Competitive Intelligence
for Information Professionals
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Competitive Intelligence
for Information
Professionals
Charlotte Håkansson
Margareta Nelke
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About the authors
Charlotte Håkansson achieved her master’s in Library and Information Science in
1997 from the Swedish School of Library and Information Science. As an information
professional she first started her career in the pharmaceutical industry as a Documentalist at Ferring in Sweden in 1996 and then continued as a Medical Information
Specialist and Corporate Intranet Project Manager at Ferring International Centre in
Denmark in 1999. In 2004 she was offered the position of Business Intelligence Manager at corporate level at Nycomed in Denmark – a position she held until 2010 when
the company moved to Zurich.
In 2011 she founded Novolentia – a consultant company working with individual
and qualitative deliveries of business intelligence processes and solutions. Novolentia
offers specialised and competitive business intelligence as well as structured information management within businesses, organisations and public areas.
In 2012 she was offered a position for research support at the library of the ­Swedish
University for Agricultural Sciences – SLU University Library. Charlotte is today
working as a Team Leader Research Support at SLU University Library besides
­managing her own business at Novolentia.
Charlotte has a broad international experience of project management: corporate
projects to analyse organisational processes, global intranet implementation, discovery and database solutions, business intelligence systems, information management of
competitor solutions and information audits.
She is a member of the Swedish Association of Information Specialists (SFIS) as
well as a coordinator of SFIS’s Business Intelligence Network. Charlotte has also been
a chair of the Swedish Association of Information Specialists South between 2006 and
2009. During the same time period Charlotte worked as an external lecturer in Business Intelligence at Copenhagen University in Denmark.
Before starting her career as an information professional Charlotte was a registered
nurse and has extensive clinical experience from the University Hospital in Lund,
Sweden.
Margareta Nelke graduated from the Swedish School of Library and Information
Science in 1982 and took a diploma in Marketing Management in 1990. After a short
period at a public library and a university library she worked as an information specialist in corporations. In 1983 she took up the position of library manager at AlfaLaval and in 1989 she got a similar position at Tetra Pak. At Tetra Pak the library was
transformed into a Technology Intelligence function in 1999. In June 2002 she took
up a position as the Global Technology Intelligence Process Owner at Tetra Pak. From
2004 and onwards she has been working as an independent consultant in her firm, I.C.
at Once, offering investigations, coaching and training in competitive intelligence,
information management and business development.
xii
About the authors
During the years she has contributed to several publications and written journal
articles and books on knowledge management and competitive intelligence. She has
also lectured at seminars and conferences, in some cases as the keynote speaker. In
2002 she was awarded by the Special Library Association the ESLY 2002 (European
Special Librarian of the Year 2002). She is a member of the Swedish Association of
Information Specialists and was the President of this association between 2006 and
2009. She was also a member of the board of the Swedish School of Library and
­Information Science between 2008 and 2014.
The authors may be contacted at:
Charlotte.hakansson@novolentia.com
margareta.nelke@telia.com
Foreword
The amount of business information that is available and possible to analyse is gigantic and increases every day. This fact results in new challenges in how information is
investigated. Today, information in diverse areas is collected and stored in different
databases and servers globally and the uses of the Internet have made detailed searches
and retrieval of information available from a laptop anywhere. This is convenient and
allows online searches and the identification of information that has just recently been
uploaded and made available. For example, day-to-day searches can provide updated
and important pieces of information if operated in the right way. Thus an organisation
that operates in a competitive environment needs to have planned and structured competitive intelligence processes. Such intelligence allows the organisation to develop
and keep its competitive advantage over its contenders – intelligence work must be a
central and prioritised activity in any organisation in order to meet future challenges.
A scheduled and structured competitive intelligence process includes areas that are
diverse but essential in the organisation, areas which together form the overall operational base. In a company, examples of such areas can be technical, scientific, patent,
market and, in the case of pharmaceuticals, also regulatory information. Due to the
Internet, searchable information is turned over rapidly – information that is relevant
today might not be so tomorrow. Thus a carefully planned competitive intelligence
operation is even more important today.
People working in a competitive situation often recognise the need for competitive
intelligence and this requirement is met by ambitious in-house programmes. This is
a good start, but to fully exploit the potential of this effort, a dedicated and structured
way of working is necessary and will improve the outcome of the operations. In the
process of improving the structure of the work questions arise: how do we find information that is relevant, what do we lack and how do we structure and analyse the intelligence information? This leads to follow-up questions like: do we look into the most
relevant databases, are we using appropriate search strings and is the wealth of information acquired structured and analysed by individuals with the right competence?
In many situations, information is collected in an ad hoc manner, without a structure
to organise the search in a cost-efficient way. A lot is to be gained if the intelligence
information work is planned and organised – the benefit is cost and time-efficient
identification of relevant information to ensure the best benefit for the organisation.
This book is written by Charlotte Håkansson and Margareta Nelke, two information
specialist professionals with long experience. The book addresses important issues in
the area of competitive intelligence and includes two important comments, first on the
process of planning, retrieval and analysis of intelligence information and, second, on
the strategic and proactive role that the information specialist professional must play
in this process. The structured and process-oriented way of working is discussed. For
xiv
Foreword
instance, the wealth of information can result in information overload which can pose
problems – there is simply too much information to analyse. Furthermore, after the
analyses have been successfully performed, good communication skills are essential
to import the new knowledge into the organisation. This book brings up important
issues in the field of competitive intelligence and should be read by any professional
who wants to know more of this area of work. In addition, the book is important for
information specialists who want to learn more about the proactive project leader role
that they can take on in competitive intelligence work.
Competitive intelligence is nothing new – it has been used for centuries, for instance for military and commercial purposes. In earlier times information collection
and analysis took a long time. In contrast, the speed with which essential information
is handled today has increased enormously. This is truly a dramatic change and competitive intelligence work must adjust and be organised in an optimal way to the new
the circumstances. This book then contributes to the understanding of how to improve
and adapt competitive intelligence operations.
Eskil Söderlind, PhD, MBA
Avena Partners
Acknowledgments
This book is a collection of experiences and thoughts around the complex area of
competitive intelligence in our daily lives. We who have written this book are senior
information professionals and it has been a great pleasure to share our thoughts and
experiences from working with competitive intelligence for quite a long time.
But without the support from our dedicated reviewers this work would have been
so much more difficult. Thank you, Jonna Nilsdotter and Joanne Hurman, for being so
supportive and professionally critical in your approach. We also want to thank Eskil
Söderlind, of Avena Partners, for sharing his business advice and providing us with
a valuable foreword to this book. We are also most grateful to our colleague Lena
­Ekelund who, without hesitation, became our reference expert.
List of abbreviations
AIDAS
CIFOR
CSF
DOI
EPISTELM
EWS
KIT
KPI
MOE
PCMAC
PEST
SCIP
SFIS
SLA
SMART
SWOT
TIP
Attention, Interest, Desire, Action, Satisfaction
Center for International Forestry Research
Critical Success Factors
Digital Object Identifier
Economics, Politics, Institutions, Society, Technology, Environment, Legal, Media
Early Warning System
Key Intelligence Topic
Key Performance Indicator
Measure of Effectiveness
Plan & Prioritise, Capture, Manage, Analyse, Communicate
Politics, Economics, Society, Technology
Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals
Swedish Association for Information Specialists
Special Libraries Association
Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Reliable, Time-bound
Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats
Technology Intelligence Process
Introduction
Monitoring and analysing the external world is something that everybody is doing –
it is a matter of survival for individuals, companies and organisations. This type of
monitoring is more or less conscious as we continuously notice what is happening in
the surrounding world and plan our actions having taken this into consideration, often
without being aware of this behaviour.
This is a book about something quite different from the unconscious scanning and
analysing of the surrounding world. It is about a systematic and structured way of
working to transform scattered and disaggregated information into actionable intelligence to create valuable insights and even wisdom to be used in strategic and operational decisions and actions.
Corporations are constantly experiencing the need for competitive intelligence for
their survival. Competition is growing harder as the speed of change is increasing rapidly, hence the need to quickly anticipate coming threats and opportunities. Markets
are shifting rapidly, new emerging markets form strong competition, new technologies
and innovations are replacing or taking market shares from old ones, and political
changes open up or close down business opportunities.
While other organisations have not previously felt the same need for competitive
intelligence this has changed and in publicly funded authorities, universities and other
organisations the competition – and thus interest in working with competitive intelligence – has increased in the twenty-first century. These organisations have to compete
with other publicly funded organisations for limited resources and with corporations
taking over markets in publicly funded areas.
The biggest revolution in modern times has been the way information technologies and networks have changed how we communicate and exchange information, in
terms of both methods and speed. This has had an enormous impact on the daily life of
corporations and organisations as well as that of human beings. It is both a trigger and
a prerequisite for qualitative competitive intelligence. In order to take advantage of
the benefits of the IT revolution (and avoid the pitfalls) we must possess information
competence. The ability to access, evaluate and use information sources and information is a fundamental skill in a modern society, and it is certainly a fundamental skill in
performing competitive intelligence. We argue that information professionals, trained
as they are in information competence, are very much able to take a far more active
role in competitive intelligence work in their parent organisation than they do today.
This book thus also aims at highlighting the role that information professionals can
play to add value to their organisation’s competitive intelligence or working ­objectives.
It addresses all information professionals who want to expand their field of working
and knowledge to encompass competitive intelligence, who want to get methods, tips
xx
Introduction
and tools for how to do it, promote it and argue for resources for it, and who want to
argue for the unique competence of an information professional.
We want to encourage and inspire information professionals to take the lead in the
implementation and development of competitive intelligence in our organisations. We
would like to share our broad competence and knowledge gained from working with
competitive intelligence in the pharmaceutical and packaging industry. We also have
common experience of having a specific competence which fits the core competences of
information professionals. Even though the kind of background a competitive intelligence
manager has varies a lot there are not too many information specialists in this business.
We want to give not only an overview of the competitive intelligence process – as
in the chapters on competitive intelligence from start to end – but also a toolbox of
useful approaches that could support working with competitive intelligence in a structured way. Chapter 12 on tools and methods provides a toolbox that gives a selection
of both useful tools and analytical methods that we have experience of but have also
found valuable to use. Adding real-life cases not only from both our own experiences
but also from other businesses and organisations hopefully will make the theoretical
chapters more tangible. Chapters such as 8 on ‘Knowledge Management – A Vital
Component of Competitive Intelligence’, 7 on ‘The Organisational Side of Competitive Intelligence’ and 2 on ‘The Right Leadership Adds Value to Competitive Intelligence’ are very important success factors for implementing structured competitive
intelligence. Knowledge sharing is a must which adds important tangible and nontangible aspects to the gathering of publications and information from databases and
other information resources. Knowledge sharing is also an important analytical part
of the competitive intelligence process. Knowledge about the organisation and how
to organise intelligence is a core impact factor in the development of successful competitive intelligence. Taking the lead as an information professional and also having
top management included in the consent for the performance of processes and their
implementation are crucial for success. Top management must be aware of the added
value as described in Chapter 1 on ‘The Value of Competitive Intelligence’. It is as
essential to work on an organisational level as it is to work on an individual level, as
we suggest in Chapter 10 on ‘The Role of the Information Professional in Competitive Intelligence’ and in Chapter 9 on ‘The Human Side of Competitive Intelligence’.
A further chapter deals with the working processes around visualising intelligence:
Chapter 11 on ‘Promoting Competitive Intelligence: The Importance of Marketing,
Communication and Evaluation’. It is essential to work with this in a conscious and
deliberate way. Making communication plans in close connection with project plans
and annual action plans is often forgotten, but it is very important both in new implementations but also in keeping up awareness of the important developments.
Our conclusions from a lifetime of work experience are that competitive intelligence managed in a structured way adds value to every business and organisation’s
future development and competitiveness. It helps an organisation to manage the information overload and it adds value to the analysis of activity plans to meet known and
unknown competition. The information professional competence profile fits well with
the competence profile which is needed to lead the introduction and development of
competitive intelligence processes in every organisation.
The value of competitive
intelligence
1
Definition of competitive intelligence
The development of intelligence historically emanates from the war industry. Business management embraced competitive intelligence and developed it so as to enable
a sharpening of the edge of competition, as well as to prepare for strategic and structural changes.
