries.
• respect for their roles
• explanation of your role
• thanks for their help
Strategic plan and adhoc task forces
• clues to actual priorities and
timing of decisions
• access to other analysts,
consultants, reports
• great information, analysis and
recommendations based on KITs
• big-picture, long-term perspective
Sales
• information on customer wants
and objections
• marketplace mood and rumors
• competitors
• credibility
• respect for their work
• competitive information from
other channels
• help with competitor/product
comparisons
• report their experiences
• competitive presentations for
training
Customer service, retail
operations
• information on customer wants
• objections and comments about
competitors
• credibility
• respect for their work
• competitive information from
other channels
• report their experiences
• information and comparisons on
specific competitors/products
Marketing research
• survey data on customer
attitudes, satisfaction, wants
• how customers view company
versus competitors
• background on competitors for
designing studies
• more effective presentations by
including competitive and
marketplace aspects
Product management
• industry/product market share
and other basic data (often)
• product detail, their view of the
market and business plans
(always)
• analysis of competitors and
marketplace
• big-picture, long-term view
• any competitive data they lack
• your recommendations
You may find the best source of information to be the same person who assigned you the KITs to
research and analyze. Top executives are often excellent competitive analysts (and great industry
networkers) themselves, which makes discussions with them highly valuable.
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Table 2
Occasional Internal Information Exchange
BUSINESS UNIT
MAY GIVE YOU
YOU MAY OCCASIONALLY GIVE
Marketing
Communication
• copies of competitors’ TV, audio,
print advertising to enliven
presentations
• competitive information to
differentiate your company’s offering
from others
• competitive and trend components
of joint presentations
Public and
• competitive issues in public eye
Investor Relations • insights into working with
executives
• competitive information to prepare
press releases and responses to
questions
Legal Counsel
• information on industry and
competitors’ legal and regulatory
issues, patent activity
• access to legal databases plus
combined contract to lower
database cost
• legal advice about obtaining
competitive information
• discussions with smart analysts
• access to publications databases plus
combined contract to lower database
cost
• competitors’ marketing activities and
materials or other marketplace
information needed for legal action
Financial Units
• financial data to help calculate
competitors’ share, profit, costs, etc.
• expertise to analyze competitors’
financial statements
• discussions with educated colleagues
• access to specialized financial
publications, databases and industry
financial benchmarks
• competitive information needed for
regulatory and financial filings
• discussion of what marketplace
shifts may be behind financial
changes
• sometimes a financial unit asked me
to research an idea they wanted to
propose to executives
Information
Technology
• access to blocked web sites
• help with CI technology
• shared access and cost for expert
reports
• shared access and cost for expert
reports (e.g. Forrester)
• research on potential suppliers
Manufacturing
• knowledge of each step in
production for comparison with
competitors’ strengths and
weaknesses and marketplace
changes
• clues to competitors’ costs
• knowledge about suppliers
• access to published information
about new materials, processes and
suppliers
Research and
Development
• help to determine competitors’
technical capabilities
• understand competitors’ patent
activity
• big-picture, long-term marketplace
analysis that can help R&D focus
efforts appropriately
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BUSINESS UNIT
MAY GIVE YOU
YOU MAY OCCASIONALLY GIVE
Purchasing/
Procurement
• information about potential supply
disruptions, vendor problems, cost
increases and the like
• source for ordering Dun &
Bradstreet reports (sometimes)
• access to published information
about existing and potential
suppliers, materials and products
Human Resources
• alerts when new employees have
worked for competitors
• alerts to intellectually curious
employees or applicants who could
join your staff
• competitive information for use in
orientation, training, applications for
training funds
Sometimes you can gain access to information by simply being friendly but professional and persistent.
Other times, people only participate in information sharing when they perceive a benefit to themselves or
their function. Tables 1 and 2 on internal information exchange provide examples of the many ways you
can trade your information and analysis for information and other assistance from various business units.
You’ll want to target those functions and executives or managers who can provide the information you
require at any given time.
However, executives are too often isolated in executive suites, which is one reason your internal
networking will become valuable to them. In addition, your mid-management-level contacts help you
learn where to get information, as well as how to present CI analysis and recommendations that will
create action. After your analysis convinces executives to change a policy or plan, it’s the implementation
that generates results.