Business intelligence is by definition the overall term which embraces the diverse
palette of intelligence. There is a wide range of various definitions which include all
sub-groups such as competitor intelligence, market intelligence, technology intelligence, scientific intelligence, etc. We have chosen to use competitive intelligence as
an overall term to make the definition more transparent and distinct. Another reason
for choosing this term instead of the term business intelligence is to avoid confusing
it with business intelligence when used as a term in data warehouse terminology.
Business intelligence is used in the IT department to designate internal data for IT
solutions for sales figures, customers, prices, etc. It is very important to have a crystalclear definition of the terminology used in our context. We need to put careful planning and effort into the implementation of the significance being decided specifically
for our organisation.
We use the term competitive intelligence to simplify the implementation of the
concept in other parts of the organisation. It is a more neutral term than business
intelligence, it describes the concept better and it tells the audience something.
But be aware – competitive intelligence is not to be confused with competitor
intelligence, which is the investigation of the competitor instead of the full range
of impact factors affecting our business environment. An important aspect of
competitive intelligence is thinking outside the box, finding the unexpected and
examining areas which are not obvious in the daily work routines or in the present
strategy.
Why is the importance of competitive intelligence
increasing?
Why should corporations and organisations put effort and resources into strategic and
competitive intelligence? The answer is because the cost of process-oriented, structural intelligence provides value in many ways.
The importance of intelligence is increasing for businesses. Several factors have
an impact on why, and we will describe some of those mentioned in various research
2
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
reports by Bohman (2009) and Lundqvist (2010), as well as some from our own experience:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
globalisation
individualisation
competition
complexity
the demand for knowledge
IT development
threats
crises
a common view.
These factors were defined in the research report from the investigation of 50 national public authorities in Sweden between 2005 and 2007. Interviews were carried
out by the Institute for Futures Studies (Lundqvist, 2010). We found that these impact
factors were applicable and generic for a larger environment than just the public sector in Sweden when compared with our own experience from international corporate
business and academia.
Globalisation
Changing structures in society and changing organisational cultures make an impact.
The world is becoming more global – and it is shrinking. We are working, travelling
and partnering in a growing international context. Country borders are of less importance in globalisation while the Internet and digital communication are of greater
importance. The demand for smart interactivity increases e-learning, open innovation,
open spaces, open communication, open universities and social networking.
Research communication is changing – universities are becoming more and more
internationalised while researchers must interact in a global arena and communicate at
international conferences, world-wide seminars and open-space project groups.
Businesses are moving faster and faster around the globe. Developing countries
have undergone quick market growth and major changes are taking place in the industries of the USA, Europe and Japan.
Globalisation takes place on several levels as well as in our minds. We are becoming citizens of the world and our knowledge about each other is increasing in fast and
sometimes unpredictable ways as a result of increased migration and both physical
and virtual movement.
Individualisation
On the other hand, the tendency for individualisation in our society is evolving compared to a few decades ago. This phenomenon probably appears at certain intervals
and frequencies. The reason for our individualistic approach could, of course, be related to the rapid development of information overflow and the impact of faster and
greater stimuli. The outlook for our surrounding environment becomes even more
important if we as individuals have a need to protect ourselves against information
The value of competitive intelligence
3
flooding. Society is experiencing an acceleration in production in research and development within science. On one hand we need to cope with this as individuals and on
another hand we need to be a part of the future development of the modern society.
Nobody wants to be ‘left’ behind.
Competition
Every corporation, organisation and public sector is exposed to increasing competition –
we have to compete in a more differentiated market. We often refer to the potential of the
BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and now also including South Africa) –
where a fast-growing, very well-educated middle class is competing in the global arena.
This considerable potential must be met and challenged by other countries. The western
hemisphere must adjust to completely new markets and new relationships.
To do that we have to change from an industrialised society to a community which
is information- and knowledge-based. New demands for changes require completely
new sets of skills and training. Our society has to adjust to new developments resulting
from the demands of these changes.
There are less and less traditional working opportunities – we are competing with
large and well-educated developing markets which also have the means to communicate skills through faster communication channels. China and India are examples of
countries with a huge growing middle-class which Europe and the USA are competing
with. Scientific publications are flooding scientific databases, open access and scientific communities and we have to adapt.
From a European perspective there is the challenge of an increasingly elderly population. How does a shrinking population take care of an ageing population which
lives longer and longer? How can we manage to interact with changing international
population streams?
Complexity
The complexity of society is increasing, even though we have simpler ways to communicate. We are also developing and increasing our knowledge of and our competence
in using these tools. But we also experience the world as being more complex, even
though there are more opportunities available. We do not know how to fix our cars anymore because they are not only mechanical but include a complex data system for all
the comfortable functionalities we need in order to view our vehicles as modern. We
have to go to a car mechanic to change a light bulb instead of doing it ourselves. The
same complexity exists in the development of education, working society and daily
life. We are unable to see through all systems and processes at a glance. We need more
and more sophisticated learning tools to be able to cope with the progress of society.
The demand for knowledge
The demand for knowledge is therefore increasing in the world of complexity.
We do not need an immense flood of information. Instead we need analyses and
4
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
conclusions. We need to take care of the information available in a more know­
ledgeable way than by just clicking on a mouse or Googling. This includes how
we deal with the sources of knowledge. Filtering, analysing, making available –
knowledge must be accessible since the demand for it grows with the complexity. Somebody has to take responsibility for the process of making information
knowledgeable.
A description of the process flow of information could be like this: data is comprised of bits and pieces which are turned into information. When we receive information we process the information in our brains to produce knowledge. The relationship could be pictured in a sequence of Data → Information → Knowledge →
Wisdom where data is a number of facts that have no meaning until they are interpreted as information. Information could be any amount of facts but also a form
of substantial messages. In the process of interpreting information the sums are
adding up into knowledge – something more than just the given information –
and when we are using our knowledge we can ennoble this into the application of
wisdom.
IT development
The fast pace of IT development has provided us with easy access to information and
also brings about new means for creative solutions which we cannot yet imagine.
This has made a great impact on society; however, there is still work to be done in
our approach to the tools which are creating the solutions to meet the changes in our
daily working habits. We are offered possibilities, but there is also pressure on us to
understand how to handle these new opportunities. We can presently collect and aggregate more data faster than ever before. But what do we do with all those facts? It is
even more important to find ways to handle and look out for an increase in information
overflow which may arise at any given time.
Threats and crises
A growing number of threats is being experienced by society around the world and
our greater awareness of them has been enabled by faster communication channels
and worldwide accessibility. Climate change, tsunamis, terrorist threats, other weather
catastrophes, nuclear power plant threats, the AIDS epidemic, the Ebola epidemic,
the economic crisis of the euro and so on are just a few examples. Society must be
watchful and prepared for threats and crises in a more organised and structured manner. Since news flows quickly and spreads widely across the globe, we also have the
responsibility to react on the information and knowledge we receive. Here we see a
clear need for preparedness to meet these kinds of threats and crises on various levels.
A common view
Competitive intelligence can also be the means by which we create a common view
and a platform in an organisation. Working with values and creating knowledge of the
The value of competitive intelligence
5
surrounding world builds a common organisational basis. This is the glue that holds
the organisation together, shortens important communication channels and prevents
the duplication of work processes. Reaching the same goals laid down in the vision
and values can be viewed as a process and a compelling force.
These are some of the impact factors, social structures and organisational developments in society that make methodical and structural work with competitive
intelligence very important. Society, corporations and academia as well as public organisations are able to see this growing need.
What range should competitive intelligence include?
It is very important to analyse and decide on the starting level for competitive intelligence and to identify important stakeholders. Do we want to start out as a competitive
intelligence function in our own department? Or should we team up with another function such as communication, information or administration? Or do we want to interact
at management levels? What level do we approach – strategic, tactical, operational or
all of these? Do we choose to implement a competitive intelligence system or do we
start by reacting to ad hoc analyses?
Deciding on which level to begin at – function, department or the entire
organisation – depends on the assignment and the goals of the competitive intelligence
function. It also depends on the area, the type of business management and the public
or academic environment in which we are to develop and implement our activities.
•
•
Which level? Is it at the management level for long-term strategy planning within the organisation, or is it an environmental scan of a designated area to keep competence and know­
ledge up to date – a form of ‘self-intelligence’?
What should competitive intelligence include – a complete system or ad hoc deliverables?
A system fulfils different functions depending on the outcome.
Below are examples of three different approaches which could, of course, be dealt
with by a complete system and its processes, if specified as such.
1. Ad hoc – using competitive intelligence by questioning and demanding when required. Run
for the assignment when it occurs.
2. Unstructured – feeding a system with information in an unstructured flow. This information
could be needed when trying to find hidden spots and unknown areas.
3. Structured – analysing specific areas and needs and then structuring the information flow in
a very targeted and organised manner using alert setups and specific keywords for important, prioritised areas.
Who should interact?
Who should be involved? This depends on what the primary responsibilities in the
overall strategic plan are. What do we want to achieve? Then we decide on our
target groups and involve the management and the specialists needed to reach the
6
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
goals and objectives of the project. Who should work with processes? This also
depends on the levels of achievement. Do we need to work with the whole organisation on a strategic level or do we need to focus on a department or specific subject
area such as research, product or project area. Who should have authorisation?
This again depends on the structure of the organisation. For strategic competitive intelligence, the highest management level must be involved which could be
a challenge. But it is very important to have the right input and proper knowledge
involved to succeed.
A note of importance: ensure the consent of management is in place, otherwise it
will be impossible to implement these rather complex processes and systems. Awareness of the value of competitive intelligence must be established at the highest levels.
We need ambassadors in management positions. Eventually some of them will benefit
from the values of gathering competitive intelligence.
There are, of course, a wide range of departments who are or could be working
with competitive intelligence – for example, management, administration, communications, the library and information centre. Experience shows that information professionals have the diversified range of competences required to manage, develop and
run implementation and processes. The most important elements of competitive intelligence are illustrated in Figure 1.1.
Competence, technology and processes are the essential elements needed in the
implemetation of successful competitive intelligence independent of what organisation we choose to establish.
Figure 1.1 Essential elements of competitive intelligence
The value of competitive intelligence
7
When is the right time?
Making the choice to work with competitive intelligence is a proactive approach. It
will provide a better foundation for strategy planning and preparedness for the future.
Awareness of the present and the importance of keeping up to date and being competitive also mean being ahead of the competition. Immediate action should be taken as
soon as possible.
How – three different approaches
A decision about which level and what to include must be made. Is the decision to start
in a designated department or in a larger part of the organisation? Perhaps the users are
outside our own department? Are there demands from corporations or from the public
sector? Decide on the range and then start to find some key questions to work with.
Below are some examples of possible scenarios starting within the library department
(our own department), the public sector (reaching out to the community) and local
business entrepreneurs (support for small businesses which cannot afford their own
competitive intelligence department).
The questions posed in the scenarios below can provide inspiration, but every sector and individual organisation must of course look at its own needs and solutions. It
is important to find out what is valuable and what is needed in the organisation. Create
questions from the need to know!
Competitive intelligence for library functions:
•
•
•
•
•
•
How do we improve the process of planning for the future?
How do we secure our strategic decisions and how do we know that they are well-founded?
Who are our competitors and potential collaborative partners?
How do we keep library activities in the front line?
How do we compete for resource allocation?
How do we know that we have made the right decisions when looking back at our assignment?
Competitive intelligence for the public sector:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
How do we keep track of our competitors’ activities?
How do we keep track of political developments and trends?
What is the development within the public sector?
What budget strategies exist?
Where do we find the knowledge and the expertise?
What is happening in the community and the public sector?
What are the opinions of the citizens?
Competitive intelligence for the local enterprise:
•
•
•
•
How do we improve our business planning?
What happens in the specific business area?
What happens in similar areas?
Where do we find potential partners?
8
•
•
•
•
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
What is going on in the competitive area?
Is there any relevant information on society and the community?
What new potential business areas exist?
What is the development of innovation and entrepreneurs?
Porter’s five forces
One model often used on different levels is Porter’s five forces (Porter, 2008). Analysis
of the impact of these forces provides a powerful tool for handling environmental
possibilities and threats in a manageable way. When it comes to competitive intelligence, Porter’s five forces are useful as a starting point to examine our competitive
environment – not only our competitors themselves, but also other types of threat to
the company and organisation. The model provides a good foundation when mapping
the forces listed below. It provides a broader picture of the competitive landscape
rather than just examining known competitors. It makes the organisation aware
of unknown forces and threats which are not initially evident. Porter applies his model
to industry; however, it can also be quite useful for other organisations as well if
‘translated’ into the cultural language of the chosen sector.1
Porter’s five forces:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
Threat of new competition and entrances
Threat of substitute products or services
Bargaining power of customers (buyers)
Bargaining power of suppliers
Intensity of competitive rivalry
If an organisation chooses to work with a management line using a bottom-up process, it is very important to secure not only management’s consent and approval but
also management’s commitment at the highest level.
Moreover, consider the importance of working with the outside-in perspective. Put
yourself in the situation of the users, customers or competitors. This could be difficult
if there is a lack of awareness coupled with rigid management thinking.
Case: Adding value
Below are some real-life business cases from the pharmaceutical sector which exemplify the value acquired when working with competitive intelligence in a systematic
and structured way. At the onset of work with competitive intelligence processes in the
annual systematic planning scheme, there was an increase in value of strategic market
plans. It also provided enhanced value for the organisation through a greater exchange of
best practices. Common views on analysing the competitive landscape were established.
•
Systematic delivery to marketing plans on an annual basis created a proactive strategy plan
and better knowledge of the competitive areas. The level of quality in business areas important to the company was increased.
The value of competitive intelligence
•
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9
Competitor analysis increased awareness and also provided better marketing and business
plans, which led to benefits such as a wider scope and better quality.
Of most importance was the acquired knowledge about pricing and a deeper understanding
of the competitors.
New competitors were found on the ‘net’ – after implementation of the custom-made competitive intelligence system. Monitoring the important areas of competition made it possible
to discover unknown competitors through the surveillance system.
The marketing department coordinated the work processes in a much better and more efficient manner, where staff also learned from each other – and this led to several examples
of best practice.
Critical success factors for competitive intelligence
When defining overall objectives for our organisation it is also crucial to pinpoint the
critical success factors (CSFs) which are necessary to achieve the goals decided. Success factors are the essential elements that have to be achieved to reach our objectives
and these factors must be defined in a reachable way. It is very important to define
the most important factors – usually perhaps three to five could be a good number to
pinpoint and remember.
CFSs are the elements needed to succeed in achieving the required objectives and
missions. Do not confuse critical success factors with success criteria. Critical success
factors must be achieved in order to succeed whereas it is not always necessary to
achieve the success criteria in order to reach the goals that have been set.
The first question we should ask ourselves is: why should our users choose us?
What value do we give our employers and what value do we give our primary target
groups?
When starting to determine critical success factors we need to ask ourselves the
following:
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How is competitive intelligence perceived today?
What factors are most important?
What does competition look like?
What is unique? What is the differentiation in our organisation?
Other questions that should be considered are as follows:
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Do we have the right competence? How do we manage to engage the competence needed?
If we do not have the skills inside the organisation, how do we get the means to attract the
competence needed from outside? Do we need to bring in competence from time to time?
Are consultants and specialists needed in specific parts of the processes?
How do we achieve a platform for organisational resources? Depending on what level we
decide to establish the implementation of competitive intelligence – individual, departmental, strategic or environmental – we need to consider the opportunities and possibilities of
successfully gathering resources for the activities needed for our planned ambitions.
We have to think about how to perceive quality and how quality is perceived. What is in
it for our organisation and what is the gain from the effort and cost? We should keep high
standards!
10
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Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
How do we obtain and communicate convenience for our stakeholders? Does the implementation give our customers and users an easier daily working life? What is the win–win
situation?
The economics must be accounted for. What is the price tag and how could we make a realistic and convincing budget? This could be a hard game to play – we need to justify the input
of a budget that perhaps does not become transparent until the long term. It could start with
a large cost and a high stake in the beginning before the return on the investment becomes
apparent.
Where is the trust and confidence in structuring the competitive world around our organisation? Do we deliver reliability? Here it is important to use network experiences, real-life
success stories and cases, and research so far in the pipeline.
How do we make competitive intelligence easy to access and how do we embed it in our
organisational structure and daily working life? How available are structured competitive
intelligence for us and our target groups? We should calculate and analyse the balance between cost of implementation and ease of availability.
We must be aware of including internal networks in the organisation and empowering the
entrepreneurship in the staff functions.
How do we build, create and introduce the reputation of the competitive intelligence in our
organisation or corporation? How do we wake the interest and build up the curiosity of intelligence for the selected target groups?
We need to expose the variety of services and market the possibilities of competitive intelligence. It is essential to show the added value of the extended strategies and palette of tools
in the box of competitive intelligence.
It is a challenge to gather the skills and expertise needed for each level of competitive intelligence. Find the ambassadors, the door openers, the enthusiastic adventurers and the expertise geeks to gather the dream team of intelligence.
How do we ensure that we achieve the goals and meet the expectations of our employer and
audience?
How do we use the critical success factors? What use are they? It is good planning to define
the critical success factors for our mission. It also gives a realistic view of how reachable
are our project plans and processes. What do we need to accomplish this and within what
timescale? How do we cope with the pitfalls when they appear? It is a good measurement of
what is achievable.
One example of an important critical success factor:
If we don’t have the management consent we either should get it by convincing the
right stakeholders or we should put the project aside. We won’t succeed otherwise.
A question of survival
Structured competitive intelligence is a question of survival! Let us mention one
example from a conference: a researcher who had been working for three years on
his molecular thesis found out that somebody else had already patented his idea. He
therefore started a new career working with competitive intelligence on a professional
level. This is not unusual. The intelligence in patents is often neglected because it is
often difficult to search due to the lack of skilled competence in this area.
The value of competitive intelligence
11
Competitive intelligence gives us and our organisation a better opportunity to plan
ahead and thus be prepared for the future. It also provides better preparation for decisions and future perspectives. It gives us and our organisation better knowledge and
understanding of our users, customers, competitors and colleagues. The important
outside-in perspective provides a broader view of our own organisation and work
situation. Working together towards the same goals and visions for competitive intelligence is a valuable process which unites those in the organisation. It also provides
answers to direct environmental questions when it comes to keeping an eye on the
growing information flow. It creates a readiness for crises, threats and changes. It
is also a tool used to deal with the growing information flow – at least in some sort
of manageable way – which hopefully will save some time at the end of the day.
By gathering important information which is valuable to the company or organisation, analysis of competitive intelligence contributes to selected internal databases and
customer-related historical repositories too. Information retrieval could be a valuable
asset when least expected. Finding the correct return on investments could save the
organisation money and be an asset in the event of budget restraints.
Jan Herring describes how to measure the value of competitive intelligence in
How Much Is Your Competitive Intelligence Worth? (2007). He writes about ways to
value and measure the earnings and the savings of competitive intelligence. He also
illustrates these using examples from Motorola, Proctor & Gamble, General Motors
and Nutra Sweet. Herring writes that measures of effectiveness (MOEs) can best be
applied to specific intelligence projects if you set up the measurements beforehand
(Herring, 2007).
Competitive intelligence lays down value in the organisation in terms of:
•
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better strategic planning;
better decision planning;
broader point of view – hidden knowledge;
common strategic key points – the IKEA business plan is one example: simple and consistent;
better preparation for crises and threats;
better handling of information overflow – using the competence of information specialists;
support from the systematic collection of information and revision if needed;
development of long-term and sustainable planning.
All organisations work with competitive intelligence in one way or another – often
unstructured and often unknown by other parts of the organisation. What is new to one
department could be old news for another. Herein lies the considerably large mission
of connecting the ‘silos’ in the organisation.
Note
1. See Chapter 12 on tools and methods.
The right leadership adds value
to competitive intelligence
2
Where do we start?
Two things are often mentioned in the context of leadership – the need for access to
human resources and the need for access to a budget of one’s own to have the means
of efficiency. These are essential assets to enable processes and drive the development
forward.
But there are other reasons why the responsibility of leadership should attract and
motivate us to take the lead. The purpose could also be the wish to develop and drive
the organisation forward, to encourage other people to grow and do something beyond
themselves, to have a vision and to ignite the drive within ourselves to step outside the
box, leave our comfort zone and surprise ourselves. As one of our colleagues said
about one of our highly competent managers: ‘She makes us take ourselves to levels
we couldn’t imagine.’
What does leadership mean?
Leadership entails being in alliance with our organisational goals, vision and mission,
adapting to changes and being the driver of the development and innovation that is
crucial for our organisation, our staff and us. Leadership connects closely with the
drive to develop the business or organisation. So when we describe any kind of leadership going forward we also have to describe the desire to work with strategic business development. It is not possible to get around the process of leadership without
including the motives of strategic business development and how these interact with
management and leadership.
To equip the organization for change is one of the most important motives for strategic
business development.
(Nelke, 2012)
What is always certain is that the changes in the outside world will have an impact on
our business and our activities. Some of these factors we can do something about and
others not, but we need to be aware and prepared to act in a proactive way.
Strategic business planning and business development increase the possibilities for
an organisation to be prepared in a competitive way. The organisation should increase
the investment in competitive planning and put even more effort into preparedness in
times of sudden change and crisis.
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Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
It also requires an awareness of the organisational structure. What are the roles and
responsibilities in the process of business planning? The range of involvement and
space to perform in must be clearly defined for both management and team members.
Ackerman writes about ‘waiting to hear versus keeping yourself informed’ – take
the opportunities instead of focusing on things that never happened. We should be
proactive instead of merely responding when tasks arise or events occur (Ackerman,
cited in Nelke, 2012: 9).
Some of the particularly important responsibilities are discussed further below.
Summary of manager’s responsibility
Among a manager’s responsibilities is to ensure the aims of the organisation and the mission and goals set in strategic plans are fulfilled. It also includes fighting for sufficient
resources and the means that make this possible. The responsibility also includes taking
care of the staff, balancing their interests with the mission of the whole organisation. One
very important point is to manage the fine art of delegating. This enables management
in a feasible way and allows those who receive the delegation to grow in responsibility.
The manager must also put a lot of effort into creating networks and building alliances important to the assignment. The competitive intelligence in the organisation
should always be made visible to the management of the entire enterprise. Management also includes building confidence and creating opportunities for communication
and enables an open flow of information.
Summary of team members’ responsibility
The responsibility of team members is to share competitive intelligence with business
development and planning. Team members must also be responsible for actively seeking information that is relevant to their specific tasks and responsibilities. It is also
important that team members take the lead for their own professional development and
promote and market their own areas of expertise (Nelke, 2012).
Different kinds of leadership
There are many different types of leadership and different organisations foster different kinds of managers. The rapid development into the future with organisational
changes demands another perspective of leadership – looking at the concepts of
employeeship, improvised or divided leaderships, etc.
Some types of leadership that could be applicable and that could emerge for competitive intelligence functions are as follows:
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The agile type of leadership has the ability to operate in many different modes and many
different kinds of situation. The ability to adapt to new and unexpected changes is useful not
only in fast-changing but also in cross-functional organisations.
The balanced type of leadership attempts to find a balance between the outside and the
inside of the professional and the personal. Such management has to meet the demands of
social responsibility, ethics and moral dilemmas. Many companies and organisations work
Right leadership adds value to competitive intelligence
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15
consciously with values and philanthropies. Leadership development in the future will see
new ways of handling the balance between private life and existential questions in connection with professional career.
Under competent leadership, highly educated managers with more than one diploma make
up a competitive edge in a more globalised word. Scholarly learning is growing as higher
education gets more accessible and a PhD is a must for a good position in many countries.
This will be the competitive edge in many organisations. For example, in India many global
consultancy businesses work with information specialists who have a PhD in a specific subject area.