When you give executives, managers, or other employees information, you can more easily get
information, insights, cooperation, credibility and champions from them. The other gift that keeps the
information flowing is appreciation. Always say “Thank you” by e-mail or handwritten note after
someone sends you information. Some managers admitted they looked for information to send me just to
receive that word of thanks.
EXCHANGE OF INSIGHTS AND PERSPECTIVES
Consultants, academics, and other experts may denounce corporate information silos, but their walls
exist. Part of your CI role requires you to connect people or at least create connections among business
units. The more diverse the viewpoints you receive, the better your team can understand how to analyze
the collected data and make appropriate, actionable recommendations. Also, it’s helpful just to talk with
other smart, well-educated people to gain additional background you can apply to your analysis.
For example, employees who have worked in other companies can be helpful in identifying what a
competitor might do, even if they didn’t work directly for the competitor. Employees who have worked
elsewhere can apply a different perspective to an issue. The thinking of your company veterans about
what a competitor might do is affected by their knowledge of what your company would do under the
same circumstances. At the same time, long-term company employees provide historical perspective which
can help you understand your executives’ attitudes and assumptions. With robust internal networks you
accumulate different viewpoint concerning competitive issues and they help you guard against internal
biases or stereotypes.
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SO MANY POSSIBLE NETWORKS, SO LITTLE TIME
Especially when your CI team is an army of one or two, you must set priorities and stay with them.
Review your KITs and identify your most important information needs. Then contact the company
function most likely to have that information. For example, in some industries market share information
generated by the category trade association is given to a specific company function, so your team should
identify that internal function and contact them to gain access to the information.
If you or your team leaders are new to the company, develop at least a few relationships with individuals
further down the organizational chain who can provide you with the essential “know our business”
credibility. However, if an executive created your CI function to support a particular unit rather than the
whole company, start your relationship-building with that person and his direct reports.
THE IMPORTANT SALES RELATIONSHIP
Apart from understanding the perspectives of people in your own chain of command, know your business
from your customers’ viewpoint. Customer-facing business units offer valuable insights. That’s why sales
managers and top sales people are essential components of most CI internal networks.
However, take extra care when cultivating sales managers. These managers know their people have
valuable information and may be rather proprietary about retaining it. In addition, they don’t want any
salespeople’s time taken away from selling. Since knowledge and time are the most valuable commodities
around, you may need to prove that you’ll make their contribution even more valuable.
While the CI function’s value to company success and its support by senior executives are known to other
organizational managers, sales managers may need to see what tangible benefits intelligence brings to
their sales effort. For example, CI analysis may lead to a recommendation for more effective sales support
or better products or a financially stronger company. At the start of a project, no one knows what the
final recommendations will be, but if answering the KIT questions could lead to increasing sales or
marketing support, it’s reasonable to suggest a future improvement as a possibility.
Some sales managers take pride in telling you what you need to know. Others will be pleased you are
capturing the competitive information their sales people never write down or tell them. Some may confide
in you because perhaps you can convince executives of the truth that sales has been trying to tell them
right from the start. A few will let you accompany a sales person for a few calls just to prove how
important sales is, how tough sales is, how naïve you are, or what a good sport the manager is being in
face of his boss’ demand for cooperation with you.
If sales managers stonewall your CI team by claiming they already report any important competitive
information and your participation is unneeded, think through your alternatives and talk with your
supervisor about the politics involved. Possible solutions include the following:
•
•
•
Re-emphasize the value to sales of better competitive information and explore ways of
cooperation. Explain to the sales manager that your support and additional research will
enhance his reports. Could your CI team be added to the report’s distribution list? If there is
no written report, could you help him by writing one? Could you attend a sales meeting
where they discuss the information?
If you are a company veteran, use your internal network to learn ways to gain sales’
cooperation.
If you are new to the company, change the topic from competition to your need to talk with
sales people to learn the business, especially since sales is so central to the company. (How
could a sales manager dispute this?)
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•
Back off entirely until you’ve learned how to deal with that manager and impressed him (and
his superiors) with the great work of your CI team.
Other tips for developing relationships with sales
managers and sales people include the approaches
contained in sidebar 1.
OTHER CUSTOMER-FACING UNITS
Your network should include other customer-facing
departments such as customer service (often a
phone/internet center these days) and retail
associates. First networking with their managers
smoothed my interaction with these employees. The
approaches for developing relationships with sales
people generally apply to these groups. Since these
units often have higher staff turnover, you’re likely to
find more employees in them who have worked for
competitors.