Coordinated leadership is one of the most important types of leadership for competitive intelligence. This type of informal governance is needed in cross-functional organisations and
project management. The management do not really have any formal authority but need the
members to contribute with their knowledge and competence. In one case from the pharmaceutical industry the competitive intelligence organisation uses editors to filter out incoming
news that is important for a specific area. The editors contribute with the know-how in the
product area when it comes to filtering the news, evaluate the outcome of specific alerts and
then decide what is of importance for the rest of the organisation. The competitive intelligence manager has to engage people from different parts of the organisation that are not part
of a specific competitive intelligence department.
In customer-related leadership the organisation focuses on the customer’s interests, finds
out what the customer’s needs are and puts a lot of energy into building a close relationship
with the customer. It is important to take this relationship seriously and to be honest with the
customer if a long-lasting relationship is to be created. Within competitive intelligence this
is a good approach for in-depth analysis and long-term projects.
Creative leadership shows great imagination and looks for novel solutions. It encourages
the entrepreneurial flair among staff and enables the space and means for new creative
ways of working and problem-solving. It is always a good approach to find new and creative
ways of leading the competitive intelligence function and is necessary for problem-solving
analysis.
Divided leadership means that management is shared between people with different competences. It can also refer to a geographical division with distant leadership connecting with
different kinds of competences in the local area. It is a competitive strength to diversify the
leadership in a global market.
Fragmented leadership is where one kind of leader with a specific background enters a completely different organisation and takes their experiences of leadership into the management
arena. One very frequent example is the military officer switching to the scholarly world to
become a head teacher. The leadership education and training in many military organisations
are highly attractive competences in other fields. It could be useful to bring a leadership with
different experiences into an organisation which is not used to working with competitive
intelligence.
Global leadership requires managers that have a multicultural understanding and blend well
into a diverse global world. The management of diversity needs different skills from all
kinds of cultures. Immigrants from other cultures become an asset in the organisational
world and bring new aspects of both leadership and analysis.
Improvised leadership has to go from an authoritative style to meeting the coming generation’s demands on leadership. The upcoming managers have to love the organisation or
business area, be prepared for constant changes and improvise ways of leading to fit different phases in the organisational flows. The competitive intelligence function prepares the
organisation for the future.
16
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Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
Passionate leadership must look for a balance within itself but also in its relationship with
the rest of the staff. It is important to not push ourselves or others so far as to burn out. Passion is a valuable driver but it must be handled professionally.
Employeeship refers to the ability to lead yourself:
Employeeship is a process where the traditional thinking in regards to leadership
and subordination in hierarchy is abandoned. The traditional model is replaced by
a mind-set of partnership, a relationship where both managers and employees take
ownership over their work situation. The main objective is to achieve a working
environment that stimulates involvement among employees and managers. This
creates a workplace where employees feel valued and important. Managers develop
their skills in facilitation, involving, revealing and learn to make better use of their
employees’ knowledge, ideas and initiative.
(Wikipedia, 2013a)
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This is an important type of leadership in which all employees are involved in the development of an organisation and keep their engagement and interest to retain competence in a
competitive environment.
Storytelling leadership paints and visualises the story of how to succeed in the organisation.
It is a type of management that is able to picture the smell and taste of the goals and tasks
to fulfil the aims for the organisation. This kind of leadership could be very useful in the
implementation stage of competitive intelligence.
Technical development plays an immensely important role in steering the demands of
technical leadership. No organisation can afford to stand back and not keep itself up to
date with rapidly evolving technical developments. Technical leadership also provides
possibilities and opportunities for finding new and creative solutions for business development. The demand must be accepted and the technical innovation used instead of fighting
against it.
Visionary leadership is connected to the storytelling and charismatic types of leadership.
Visionary leadership makes the future and its possibilities clearer, more visible and achievable even if it lies ahead of us in the future. This is also important at the implementation
stage.
(Wahlström, 2004)
Sven Hamrefors describes four essential criteria for good leadership when it
comes to competitive intelligence. He talks about the right searching type – the
snooper – who works fast and effectively. The snooper finds the right spot to investigate in a different way to the researcher who may work in a more defined and organised manner. The differences between the snooper and the researcher are very fine,
but Hamrefors suggests that the snooper is more unpredictable in approach than the
researcher and that this is advantageous. Hamrefors also argues for experience – the
leadership of competitive intelligence needs a senior person with both deep and
wide perspectives. One pitfall could of course be that a senior person could be too
stiff in her or his outlook. The need for curiosity and flexibility has to be balanced
with seniority.
A third criterion is the need for social intelligence. A manager must have the ability
to mingle with all kinds of people and like a diplomat create confidence and respect.
Different perspectives are very important to understand and implement.
Right leadership adds value to competitive intelligence
17
The fourth criterion is positive leadership – management by enthusiasm. Intrinsic
motivation makes the organisation perceive competitive intelligence as exciting, fun
and rewarding (Hamrefors, 2002).
Challenges of business and organisational management
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Challenge is a result of the lack of long-term planning. Many times long-term strategic planning is put aside or not even considered when scrutinising effort or resources. Long-term
planning could take some negotiation with and convincing of higher management but it pays
off in the long run and connects to the need for better planning on all levels. It is worth taking
the time – and it does take time to do a good job.
Outsource fear – people need to develop the confidence to leave their comfort zone. We all
have our comfort zones and we need to handle them in different ways to achieve goals that
we think are not possible to reach.
Reach for the lower hanging fruit first. This means that we should start with some of the
achievements that we know lead to success not too far into the future and with not too much
effort. It is important to remember not to do too many things at the same time.
Involve everybody – it is not always possible, but start with the positive team members. At
some point we also need to be aware that we cannot win them all. But sometimes, when we
win a large enough crowd, the rest will come by themselves.
Be aware that we are ahead. As managers and a strategic planners we have to be ahead of
time and it is important to remember that the rest of the organisation has to be given the time
to catch up. This phase could be very different where people are still situated in the planning
stage.
Repeated and varied communication is important because different people perceive information in different ways and also grasp information differently at various occasions.
Messages could be both partly received or not at all. They could also be received in different ways.
Communicate the right information to the right person at the right time – use the team
members. Various competences bring messages in different ways that are useful in the communication with different target groups.
Top tips for business development
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Get support from management and demonstrate added value. It is the success factor of most
importance. We have to have senior management support and senior management must have
knowledge about the value of competitive intelligence or else we will fail.
Be persistent. If you have decided to do a set of activities, do them even if they take longer
than planned from the beginning. Things always take longer when you work with change;
you have to take that into consideration. It is a great advantage to do this thoroughly and it
gives credit and quality to the success of the project.
Summarise the objectives and the means to reach them on a single page. We managed
to do that and made it easier to read by using clear headlines. Behind that single page
there were several more detailed documents. A transparent overview of strategic object­
ives makes it easier to promote and communicate the essence of the message we want to
get across.
18
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Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
Time estimation is central to avoid the risk of getting an ‘anthill effect’ (you add one straw and
then another straw, and so on – but it is still an anthill). This means that projects and deliverables should have a timeline and content estimation so that expectations will be met in the end.
Force priorities and schedule time to manage unexpected complication factors (for example
when a person who you depend on does not deliver in time). You have to set aside time to
discuss any expected troubles and to be precise about what everyone should do.
Benchmark: pinch from others in the same situation, but give them credit for it. To cut and
paste from each other is recommended to avoid inventing the wheel again, but it is of utmost
importance to be clear about this and always have the permission and reward for the provider
within their own organisation. The production belongs to the business or parent organisation
but the credit belongs to the inventor.
(Nelke, 2012: 17)
Information professionals take the lead
The definition of good leadership can be expressed on many levels and of course includes formal and informal leadership. Do we work in an organisation or company with
clearly set alignments and a formal organisation of competitive intelligence or do we
have a more scattered and floating organisation of responsibilities which means that
we need to take the lead and authority to institutionalise the discipline of competitive
intelligence. This is also described above in the section about coordinated leadership.
Why should we as information specialists take the lead? The answer is that there is
a growing need in many organisations and companies. As information professionals
we have a wide range of capabilities that makes this a perfect match. One definition of
a skill set is made by the Roundtable for Information Provision Strategies – part of the
Swedish Association for Information Specialists:
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Information and knowledge organisation. Competence in the management of structuring
information and knowledge in different kinds of organisations.
Information research. Competence about conducting and organising information research in
a professional and analytical mode.
Evaluation of information resources. Knowledge about different information resources,
evaluation, benchmarking, negotiation, updating, i.e. an ongoing process to keep this fastchanging market in the loop.
Competitive intelligence. Specific competence area that keeps track of the competitive envir­
onment and the changes in the world around our organisations.
Analysis of information need. To be able to conduct information audits and analysis of the
information need in an organisation or other area of interest (project teams, departments,
specific areas).
Knowledge of the organisation’s information needs at strategic as well as individual levels.
Crucial know-how to be able to support their own organisation in the most efficient way.
(Swedish Association for Information Specialists, 2010)
At least eleven points1 of general skills and abilities are needed to perform as a
world-class competitive intelligence professional – a good match of creativity, fantasy,
analytical skill, structure, patience and endurance.
Right leadership adds value to competitive intelligence
19
Future leadership development
Three future directions are described by Claire Reinelt in the Stanford Social Innov­
ation Review:
1. From individuals to communities. Claire Reinelt states that leadership is not an individual
achievement or process, but more ‘a relational process that occurs in groups, communities
and networks’. It is about listening and developing trust in an organisational group which
refers very much to the women leadership. Women leadership is described as bringing other
values and competences into leading positions. It is described as a more listening, more
sensitive and less hierarchic style.
2. From organisations to networks. For a leader the network concept is very much about leaving the trust to the network. The difference between organisational leadership and network
leadership is described as ‘organisations are positional, individual, top-down and directive;
leadership in networks is relational, collective, bottom-up, and emergent’.
3. From silos to partnership. Many organisations develop different segments and departments
and exercise leadership in silos which takes a lot of effort and is highly inefficient. Instead,
solving future challenges needs ‘multi-stakeholder approaches that cut across sectors and
disciplines’.
(Reinhelt, 2010)
Developing trust, building relations and creating the ability for self-organisation
is the future path for leadership development according to the Leadership Learning
Community (LLC) organisation. Break down the silos and start partnering and networking instead (Reinhelt, 2010).
What factors make a leader successful? We asked Catharina Isberg2 about her
thoughts:
The most important leading words are visibility and participation. A good
leadership makes every member of the team visible and makes everyone participate
in the development of the organisation. As a manager you need to create an
environment of trust and confidence and in order to succeed with this it is very
important to see every team member and also the individual human being behind
the employee. Everybody is needed and everybody needs to be enabled to be an
important part of a working environment.
The leader must put effort into knowing the members of the staff. It is not
only the professional skills and ambitions that are important to know but also
in an individual context. Small things that make a difference is to walk and talk
among everybody, to have lunch meetings without a purpose, to encourage small
achievements and just greet people in the morning. Do not neglect the small chit
chat.
Other challenges are leading big diverse organisations and leadership at a
distance. This needs other measurements to succeed. Even more effort must be put
into visibility and transparency in working processes, dissemination of information
and communication.
The future leadership provides a feeling of possibilities into all staff members
and participation in the development of its organisation. Everybody needs to work
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Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
with employee responsibility and be given the possibility to drive themselves in
the best way given. Mature organisations will succeed with this in the future. It
also means that the manager must be confident enough to give up some of the
power and transfer this to the team members and staff. But still a good leadership
must be the force that enables the energy and empowerment in the rest of the
organisation.
Remember the differences between management and leadership. Management
takes care of all Human Resources processes and administration for employees
while leadership is the visionary driver making people grow in an organisation
and grow with its development. Management is given in the role while leadership
is earned through trust and confidence. The leadership of the future enables people
to lead themselves and use their full potential! Good leadership could be within
anybody in the hierarchy of an organisation.
Future changes and preparations
It is important to find new roles for information professionals and the full competence
of their working areas. And do not forget the fun perspective – leadership roles make a
difference in the development of our organisations and their impact on future perspectives in that development. It should be fun to lead and it should be fun for the team
members too.
Information professionals are the most capable of taking the leadership for the
implementation of competitive intelligence in our organisation!
Notes
1. See also the competences of information professionals in Chapter 9 on the human side of
competitive intelligence.
2. Catharina has been an energetic and successful director in both the pharmaceutical industry
and at SLU University Library and now she is director of Helsingborg Public Library.
Competitive intelligence
from start to end
3
Systematic competitive intelligence
To get the best results and return on investment from intelligence it is necessary to
work in a structured and systematic way. We have found that a process-oriented approach is suitable for intelligence operations. The process-oriented approach focuses
on processes rather than functions and highlights the dynamic workflow of inter­
dependent and cross-functional activities in an organisation. In contrast to a project
which has a start and an end, the process is a structure of linked activities together
with the people and other resources which are needed to carry them out. The different
processes and sub-processes can be identified and mapped to make them transparent
and thus possible to develop, refine and measure. They can also be standardised to
some extent (Ljungberg and Roos, 2000). Competitive intelligence is a superb candidate for process-oriented work for the following reasons:
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It concerns the whole organisation.
It can be performed at different levels and by different people working in different departments and functions.
It is often a part/sub-process of other processes.
It facilitates one of the biggest challenges in competitive intelligence from the helicopter
perspective – joining up the dots.
It gives structure to the work.
Besides working in a process oriented way, intelligence work is very much facilitated if we use established models for the operations. The advantages of using models
are as follows:
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Time saving. Using established models instead of reinventing the way of working saves time
and money.
Quality assurance. Knowledge of what has been done, what has not been done and how
things are done makes it easier to correct failures and mistakes. It is easier to measure and
evaluate.
Repeatability. If established models are used the possibility to repeat activities in a similar
way increases.
Transparency. A model can be made transparent in the organisation, which decreases the
dependence on single individuals.
Knowledge transfer. The transfer of knowledge in place and time is facilitated when using a
model.
The prerequisite is of course that the models are documented as well as known and
accepted in the organisation. For successful competitive intelligence it is therefore
worthwhile to spend some time on informing and anchoring the chosen models in the
organisation.
22
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
Types of competitive intelligence operations
In an organisation different types of competitive intelligence operations are needed.
Depending on the purpose they may be more or less specific and of shorter or longer
duration.
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Ad hoc studies. These studies are performed when a need for analysis of a specific area
arises. This kind of process is irregular and the need is not predictable. Ad hoc operations
typically support tactical work and there is a high demand for rapid results.
Regular processes. In regular processes the need for intelligence arises at certain intervals.
It can, for example, be connected to the annual cycle of market planning, to the writing of
the annual report, to budget processes, etc. In these cases the need is more predictable and
the intelligence operations can be standardised and performed in more or less the same way
year after year.
Continuous and specific scanning and analysis. In this process the critical areas of the business have been defined and the intelligence work is focused on them. For corporations defined competitors and markets are examples of areas subject to continuous surveillance.
These process have a more long-term perspective and the strategic purpose of anticipating
upcoming events of importance for the business as well as following markets, competitors,
funders, partners, etc.
Continuous and unspecific scanning and analyses. This is a process for big eyes and ears.
The areas are not specified, but a broad intelligence process is needed to cover the unexpected which can lead to threats or opportunities for the business. The purpose is to discover
threats and opportunities early – early warning systems (EWS) – to be able to be proactive,
to have a good long-term perspective, but also to get better informed management and employees. The benefit is that we create a bank of knowledge on the business environment
which makes us better prepared for and proactive as changes arise.
Regular and continuous intelligence processes typically support strategic decisions
at different levels (Nelke, 2006).
According to J. Herring, the co-founder (together with L.M. Fuld and B. Gilad) of
the Academy of Competitive Intelligence, there are three basic sources of intelligence
needs within most business organisations: senior management, management processes
such as budget reviews and the competitive intelligence function (Herring, 2006a).
Although Herring is mainly occupied with corporations, we have seen that this can be
applied in other organisations as well, such as authorities, universities, etc. If intelligence operations are to support strategic decisions in an organisation, they must cover
the needs of senior management. It is thus absolutely necessary that senior management is involved otherwise they will simply not get the qualitative results from the
intelligence that they are expecting.
Herring’s third source of intelligence needs, the competitive intelligence function,
assumes that such a function exists. However, this is not the case for all kinds of organisations.1
The quality of the result from competitive intelligence operations, the actual intelligence, is very much dependent on the skills of the people and teams doing those
operations. However, to carry out effective continuous scanning and also get qualified
support in the analytical activities, computer-based systems should be used. There
Competitive intelligence from start to end
23
are several of these solutions in the market from simple media monitoring systems to
advanced knowledge management and competitive intelligence systems.
There are several models for competitive intelligence as a structured process, the
so-called business or competitive intelligence cycles. All of these contain processes
for planning, the collection of information and the analysis and dissemination of the
results, and they are more or less detailed and generic. The activities are described as
a cyclic process, one activity following the other, but in reality some of the activities
take place in parallel sessions. There is often a need to go back to previous phases to
complement or add information or even go back to redefining the whole task. We can
also see these models as a kind of checklist to make sure that no important activities
are ignored or to ensure that the important homework is done before starting to ‘screw
and nail’.
In the following chapters we will introduce and elaborate one of the competitive
intelligence process cycles: the PCMAC model.
Work smarter with PCMAC
The PCMAC model consists of the following phases as show in Figure 3.1:
•
•
•
•
•
Plan and prioritise – where the work is planned, resources allocated and the key intelligence
topics and questions are identified.
Capture – where the information is collected.
Manage – where the collected information is filtered, sorted and compiled.
Analyse – where the analyses are done and the dots joined up.
Communicate – where the result is disseminated to the target groups and archived for further use.
Figure 3.1 The PCMAC model for competitive intelligence
24
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
The subsequent processes to make decisions which lead to actions are not covered
in this model.
The model can be used for the different types of intelligence operations – ad hoc,
regular and continuous, but of course it needs to be adapted to the situation. The
bigger and longer-lasting the intelligence operations the more we gain from using a
model like PCMAC for the work. However, even for smaller projects there is much to
gain in following a proven method, not least when it comes to saving time.
In the following chapters the PCMAC model is explored more in detail. It can serve
as a tool for optimising a systematic way of working with competitive intelligence.
Note
1. The organising of competitive intelligence is elaborated in Chapter 7 on the organisational
side of competitive intelligence.
Plan and prioritise
4
Why, who, what
The first phase in the PCMAC model is the plan and prioritise phase. We always start
the work in this phase and doing a good job here is the very key to success. Even if the
subsequent phases, especially the capture, manage and analyse phases, are working
together simultaneously and there often is a need to go back to a previous phase, it is
absolutely necessary to start in the plan and prioritise phase. Here the homework is
done and the essential questions are asked.
The purpose
The most essential question to answer before proceeding is why? It does not matter if
it is a continuous process or a rather small ad hoc effort, it is equally important to know
why the effort is to be done.
•
•
•
•
Why is the intelligence needed?
For what purpose is it created?
Which decisions need support from intelligence?
In what connection will it be used?
As information professionals we know the importance of clarifying the purpose
together with the assignment or project owner before starting an information research
task. Too seldom the commissioner of the task is quite ambiguous about the purpose.
To quote the Swedish poet Esaias Tegnér ‘What is unclearly said is unclearly thought.’
Interviews or team discussions are often needed to clarify and define the purpose.
Once it is defined it should be documented to make it transparent to all parties involved.
Examples of purposes for competitive intelligence processes are:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
forming strategies and plans regarding business development, markets, partners, competitors, substitutes, product portfolio, technologies, etc.;
seeking new opportunities in the form of new partners, new funders, new technologies,
emerging markets, etc.;
getting knowledge and insights on networks of scientists, partners, competitors, etc. for collaboration or acquisition plans;
basis for review of business performance;
basis for creating technology road maps;
early warning system – getting early awareness of possible threats and opportunities;
following the activities of organisations in the surrounding world which impact on our own
organisation in a significant way;
getting better informed management and employees in specified areas.
26
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
We should really take the time to define and clarify the purpose. An intelligence
process without an explicit and well-defined purpose is likely to become low priority
and gradually fade away. Equally important is to clarify the issues that the intelligence
work is to answer as well as the expected outcome of the process. This is of course
done together with the assignment or project owner to ensure, as far as possible, that
all parties have the same expectations of the outcome.
Plan the work
Intelligence work is teamwork, often engaging people from different departments and
functions. The underlying structure of people that should contribute or should be involved in the work is not always visible. Therefore it might be necessary to map the
process and the network of people involved before allocating the different roles in the
process and deciding who is taking which role.1
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The steering committee sets the framework and sees to it that the project is on the right track
and is keeping to the budget.
The assignment or project owner needs the results of the intelligence and is the commissioner of the task.
The project manager has the main responsibility for the project.
The researcher captures and manages the information.
The analyst does the analyses.
The editor goes through the information and analyses that are to be published internally or
externally.
The producer documents the results in the form of newsletters, reports, etc.
If not already done, we must see to it that a steering committee is appointed. Especially for bigger and more long-lasting operations a steering committee is needed
to follow the work and to make the strategic decisions. In these kinds of processes
it should also be clear to everybody who the assignment owner for the intelligence
operation in question is. A project manager is of course needed to see to it that the
assignment is completed. The project manager is also the person to lead the planning
and prioritising of the work.
Allocating resources – a matter of ambition level
Important parts of the planning process are budgeting the process and allocating
personnel and financial resources. Defining the ambition level is part of this step.
The ideal situation is to get high quality intelligence rapidly and at a low cost. However, the three parameters of quality, speed and cost are interdependently related
(see Figure 4.1) and it is not possible to optimise one without sacrificing another.
To define the ambition level is especially important for the continuous and unspecified competitive intelligence processes as there are no ‘natural’ limits in time and
effort. Our experience is that it is better to start with a lower ambition level and let it
grow if needed. Starting at too high an ambition level increases the risk of failure and
frustration. As the resources are always more limited than the need, it is important to
adapt to the available resources but also to work in a smart and efficient manner. All
Plan and prioritise
27
Figure 4.1 Parameters for defining the ambition level
the parties involved but especially the steering committee and the assignment owner
should be aware of what can be expected with the available resources.
The necessary timetable
As in ordinary project work a timetable is needed. This should specify the deadlines
for the different activities and for the final result. Deadlines must be kept; information or intelligence which comes too late is often useless. For continuous processes
regular reporting occasions should be scheduled if no such occasions are given in the
process. Reporting occasions also serve as a trigger to ensure active and vital intelligence work.
In the plan and prioritise phase we also need to think about how the analysis is to
be conducted and which analysis methods, if any, to use. These choices will influence
how further work should be performed. Is there any special analysis we should conduct, such as SWOT, impact analysis, scenario planning, benchmarking, etc.?2
It is also important to define the target group for the result. The primary target
group is perhaps rather obvious, but even the secondary target group needs to be
defined. How the result of the competitive intelligence operations should be communicated and delivered should also be defined, together with the target group in
question.
The business environment map
One of the most difficult and important activities in the competitive intelligence process is to map the business environment. Mapping the business environment is undertaken to identify critical business needs. The competitive intelligence process should
of course focus on and prioritise these needs.
Herring has developed the concept of key intelligence topics (KITs) which we
will examine below (Herring, 1999). The KITs are the critical business factors which
should be identified, scanned and analysed for relevant and qualitative competitive
intelligence. It means that the factors are not only identified, they are also prioritised
to ensure that they really are the key intelligence topics.
The concept of KITs can be applied at the strategic level as well as at operational
levels.
28
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
Creating the business environment map and defining the KITs can be done in
various ways depending on the scope of the intelligence task. It is best done as
teamwork in workshops with representatives from the functions involved, both
those who are to do the work and those who will use the result. Besides that, it
could be very useful to have an outsider to facilitate the workshops. The benefit
of this is twofold: the discussions can be very lively and an outsider who is not directly involved is better at catching the discussion threads and at summarising the
conclusions. The other benefit is that being an outsider you can more easily play
the role of devil’s advocate and question given assumptions which can cause business blind spots. Disturbing the current worldview is always useful in competitive
intelligence operations!