A question that frequently comes up is how contact
centers can collect competitive information. While I
have no certain answer, I have encountered one call
center that did – in a way. It was a small unit
intended to convince people to renew a service they
had canceled or let expire. Sometimes, the manager
would agree to have the phone representatives write
down – often with tally marks next to a list – reasons
for canceling or other objections or alternatives to the
company’s service.
For companies using customer relationship
management systems, employees may learn to enter
competitive information routinely, but in a less
automated sales situation it’s difficult to wrest time
from selling for any other purpose.
PRODUCT MANAGEMENT
When starting a CI function, determine what group
besides sales already conducts formal or information
competitive analysis. Product managers are the most
likely answer and they should continue developing
their own detailed product comparisons. CI should
focus primarily on overall company strategy.
However, that may not be your situation and,
sometimes, it was not mine.
Generally, product managers are direct or indirect
clients of the intelligence function. The better ones
embrace some CI activities as a regular part of their
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Sidebar 1
Tips for Developing a
Good Relationship with
Sales
Sales people often prefer to talk with you in
person, although you can interview them by
phone. Today’s experienced sales people often
don’t have time for e-mail or other written or
electronic communication. The coming Facebook
generation may be different, but they’re still
likely to trust face-to-face communication.
(Waisberg 2007)
Do not expect sales representatives to log into an
internal web site or fill out an electronic form to
report competitive information. Make reporting
CI as easy and convenient as possible for them,
and accept their information in a variety of
formats (in-person conversations, phone calls, emails, etc.). It’s your job to accumulate this
information, summarize it, and put it into a
single, usable format.
Going into the field to talk with or accompany
sales people takes time. They choose the time
that’s best for them. Ask what attire is
appropriate. Once, I failed to wear a hard hat
when I should have.
Make clear the ethics and company policy under
which the CI function operates when collecting
competitive information. The last thing you want
is to receive emails with confidential documents
attached to them.
Sales people need to be positive and upbeat in
their work. Thus, although I listened and visibly
recorded their complaints, probing for customer
objections, I remained positive in any comments I
made about our company or its products. Sales
managers, and sometimes the sales people
themselves, may be looking for an opportunity to
discredit you. Your perceived negativity can be
seen as undermining the sales effort. Therefore,
any negative analysis you have about products or
services should be addressed only to decisionmakers when you report on those topics.
jobs, so good relationships here become mutually beneficial. When product managers develop product
comparisons, your analysis of customer and marketplace trends and other KIT-related topics can be quite
valuable to product planning and sales goals. At the same time, your knowledge of product managers’
efforts and plans can help frame your recommendations to senior management. Your CI function’s goal is
to create recommended actions that can be implemented in your company’s circumstances, while
maintaining your objectivity and wider perspective on the marketplace.
Given your and the product managers’ mutual interest in good competitive and marketplace intelligence,
you can create a tacit agreement on what each will do, or you can develop a specific managementapproved agreement. I’ve done it both ways. While it would seem fair to have the unit with the larger
staff do more of the detail work, my experience is that business, like life, is not always fair.
BUILD RELATIONSHIPS WITH NETWORK MEMBERS
When your manager distributes a memo about your hiring and the new intelligence function, this makes
people curious to meet you. Your unit’s periodical staff meetings create another opportunity to meet and
interact with your colleagues. At the least, you can start with your immediate office neighbors to learn
who generates the information your CI team requires to support your KITs.
As a veteran employee, you already know the functions and people necessary to build CI-related
interaction and can use your informal contacts from the beginning. When you are new to the company,
emphasize more formal exchanges such as interviews and lunch dates until your relationship networks
develop.
Interview executives, employees who have worked for competitors, veteran employees who can help you
“understand the business” quickly or provide expertise for a particular analysis, product managers, and
marketing people who may be both clients and sources of information. Start by interviewing the highestranking person involved in forming the CI function to gain basic information and insights. Your meeting
with that person can help smooth your path when you contact others for appointments and information.
In any interview, my practice is to visibly take notes, both to help me recall the conversation and to show
that their words are important enough to write down.
Do lunch
Many companies have cafeterias or nearby informal eating places where workers at all levels in the
organization can get together. If your company offers this opportunity, use it frequently. When you
casually meet other employees or when they respond to information you’ve sent them, ask if you can meet
them for lunch to become better acquainted or to discuss additional information you need. When starting
the CI function, use your “learning the business” mode or your “explaining CI and its value to the
company” theme as a reason to ask someone to lunch.