Two main approaches can be applied when drawing the business environment map:
the ‘bottom-up’ approach or the ‘top-down’ approach. An example of a bottom-up
approach is to start with open brainstorming sessions using, for example, the relation
matrix method3 to bring to the table as many potential KITs as possible and organise
and prioritise them as the next step. Examples of top-down approaches are to start with
a structure, for example different variants of the PEST model or the value chain, to
identify the potential KITs. The bottom-up approach has the advantage of being more
unprejudiced and the outcome could be to discover new critical factors from the business environment. The disadvantage is that this approach usually requires more time
and workshops before the result is satisfactory. The top-down approach, which is more
commonly used, has the advantage that it ensures that all the areas in the business
environment are being scrutinised and that no important areas are forgotten. It usually
requires fewer workshops than the bottom-up approach. The disadvantage with this
approach is that it does not encourage people to ‘think outside the box’ as much as the
bottom-up approach. Whichever method we choose to use when drawing the environment map, the guiding light must be the goals for the business and the success factors
to achieve these goals.
The business environment map for corporation management typically encompasses
current and potential competitors, customers, markets, subcontractors and other partners, competing or substitution products, politics, legislation and trends in the business area. For university management the environment map may consist of current
or potential partners, competing universities and researchers, funding opportunities,
demographics, presumptive student finances, educational and other politics, economic
trends and the labour market.
From the business environment map the business critical factors, the KITs, must
be fished out. This is done by prioritising the factors in the map. Prioritisation is a terrifying operation: not only must the right items be chosen but it is also possible to set
aside something that may be important. Nevertheless, it must be done and the results
do not last forever – the KITs should be revised when needed. How many KITs we
should end up with also depends on the resources available. If we have a continuous
competitive intelligence process we should not have too many KITs as it could create
information overflow and be difficult to manage. It is better to start small and grow
if needed.
Plan and prioritise
29
In the following sections we describe two cases in which we use our own experience to illustrate the two approaches of bottom-up and top-down.
Case: Bottom-up approach for drawing the business
environment map
Säffle and Åmål are two small counties located in the middle of Sweden. The libraries in these counties intended to start up a new library service: to offer competitive
intelligence to the counties’ management and administration. Margareta Nelke was
engaged and together with Katarina Kristoffersson, at that time the library manager
at Åmål library, organised a half-day seminar on the theme of competitive intelligence.
One of the items on the agenda was a workshop to identify the critical business
factors, the KITs. Participants were employees from the different administrative areas
in the two counties and from the two libraries. Twelve persons participated from the
county administration and three from the libraries. As the libraries were to perform the
monitoring and research out of their available resources it was of utmost importance
that they participated in the process of defining the KITs.
The relation matrix workshop, facilitated by Nelke, started with a five-minute session in which the participants used Post-it notes to write down all the factors they
could think of based on a broad question: ‘What factors in the surrounding world
contribute to the success or failure of our business?’
After the five minutes were up the participants were asked to step forward, to read
their notes aloud and place them in relation to each other on the whiteboard. The result
was a map of factors which were structured in the following main areas:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
cooperation with other areas;
the counties’ ability to attract current and new citizens;
infrastructure and communications;
competence and education;
demographic and migration factors;
competition;
political decisions at different levels – local, country and EU.
The next step was to prioritise the main areas to identify what was to become of the
KITs. This was done individually by the participants by adding numbers 1 (highest
priority) to 3 to the main areas. Cooperation with other areas and the counties’ attractiveness were given the highest priorities. The results of the workshop were documented to use in the further work.
This is an example of working with the bottom-up approach. However, this oneand-a-half-hour workshop was of course not enough to do a thorough business envir­
onment map. More work is needed to break down the rather broad areas into more
specific fields which can be monitored manually or by computer. But as a start it can
work to give the organisation a feeling of the importance of defining the KITs.
30
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
Case: Top-down approach for drawing the business
environment map
A far more extensive effort to draw the business environment map is a case from the
pharmaceutical corporation where Charlotte Håkansson worked as a business intelligence manager. The process to identify the key intelligence topics involved the whole
company. The first step was a series of workshops on the different therapeutic areas.
Managers and expertise at different levels from each area participated in the workshops as did representatives from top management. The workshops were facilitated by
the supplier of the business intelligence system which had been acquired.
In the workshops the critical business factors were identified with a top-down approach using the EPISTELM model.4 The participants of the workshop came up with
a number of critical business factors around each of the model’s areas: economics,
politics, institutions, society, technology, environment and media. The next step was
to prioritise the factors. This was carried out in a series of interviews which Håkansson
performed with senior managers. The result was a number of KITs for each therapeutic area.
The KITs were then transformed by Håkansson into a number of profiles to be used
in the computer-based business intelligence solution. The supplier added the profiles
to the system, but they did not have enough inside knowledge to create them. The profiles were evaluated and modified after a period of time based on the outcome.
Blind spots
One phenomenon that experienced analysts have noticed and documented is the prevalence of business blind spots. Business blind spots are the white fields in the business
environment map which the organisation does not discover or prefers not to explore
even if they are obvious. The blind spots can cause much damage and they are not
easy to bring out into the open. According to Benjamin Gilad (1996), there are three
important reasons why organisations fail to catch important signals from the business
environment:
•
•
•
Unchallenged assumptions. These are assumptions about the business environment that are
taken for granted and not questioned.
Corporate myths. These are the legends which organisations tell externally and internally
and which often are part of the corporate culture. These myths may be true or may be just
myths.
Corporate taboos. These are assumptions which are not to be questioned according to a
(tacit) general agreement in the organisation.
Creative thinking is one way to reveal the blind spots. To use the bottom-up approach when drawing the environment map invites us to be more creative. Frankelius
(2001) has developed a method specifically to question given conditions and assumptions in order to catch the unexpected and also the blind spots. In his World Mapping
Method, the ‘creative discharge’ is the first and most important moment.
Plan and prioritise
31
To work systematically with a continuous competitive intelligence process is a
good way to prevent blind spots from occurring. It is also a great help if the people
involved in the work have the courage and daring to question the prevailing worldview
and act as a devil’s advocate when needed.
Critical success factors
As mentioned before – and it cannot be mentioned too many times – the plan and
prioritise phase is the key to successful competitive intelligence. Some factors are
particularly important:
•
•
•
•
•
Top management engagement. If the competitive intelligence process is to be a basis for strategic decision-making, top management must be involved. However, this very busy group
might find it difficult to devote the time needed, therefore it is necessary to limit the number
of workshops where top management is present and also to prepare these workshops extra
carefully.
Purpose defined. Competitive intelligence operations must have a clearly defined, agreed
upon and explicit purpose otherwise it is doomed to fail.
Teamwork. When defining the purpose, drawing the business environment map and specifying the KITs it is particularly important to involve people from all the relevant roles.
Time. Devoting time to the plan and prioritise phase is not only a must – it will also save time
later on in the process.
KITs defined. To work with the business environment map and sieve out the critical business
factors – the KITs.
Notes
1. In Chapter 10 on the role of the information professional in competitive intelligence we have
described the different roles more in more detail.
2. A description of various methods of analysis is to be found in Chapter 12 on tools and
methods.
3. See Chapter 12 on tools and methods.
4. EPISTELM is a variant of the PEST model which is described in Chapter 12 on tools and
methods.
Capture and manage
5
Capture
The next phase in the PCMAC cycle of competitive intelligence is to capture the
information needed in the analyses. This work goes hand in hand with the manage
phase – to manage the retrieved information directly when receiving it saves time
and effort. As information professionals we have thorough training and experience in
capturing information from various sources. This ability is very useful, but it will only
be fully useful if we are involved in the plan and prioritise phase as well. The risk is
that we will be called in to deliver ad hoc information research out of its context and if
this happens we must make our clients understand that the quality of the information
research will be lower.
The sources
One important step in the capture phase is to identify the sources of the information.
For each KIT the sources covering the information about this topic should be identified and also prioritised.
Both primary and secondary sources should be considered in order to cover tacit as
well as explicit information.
Primary sources consist of raw information which the researcher collects him or
herself through interviews, observations, experiments, etc. To obtain tacit information,
that is the knowledge kept in the heads of individuals, primary sources must be used.
Secondary sources are processed and transformed information found in documents
of different kinds and transmitted by physical and digital sources as well as by news
media. To get explicit information we use secondary sources. Combining tacit and
explicit information and knowledge is of great value when working with competitive
intelligence.
Primary sources – tacit information
It is a well known phenomenon that much of the information needed in an organisation
is already there. It is, however, kept with different people and it is very difficult to get
an overview of who knows what. One way to capture tacit information is to participate
in networks. In some organisations there are formalised networks of people working
in different departments but with common interests. In these networks we can combine information and knowledge from different functions and across organisational
boundaries.


34
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
Case: Networks
In a large Swedish corporation there are several formalised networks around different intelligence topics. In this corporation an information professional is responsible for the overall monitoring of the main competitors. This information professional participates in some of the networks to obtain and to deliver information.
Membership in these networks enables her to combine this information and the
information she captures from published sources in a way that adds value to the
analyses.
Another way to capture tacit information is to interview relevant people. One
popular way is to contact people we know – partners, suppliers, co-workers,
friends, clients, etc. The advantages here are that we get processed information
and there is the possibility of discussing the information and asking follow-up
questions. However, we should also look out for source bias, be equally critical of
these sources as we are of other sources and be prepared to check the information
received.
If we conduct more thorough interviews they must be carefully prepared. However,
while interviews are often a good way of receiving qualified information they are
costly to carry out.
Making the competitive intelligence process as well as the KITs transparent in the
organisation facilitates the capture of tacit information. We can then use the triple
E&B: employees’ eyes, ears and brains (see Figure 5.1). With transparency the employees know not only what is on the agenda and what they should look out for; they
also know who to contact to transmit the information.
Figure 5.1 Employees’ eyes, ears and brains
Capture and manage
35
Secondary sources – explicit information
Secondary information sources, covering explicit information, comprise not only
various websites and databases, social media, newspapers, journals, reports and
books but also the unstructured mass of e-mails, memos, forms, faxes, etc., the so
called big data which are floating around in the organisation. To manage big data
is a hot topic for many suppliers of information management solutions. Often it
ends up with ordinary information professional work: building taxonomies, indexing and metadata ­description. There is a great deal of development going on to
create the ultimate solution for researching information with tools like automatic
categorisation.
The number of secondary sources is endless and shifting over time. Identifying
these sources is an important step in the capture phase. The same participants as in
the workshops in which you drew up the business environment map can be used to
identify sources. When the sources are identified they have to be prioritised according not only to the credibility and the extent they cover the topic, but also to their
availability as well as our ambition level and budget. When it comes to practical
situations convenience and speed more often influence the choice of source than
does quality. But if we put some effort into the selection of sources and examine
them critically, we can avoid the cost of getting false information which is disseminated either deliberately or by negligence. Knowledge of the information sources,
their strengths and weaknesses and their potential biases is a valuable tool in competitive intelligence work.
Excel worksheets can be used to get an overview of the sources and the process
of working with them. In the sheets the KITs are listed along with the sources and
as the researching proceeds notes can be added on what has been done, if the topic
was covered by the source, whether the source was biased and other comments (see
Table 5.1). It is also of great help and saves time in later intelligence operations to get
this overview with commentary of the sources. This document should of course be
revised and updated as new knowledge of the sources is obtained.
Table 5.1 Sample of Excel worksheet for the process of identifying
and prioritising the sources
KIT
Internal
sources
Competitor A Mr X
Competitor B
External
sources
Priority
Notes
Priority
1
Interview
Database X 1
done,
knows a lot
Sales
reports
1
Web page
Y
1
Technical
reports
2
Trade
journal X
2
Notes
Done, good
coverage of
the KIT
36
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
Evaluation of sources
Looking out for source bias is an important issue when capturing information.
It is also becoming increasingly difficult as we now have access through the
Internet to a lot of information that has not been checked or pre-reviewed. The
same information is often repeatedly published in different media. It can start as
a blog, be captured by news television and then appear in leading newspapers and
potentially in the trade press. The sound journalistic rule to check the information
in independent sources becomes almost impossible for most of the information.
However, there are some other important criteria we can use when evaluating
sources:
•
•
•
Authority – refers to how established and respected the source, author or publisher are.
Objectivity – refers to the author’s or publisher’s purpose in publishing the information.
Reliability – refers to what degree the information in the source is reliable.
Table 5.2 provides a number of tips for source evaluation.
Table 5.2
Scheme for source evaluation
Checking
Look out for
Authority
What is the author’s reputation,
background, training, etc.?
Is the publisher a known and
respected company or other
organisation?
Is the source referring or
linking to other reliable sources
or are other reliable sources
referring or linking to this
source?
The publisher is unknown or is an
individual
Lack of contact information
Bad grammar or misspelled words
Bad structure
Objectivity
What is the (underlying)
motive for publishing the
information?
Is the language neutral or
emotional?
Are possible values or political
alignments hidden?
Hidden agendas or messages
Vague or sweeping statements
Overstatements
Fraud
Reliability
What are the sources of the
original facts?
Are the facts consistent with
other known facts?
When was the information
created or updated?
No author or publisher is stated
Lack of valid references
No date indicated
Capture and manage
37
Information research
The information research can now start in the prioritised primary and secondary
sources. Either the research is conducted manually or we create search profiles
to add to our computer-based media monitoring solution. The different needs for
competitive intelligence operations influence the way we perform the information
research.
•
•
•
Ad hoc studies. For ad hoc studies we work manually and undertake the capture of information as in ordinary information research.
Regular processes and continuous and specific scanning and analyses. For these intelligence
operations we will probably use a mixture of manual capture and computer-based monitoring.
Continuous and unspecific scanning and analyses. Unspecific monitoring is difficult as we
do not really know what to look for until we have found it. This entails a broad, flexible and
creative environmental scanning of a variety of sources. It also means that the capturing is
mostly manual and that it is even more important to use the triple E&B.
Search strategies
The KITs serve as a filter for capturing information but we have to process them so
that they can serve as keywords and search strategies in the capturing phase. The most
common processing that must be undertaken is as follows:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Company names, for example, must be explored to find different variants; large corporations
are often divided into smaller independent companies with unique names.
Names of persons must also be explored. The names could be spelled in different ways in
different sources, especially names transcribed from foreign languages.
Terminology for the KITs must be researched. The same keywords which are used in the
sources should be used in the search strategies, which sometimes means that we have to use
keywords which we consider incorrect or misspelled.
Concepts that are too broad must be specified in order not to generate too much noise.
Concepts that are too narrow may need to be extended; otherwise we could miss important
information.
Smart search strategies must be developed and adapted to the different sources; the same
strategy may not work in every source.
The processing also includes evaluating and revising the search strategies. This is
of special importance when we use computer-based monitoring solutions for continuous intelligence operations. If the monitoring generates too much information it will
be unmanageable and thus of no use. We have often heard comments from clients and
colleagues that media monitoring solutions cause frustration among the users – too
much irrelevant information is coming in and there is generally too much information
to be processed. We know that the suppliers of such solutions often hear the same
comments. There are some necessary actions to be taken when solving the problems
and alleviating the frustration which the problems cause. However, the risk is that the
38
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
solutions cause other kinds of frustration. They take time and therefore require more
resources.
These actions are:
•
•
•
•
•
•
to get support from the management and to involve them in relevant parts of the work;
to work closely together with the users;
to go through the different steps in the plan and prioritise phase before starting anything
else;
to devote a lot of effort and time to the system specification;
to set up smart search strategies and use appropriate keywords;
to test the search strategies and the keywords.
The starting point for the research is mostly secondary sources. The reason for
this is that it is often faster and cheaper. At the start we can use secondary sources to
increase general knowledge on the topic, to identify important issues, to enable the
creation of intelligent questions, to get to know which people to contact for interviews. We can then go deeper into the topic and elaborate the issues. If the information need is not fulfilled through secondary sources we go to the primary sources
and, for example, contact internal or external people for interviews. We may need
to go back to the secondary sources again to fill information gaps. The point is that
we should be prepared to use all kinds of sources, but be smart and effective and use
them in the right order.
Patents
When researching the sources for information on our KITs we must not forget the very
rich source of information in patent databases. Patent research, especially for technology intelligence, is inevitable.
To carry out qualified patent research is not an easy task – which is probably why
patents are often neglected as information sources. However, we are talking about big
money if costs are wasted on developing already patented products. Knowledge of the
process to apply for patents is essential for a good result. The different steps that the
application goes through and the different sources must be known in order to perform
a qualified patent research.
Moreover, the trick when writing a patent application is to reveal enough of your
invention to get your application approved, but not to be too open about it. This could
lead to language the purpose of which is to obscure rather than clarify, as the following
citation is an example of:
A patent agent will never call a spade a spade if they can call it a ‘substantially
planar earth-moving implement with coaxial leveraging means’.
(Adams, 2003)
The researcher, as mention above, must search for the keywords which are used in
the sources in order to get relevant hits, no matter what he or she thinks about it. Researching patents thus requires a lot of creativity and also familiarity with the special
patent language.
Capture and manage
39
Manage
Managing the information captured means filtering, structuring and storing. The managing process is often done simultaneously with the capturing of the information. The
manage phase of the competitive intelligence cycle is a pre-stage of the analysis work.
It is perhaps the most challenging task as it involves washing out the golden nuggets
from an ocean of information and structuring the information to make it usable. This
could imply difficult considerations as well as sometimes quite tedious work. Quite often we hear that no real value is added unless the information is analysed and p­ repared
for a busy decision-maker to use it directly. It is, however, a misunderstanding that
value is added only when information is analysed and transformed into intelligence. A
lot of value is actually added in the process of selecting the right information source,
selecting the relevant information and structuring and packaging the information so
that it is well-arranged and easy to work with.
Information overload
The ever growing amount of information puts special demands not only on the ability
to capture the relevant information and to avoid information noise, but also to manage information overload. The result of information overload may be that relevant
information is not used. The users simply cannot cope with the growing mountain of
information even if they suspect that relevant fragments are buried within it. On an
individual level it can also lead to frustration and stress.
In earlier phases we will have tried to reduce information overload by doing a good
job in drawing the business environment map, selecting and prioritising the sources
and choosing smart search strategies. However, even if these actions are helpful, we
must still be prepared to manually scan large amounts of information quickly and
­efficiently in order to sieve out the useful information. If we use computer-based
media monitoring solutions we do this work at the start to tune them to avoid as much
information noise as possible. One further result of the explosion of accessible information sources on the Internet is that we must use sources where the search facilities
are often not very good for either recall or precision.1
Filter and structure information
An important step in the manage phase is to filter and structure the information. This
could also actually be part of the analysis phase as there are elements of analysing
needed here. The KITs are of course the filter for the information selection and if we
have done a good job in choosing relevant sources as well as creating smart search
strategies we will have less information left to go through manually. Knowledge of the
KIT areas is required to be able to assess what is relevant and what is not.
40
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
Parallel with capturing the information we should take action for immediate filtering. We must be prepared to manage large amounts of information quickly and
efficiently. One way to do this is to create folders corresponding to the KITs on the
computer and store the information in them (making sure not to violate copyright le­
gislation). The first step is to decide what is relevant or not. The relevant information
is placed in the KIT folders, the potentially relevant is placed in a quarantine folder
and the irrelevant is left behind. Make sure that the quarantine folder does not grow
out of proportion.
To manually structure information into different categories is best done by information professionals who have training in describing and categorising information
and not by the producers of the information. This solution, however, has an obvious
problem: it requires more central resources which most organisations are probably
reluctant to devote.
Experiences from practical situations show that producers of information have
difficulties in describing and structuring it in a way that allows other people to
search for and find the information. Landqvist and Hamrefors (2006) described
the situation in a large research-intensive corporation which tried to improve its
document management. The first steps were to thoroughly investigate the different
document types and their categorisation. It was expected that the scientists at the
corporation would categorise their reports in one or other of these categories. After
three years of usage the most basic metadata were correctly added, such as date,
author, revision, document number, project, organisational belonging and product
area. When it came to the content, however, it turned out that over 80 per cent of
the documents were categorised as ‘Others’ even when there were 30 well-defined
categories to choose among. Experiences from Swedish universities’ repositories
for scientific papers reveal that not even basic metadata, for example organisational
belonging, are correctly added by the scientists. This, within parenthesis of course,
is jeopardising not only their search ability but also the visibility of the scientists and
their universities to the scientific world.
Some of the media monitoring solutions offer computer-based categorisation of
information. Automatic categorisation is a hot topic and probably the only sustainable way to manage large amounts of information and make it searchable. However,
internal work must be done to see to that the system is fed with relevant categories
and keywords. This is not as easy as it seems at first sight. Few organisations have a
harmonised vocabulary and a process to define the categories and the keywords which
are to be used very often turns into a political issue of who should have interpretive
precedence.
Presentation of the result
Once the information has been captured, filtered and structured, a lot of value can
be added if it is presented to the user in a comprehensible and legible way. Different
target groups have different preferences to consider and the budget and time schedule
also influence the way the results from the capture phase are presented. A table of
Capture and manage
41
contents on top with links to underlying text is one quick way to add value to the hit
lists. The way the research results are presented could be the difference between useful
and useless information.
References for validation
One risk when managing information is that we lose track of the ‘original’ source
­during the process. To be able to validate the information and the facts later on, it
is very important that references to the source are kept together with the respective
­information. Reference managing systems can be of help here. If no sources are stated
in the analysis, it is impossible to go back and validate the facts. It may sound obvious,
but we have seen so many bad examples that we are convinced that adding references
is not in the general mindset of most people.
We have, for example, seen analyses for launching a new product on a market with
facts and figures about the market in question without a single reference. It is thus
quite impossible to validate the reliability of the analysis and the validation then depends on the analyst’s credibility. When working as information professionals we have
often been asked to find the sources of facts stated in various reports and analyses. It is
not very efficient to devote time and resources trying to recapture such missing information. Doing it right from the beginning is always a better solution.
Note
1. Recall is the degree to which a search in a source catches all the information available on the
topic. Precision is the degree to which the search catches only the relevant information and
nothing else.
Analyse and communicate
6
Analyse
The analysis phase is in many people’s opinion the most important and value-adding
phase. Much of the literature on competitive intelligence is only about how to analyse the business environment – the previous phases are more or less neglected. It is,
however, important to be careful even in these phases – no analysis is better than the
underlying facts, the skills of the people working with competitive intelligence and the
clarification of the purpose and benefit of the task.
If there is a risk that the previous phases may be neglected in favour of the analysis
phase, the contrary is also the case; there is a risk that the competitive intelligence
team is more occupied with collecting and distributing information than transforming
information into intelligence. Intelligence is far more than information. Spending too
much time on the collection of information leaves too little time for the analyses. From
the very start we need to ensure that sufficient time is devoted to analyse and present
the results.
Preparing the analysis phase includes answering the following questions:
•
•
•
•
•
Which analysis method should we use?
Who is doing the analyses – should we do it as teamwork in workshops or individually?
Should we use independent consultants?
How do we ensure unbiased analyses?
How do we ensure that enough time is devoted to the analysis phase?
We must be prepared to return to the capture and manage phases if the underlying
facts are insufficient or turn out to be false. False or insufficient facts can in turn depend
on low-quality sources. This should definitely be noted in our source evaluation template.
Analysis methods
The purpose of the intelligence work and the expected outcome of course influence
the choice of analysis methods. It is worth noticing how the chosen method influences the outcome. This influence can be very strong. Some researchers have even
claimed that the chosen method often determines the results of the analysis (Comai
and Tena Millán, 2006).
The choice of qualitative and cost-effective analysis methods can be difficult. There
is a lot of literature which describes different analysis methods – when to use which
method, how to apply them, how they are related to each other and how complicated
and costly they are to apply. For most of the methods the target groups are corporations,
but many can be used even by other organisations, private or public. The methods
mentioned in this book are only a small selection and we will recommend exploring


44
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
the world of analysis methods to get the best result for the competitive intelligence
work. There are many descriptions of analysis methods on the Internet.
To help in the selection of method there are some general criteria to use when assessing the different methods. The dimensions are:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Future-orientation
Accuracy
Efficiency in the use of resources
Objectivity of the analyst or decision-maker
Usefulness
Opportunity and brevity, i.e. speed with which the results can be obtained.