You can benefit from other contacts made in the lunchroom as well. Take advantage of any introductions
to find future luncheon companions and subsequent sources of information. Focus on people in those
functions where you’re most likely to receive the input and insights your CI analysis requires.
Mandated breaks may be your only chance to chat briefly with front-line retail associates and service
representatives. I learned about local travel trends by eating lunch at the same time as some experienced
travel agents.
When you can’t meet face-to-face
“Wait!” you say, “I’m 1,000 miles from the customer service center or the sales staff. Lunch isn’t an
option.” You may eventually travel to one or all of these distant sites. Then have lunch with as many
people as possible.
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I traveled only once to Texas, where we had hundreds of employees, to give a presentation at an all(Texas) managers meeting which included several meals. I took the opportunity to chat with individuals
during meals. I made handouts and interacted during the presentation as personally as possible, giving
each manager data or asking questions pertinent to that manager’s area of responsibility.
While personalizing the presentation required much preliminary work, the effort was well worth it. That
one trip provided face-to-face contact with 20-to-30 people. It allowed me to secure an internal network I
continued through phone and e-mail for years afterward. I had e-mailed and phoned some of the
managers earlier, but once we met, later phone and e-mail contacts became conversations among friends.
Conference telephone calls were regular events for certain projects in which I was involved, which meant I
“met” and built relationships with executives and managers I never saw in person. As one CI practitioner
explains it, conference calls to colleagues elsewhere are easy because everyone already has the equipment
on their desk. This person’s group is also exploring Wiki or blog approaches to conversation, but just
picking up the phone may prove easier (Kruger 2007). In companies where instant messaging (IM) is
allowed and familiar to most people, IM may facilitate conversations with distant colleagues just as easily
as a phone call (WSJ 2007).
A variation on the conference call is internet-based conferencing through programs such as WebEx. In my
experience, WebEx sessions help explain and develop buy-in when distant executives and managers are
skeptical about your CI program. Everyone sees the graphs and illustrations, not just hears about data.
An internet conferencing tool can be helpful in developing the trust aspect of networking.
In our group projects at the Auto Club, having files on a shared drive was our preferred method of
working together. They created closer relationships with managers who had little time for another meeting
(and skipped lunch). We also created relationships by meeting unexpected needs. We developed new
friends, usually at field locations, who found our reports in the Public Folders section of Outlook useful.
We had placed information there for the convenience of known clients, but others we didn’t know needed
it too. We discovered them when they called to ask for more detail or during regional or training meetings
where they introduced themselves.
MEETINGS, CLASSES, PRESENTATIONS, AND COMPANY-WIDE COMMUNICATION
If your company has new employee orientations, introduce yourself and your function to everyone there.
Since the audience could include staff from any work group, it’s a special opportunity to add new
branches to your network. Furthermore, you can find out if any worked for competitors and make a note
to talk with them later.
After you make a good start on your most important relationships and create something interesting to
report, find the time to introduce your function to units beyond your priority clients. I created a short
presentation on what competitive intelligence is, what my responsibilities were (including the need to have
an external, big-picture view of the marketplace), and how I used information. I kept the presentation
updated, ready to give at departmental staff meetings such as field locations or sales groups. Sometimes, I
added a slide or two specific to the audience’s function.
Regional meetings or other occasions where several units gather are opportunities to introduce yourself
and the CI function, including how they can send or receive information. Make an effort to be added to
the agenda. The executive who hired you can help generate your invitations to appropriate meetings. I
found these events very helpful to meet managers I would not otherwise see in person. Also, in-person
presentations are more effective than memos or reports in engaging individuals. After these events, phone
and e-mail communication became much easier.
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Learn from the person who hired you how to place
an article into the employee newsletter or the
company intranet (or whatever communication
medium is used internally). If your picture
accompanies the article, even better. Most managers
and employees will then “know” you and be more
receptive to further interaction with you. Employees
generally want to tell someone about the competitive
information they acquire. Let them know you’re the
person to contact. Such visibility helped me when I
needed employees to send in direct mail they received
from competitors in categories where this was the
only marketing channel.
Sidebar 2
A Telephone Conference
Call as a Good
Networking Tool
Whether for general networking purposes or a
specific project, you want to develop
relationships with executives and managers
beyond your own location:
•
Internal classes, workshops, and employee events
allow you to meet people who are your networking
targets. These meetings enabled me to talk with
front-line employees and supervisors, who can
provide unexpected insights into your company’s
business. Some companies support volunteer activities
that help charities or other non-profit organizations.
Signing up for them provides you both extra
credibility and another opportunity to meet
employees other than those you regularly.
•
•
•
NETWORKS FOR SPECIFIC PURPOSES
A formal network may be necessary when certain
employees such as salespeople constantly receive
A conference call is an appointment, with a
commitment to dial in at specific time and an
agreed-upon purpose, presumably focused on
information or analysis related to your key
intelligence topics.
You can e-mail handouts to participants
ahead of time if you need visuals.
A conference call can include people you
already know and introduce you to others
you haven’t yet met, similar to a meeting or
lunch where you meet friends of someone
you already know.
As one CI professional puts it, everyone
already has the equipment on their desk. A
telephone is familiar technology that usually
doesn’t divert attention from the
conversation.
Sidebar 3
The Princess and the Wallflower
When I was a four-eyed, awkward teen, I stumbled onto an effective way to meet boys. At teen dances, I
sat next to a well-groomed, poised charm-school graduate who was so popular that several boys at once
would ask her to dance. She chose one and the others found themselves face-to-face with me.
A similar technique works for internal networking and I used it. Get a great networker to introduce you
to the people you want to meet. You can be sure the networking pro has already met them. Furthermore,
the networking pro is probably one of the first in line to meet you.
Here’s an example. When I started at the Auto Club, a single key intelligence topic required all my
attention and other business lines were not considered part of my responsibility. Nevertheless, a couple of
assistant product managers from another business line introduced themselves and became very friendly
with me. One of them, who had joined the organization about the same time I had, especially went out
of his way to introduce me to managers and executives he’d met. The more reserved of the two was the
son of a long-time executive at the Club, so he knew whom to contact internally for almost any kind of
information. Both these men worked with me when I turned my attention to their business line, and later
advanced to positions to use CI more strategically. When you meet great networkers, make the most of
the opportunity.
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competitive information that should be shared, or
when an ad-hoc project requires information not
normally gathered. When a company has several CI
units, a formal network provides collection
advantages. An example is the creation of a CI
Forum at Pacific Bell that helped provide “a more
comprehensive overview than any of us could have
accomplished individually” (Baul 2004). In many
companies with multiple units, ‘communities of
practice’ are popular mechanisms for a more formal
and regular discussion of competitive information.
Ad-hoc networks
One example of an ad hoc project was a task that
required a colleague to quantify competing marketing
campaigns in a specific geography not otherwise
measured by the industry or a third party. She set up
a network of employees living in the relevant zip
codes who reported the local marketing efforts to her
for several weeks. Another example was an ad-hoc
team that created a system where managers shopped
certain competitor’s retail locations for a specific
season and geography. In both cases, using employees
rather than outside vendors was part of the project’s
objective to get employees more involved in
understanding the competition they faced.
An ongoing CI report could create a formal network
if others in the company are asked (or offer) to
regularly submit information. I tried several versions
of this, but generally ended up doing most or all the
report with varying levels of information
contributions. Sometimes my unit managers preferred
the “brand” I had built up and were reluctant to give
other groups exposure. You may have different
dynamics and better luck.
Sales and marketing networks
Sidebar 4
Tips for Building
Relationships with
Executives
Emphasize longer-term horizons and strategic
aspects of KITs to sustain interest in intelligence.
Mention the SCIP code of ethics to avoid
expectations that you will be a corporate spy.
Explain your responsibility as a CI professional
to focus externally on the marketplace with as
much objectivity as possible to help reduce
expectation that you’ll spin reports to suit
someone’s agenda.
Respond promptly to at least some small part of
an executive’s request to show you listen and to
build credibility.
Relay a nugget of information with brief analysis
to an executive to build a relationship.
Send a memo on a competitive or marketplace
issue to show you’ve hit the ground running (or
later, that you’re alert to immediate needs for
information).
Start a competitive newsletter for select clients to
update executives periodically.
Use an outside expert’s report to point to the
importance of intelligence.
Do great work to help the company (and build
credibility).
Sales and marketing networks are among the most
effective formal internal networks. This network
requires senior sales management’s approval, and their strong positive buy-in. First convince the most
senior sales executive of the benefits to sales in collecting and exchanging competitive information. As
noted earlier, a sales unit tends to be protective of its employees’ valuable time, reluctant to share valuable
information and wary of any activity that could overshadow or diminish its influence in the corporation.
Show them how sales’ position in the company can increase through the exchange of competitive
information.
With the help of product management for one business line, we set up a sales panel to exchange
information about competition. Sales management provided access to several good sales people and we
had valuable discussions over several months. I gained insights into customer objections and provided
them information about another marketing channel that appeared to be growing in importance.
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When the product managers changed positions, the experiment ended. By that time, I learned enough to
conduct additional research and created a report on the emerging channel. Eventually, one of the former
product managers applied the report’s recommendations to create and manage a successful new unit
combining the advantages of several channels.
Common rules and wider perspectives
With any internal project involving many people, everyone must adhere to common rules. When CI is
part of the project, explain the ethics of collecting competitive information, but also remind participants
to follow the confidentiality agreements they have signed for your company and their previous employers.
Some experts suggest having a company attorney involved in ethics development (Herring 2004).
A major advantage of projects that create formal networks is the wider perspective gained through
exposure to others’ viewpoints and their competitive perspective on the marketplace. That advantage, or
its promise, encourages development of systems to make networking attempts more permanent and
widespread. Here, I will briefly cover one system I have used.
AAA GATEWAY
AAA, formerly the Automobile Association of America, is a confederation of several locally-owned
organizations that use the AAA brand. The Automobile Club of Southern California is one of the major
locally-owned affiliates of AAA. I became familiar with AAA Gateway (based upon the Viva Intelligence
Plaza from Novintel) while working there. As detailed in Competitive Intelligence magazine and also
presented at the 2003 SCIP Conference, the Gateway stores electronically articles, research reports,
company profiles and even brief “what you’ve heard” comments (Cadden 2003).
The Gateway constantly collected information from around the country, retrieved with a few clicks by
any AAA affiliate manager with a password. It also linked background material to AAA’s Competitive
Update newsletter, allowing easy access to cited articles. From my standpoint, it worked well and saved
time. However, like any system, it is effective only for those who make the effort to contribute and
retrieve information – at least 95% of the Gateway information was entered by the AAA headquarters CI
staff, rather than the affiliated clubs.
Formal electronic repositories such as AAA Gateway, as well as the surprise friends we gained by simply
putting information in a place others could find it, illustrate the positive results of establishing networks.
When I started the competitive analysis function at the Auto Club I made appointments to introduce
myself and the CI function, produced reports and presentations that received attention, and otherwise
looked for ways for my function to be more visible. Once fellow employees knew me and how I used and
analyzed information, they were more likely to spontaneously provide useful information, as well as
directly search for reports themselves.
A network with information flowing both to and from a CI unit, spells success – and danger. Whenever
company management changes, you need to reconstitute the network. Success can easily lull you into a
false sense of security. Whenever I stopped reinventing my internal network by building new relationships
with changing executives and managers, my effectiveness suffered. Learn from my experience – work to
keep your internal network up to date.
SUMMARY
Internal networks develop CI credibility and champions, as well as exchange information, insights, and
perspectives. Electronic systems can’t substitute for human relationships.
Starting a Competitive Intelligence Function
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Information and insights required to analyze KITs provide the focus of network building. Start creating
relationships as close to the top of your company hierarchy as you can. Techniques for making contacts
with others include interviews, meetings, conference calls, lunch, and whatever means of sending
information is available, along with informal chats.
The more information you exchange, the more your network grows, as others want information too.
When you develop a constant flow of incoming and outgoing CI information, you’ve created success. The
catch is, you’ll need to renew your network with every reorganization and management change.
REFERENCES
Baul, Don (2004). “CI survival: Networking to the bottom line,” Competitive Intelligence Magazine,
v7/2, March-April, p51.
Cadden, Robin and Hanniford, Jeff (2003). “The AAA Intelligence Portal implementation,” Competitive
Intelligence Magazine, v6/2, March-April p42-44.
Herring, Jan and Horowitz, Richard (2004). “Forging a strategic alliance with your legal department,”
Competitive Intelligence Magazine, v7/2, March-April p17-20.
Kruger, Thomas, Conversation with Thomas Kruger, BAX Global, May 15, 2007.
Waisberg, Deena (2007). “Net works for Generation Y,” Financial Post, March 28 (accessed through
canada.com)
Wall Street Journal (2007). “Instant Messaging Invades the Office,” Wall Street Journal, July 24, pB1.
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