(Comai and Tena Millán, 20061)
According to Frankelius (2008) one dilemma is the choice between diffuse and
concrete methods and between broad and narrow ones. In his research he has found
that the following factors should be taken into consideration in the monitoring and
analysis of the business environment:
•
•
•
The X-factor – the totally unexpected could be of utmost importance.
Concrete factors rather than general factors are driving the development. The trick is to
widen the perspective without losing the concrete analysis level.
The world consists of processes, not static structures or systems.
Much of the analytical work is done in the form of ‘qualified guesses’. This entails
synthesising and analysing the information based on the analyst’s earlier experiences,
knowledge, emotions and intuition (gut feeling). There are obvious advantages with
qualified guesses but they require the analyst to have sufficient knowledge of the topic
and to be aware of his or her potential prejudices. It is in many cases better to use
established methods if the method in question matches the need and purpose of the
analysis and if its performance matches the budget (see Table 6.1).
Overview of analysis methods
The purpose and the expected outcome determine the choice of analysis methods and
tools. If we are investigating potential markets, Porter’s Five Forces is useful. For
long-term business development scenario planning might be the right tool. Table 6.2
lists a number of tools and what they are used for.2
Early warning systems
In all organisations there is a need to anticipate what is happening in the near or remote future. The organisation should be prepared to seize possible opportunities as
well as to minimise risks and threats. Much of competitive intelligence aims at improving future predictions and there are several established methods of analysis that
deal with this. Thorough and systematic approaches for anticipating critical changes
in the business environment are the early warning systems (EWS).
Analyse and communicate
45
Pros and cons of using qualified guesses versus
established methods
Table 6.1
Qualified guesses
Established analysis methods
Pros
Easy to apply
Easy to understand
Require fewer resources
More likely to invite a search for facts to
sustain the analysis
Easier to ensure the quality of the result
Can be compared over time (if the same
method is used repeatedly)
New co-workers are more easily put on track
Easier to communicate the result
Cons
Risk of being careless with the
capture phase
Require that the analyst has much
knowledge
Is more dependent on an unbiased
analyst
More difficult to ensure the quality
More difficult to compare over time
Risk that the result of the analysis is too
dependent on the method of analysis,
knowledge of the method and its application
More complicated to use
Some more sophisticated methods are
rather costly to apply
Creativity may be lost
The holistic perspective may be lost
EWS start in the plan and prioritise phase with identifying the key intelligence
topics (KITs). As we intend to catch signals in the business environment which are
sometimes ambiguous and vague, we should also identify indicators of changes. The
indicators are either generated by activities, for example energy consumption, sales
of commodities, immigration and emigration in a certain area, or are more complex,
requiring analysis and the combination of several activities (Comai and Tena, 2007).
The KITs and the indicators are monitored continuously and the information
is managed and analysed by people who are able to notice even weak signals and
Table 6.2
Summary of analysis tools
Tool
Use
Porter’s five forces
To map the competitive market’s strengths and weaknesses
User investigation
To find out the goals and actions of specific target groups
Impact analysis
To evaluate threats and opportunities to discover which ones are
most important to deal with – prioritisation
SWOT
To identify threats and opportunities and how our own organisation can meet them
Benchmark
To compare with and learn from other organisations
Scenario planning
To undertake long-term planning
War gaming
To prepare for strategic competitive action plans
Early warning system
To monitor continuously to discover opportunities and threats at
an early stage
46
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
interpret the information in relation to the opportunities and threats to the business.
Creativity and communication skills, in combination with analytical skills and endurance, are of particular importance when working with EWS.
Speed of transferring the information to decision-makers is of utmost importance
in EWS. It means that the target group for receiving the result must already be in place
and in agreement with its role. Moreover, the target group should be aware of its responsibilities to receive the information and analyses and be prepared to take actions
on the result. An early warning system without this readiness is of little value.
Working with analyses
An important question when starting the analysis phase is who should work with the
analysis of the captured information. Should it be one person or a team? Should the
analyst be someone other than the information researcher? Should we involve a person
from outside of the organisation?
In some organisations there is a dedicated department or number of staff whose
function is to work with competitive intelligence. In most organisations, however, this
is not the case. In non-systematic competitive intelligence analysis is often undertaken
by a single person and the same individual carries out both the research and the ana­
lysis. The systematic approach includes distributing the work so that the best value
is obtained considering the budget. In many cases the best value is obtained when
the analyses are performed by team work. Many analysis methods, like war gaming
or scenario planning, also require several people to be involved. The composition of
the team depends on the purpose and the topic. If the purpose is strategic for the organisation it can be beneficial if the top management is involved in analysis sessions.
Analysing KITs often requires special competence in the area. The team should in
this case consist of specialists, but preferably with a generalist as facilitator. It is also
important that the team is dedicated to its task and is encouraged to participate by
managers. To involve a person from outside the organisation could be an advantage
especially when the analysis touches sensitive areas. An outsider is neutral and is not
considered to have his or her own agenda.
One special issue is to ensure that the analysis is as unbiased as possible. This risk
of biased analyses increases if the information researcher and the analyst is the same
person. A person who has devoted much time and effort to find facts might be reluctant to question them. Another risk is that time pressure prevents the researchers and
analysts from finding or taking into consideration contradictory facts. One proven way
towards unbiased analyses is to follow the scientific method: to develop a hypothesis
and try to reject it. If we just collect information to prove a hypothesis the risk is that
we choose only the information that suits our hypothesis. If we look for information
that rejects the hypothesis and do not find any there is a chance that it is valid (Metcalf
Carr, 2003). Yet another, but more costly, way is to ask for a second opinion, i.e. to
let another team do the analyses and compare the results, in order to get a different
perspective. Outside consultants may sometimes be used.
Analyse and communicate
47
Communicate
It does not matter how valuable and splendid the information and analysis is if it is
not communicated in a relevant and appealing way. The increasing number of signals
from the environment which attract our attention contributes to the stress which we
feel when we cannot manage the information overload. The response to this is to try
and shut off the signals. This fact makes it more difficult for any message to penetrate.
It is therefore important to allocate enough time to the communication phase. It
often takes more time than thought to prepare presentations and reports in an appealing
and understandable way as well as adapt them to the target group.
Deliverables
There are several possible ways to communicate the analysis to the target groups.
Which ones we choose depends on the topic, which target group we are addressing
and the available time. Of course the arrangement and method of communication are
determined in close cooperation with the primary target group.
We must consider what the communication deliverables should be in a given situation, for example:
•
•
•
•
•
•
oral presentation;
tailored report;
standardised report;
briefing or quick news;
newsletter;
inflow to a web page.
Hedin and Sandström (2006) have listed different methods of communication according to the two criteria: how well they are adapted to the target group and how
good the possibilities of two-way communication are. Oral presentation to the primary
target group with the possibility of discussions with the audience is a superior means
of communication. It is the best way to fulfil the two criteria. Besides being adapted
to the audience, the discussions often lead to the acquisition of new knowledge on the
topic. On the opposite side of the scale are newsletters with topics which are directed
towards different target groups.
We must also think of future target groups and their needs and take a stance on
whether the results of our competitive intelligence work, as well as the underlying
facts, should be accessible for coming generations or not. This entails considering
means for storage, such as servers or intranets, as well as the possibility of retrieving
the information. However, when storing information copyright issues must always be
taken into consideration.
All information deliverables, whether in the form of presentation software or a
Word document, should include the following attributes:
•
•
date and year;
author(s);
48
•
•
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
unit/department and organisation;
the sources used.
One way to facilitate the work in preparing the communication is to develop standardised reports and templates which should be used whenever possible. Intelligence
products like market analyses, competitor analyses, technology trends analyses, etc.,
which are often produced at regular intervals, benefit from a uniform and standardised
presentation and format. To use templates and a standardised structure not only saves
time for the author but it also makes it easier for the target group to read and absorb
the text. Another benefit is quality assurance as it will be possible to compare reports
from time with another. The author is spared the trouble of figuring out which basic
attributes should be added and which structure to use each time.
Even if the competitive intelligence work does not lead to a result, it is important
to document the fact – a non-result could be a result in itself in terms of the efforts
that have been put into the work and the tools and sources which have been used.
Templates can be developed to document the search strategies and the sources that
have been used.
Case: Technology intelligence briefs
At Tetra Pak a continuous competitive intelligence process was implemented with
the aim of catching technology news of importance for Tetra Pak’s key technologies.
Progress reports were issued four times a year by the managers of each key technology
area. The structure was standardised and besides the basic attributes like Key Technology Area, Number, Date, Author and Classification the headlines were: Keywords,
Trends & News, Internal Focus Areas, Implications and Proposed Actions, Feedback.
The briefs were to be no more than four pages and were also to include default and
additional distribution lists. They were distributed by e-mail and stored in Tetra Pak’s
enterprise system.3 The primary target group was the managers working with R&D
and market and business development.
The reports were a supplement to the ordinary formal or informal meetings and discussions. Their additional value lay in the fact that they reached a larger target group
and that it was possible to use them in strategic competitive intelligence work as the
trends were documented and retrievable for large analyses.
Notes
1. Quoting Fleisher and Bensoussan (2003).
2. In Chapter 12 on tools and methods we have described how to conduct analysis sessions with
these methods.
3. ‘Enterprise systems (ES) are large-scale application software packages that support business
processes, information flows, reporting, and data analytics in complex organizations’ (Wikipedia, 2013b).
The organisational side
of competitive intelligence
7
Organisational conditions
The result of the competitive intelligence work should be the basis for decisions on
which way to go and which actions to take to ensure success. The organisation must be
prepared to use the result of the competitive intelligence in one way or another. Even
if the organisation decides not to take any actions it is a more informed decision than
just being ignorant of the signals from the outside world.
The organisation can support or hinder the competitive intelligence activities. Properties of supporting organisations are:
•
•
•
•
a favourable corporate culture where working processes and norms support the mindset of
looking out of the window at the external world and not only at the organisation itself;
transparency of the organisation’s vision, mission and goals, and an active promotion of
them;
knowledge-sharing – the possibilities to find and to transfer knowledge;
active support for competitive intelligence activities.
(Nelke, 2012: 23)
The organisation’s standpoint when it comes to the importance of competitive intelligence greatly influences the way the employees perform their monitoring of the
external world. Hamrefors has studied several organisations and found four distinctive
ways of scanning behaviour: private scanning, anarchistic scanning, scanning in principle and directed scanning (Hamrefors, 1999).1
In organisations with private scanning behaviour there is no scanning for the benefit
of the organisation. Each individual monitors the environment for private reasons. As
the organisation is indifferent it does not encourage monitoring and thus the employees
have no motivation to perform business-related scanning.
In decentralised organisations, where the units work relatively independently, the
prevailing scanning behaviour is anarchistic scanning. Every department monitors
their business environment independent of the other departments. No effort is made to
look at the whole picture.
Scanning in principle is the denomination Hamrefors has given to the conditions
in which some scanning is dutifully done, but only to confirm the existing worldview.
The organisations following scanning in principle behaviour are large and dominant in
their field, and are convinced that they already know all that is worth knowing. There
is a large consensus and hegemony in the organisation, a fact that makes it difficult
to receive and interpret the signals from the surrounding world which contradict the
current mindset. These organisations often believe that they perform effective competitive intelligence activities when they in fact are vulnerable to unpleasant changes
in the business environment.


50
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
Directed scanning, which is the scanning mode recommended by Hamrefors, is led by
the organisation’s vision and mission with the organisation giving directions for the scanning. The organisation also encourages and supports systematic intelligence work. This
scanning behaviour produces the best results for the benefit of the whole organisation.
As most organisations – corporations, authorities and other public or private organisations – do not have a systematic competitive intelligence process in place, private
or anarchistic scanning are probably the most common scanning behaviours. When
establishing a systematic process we have to transform this scanning mode into a
more constructive one. Mapping the pattern of scanning and drawing from the existing patterns can facilitate the implementation of a systematic process for competitive
intelligence. With regard to organisations with scanning in principle behaviour, the
trick is to convince the management that they are missing important signals from the
business environment if they are not prepared to challenge their existing worldview.
This, however, is not an easy task.
Three poisonous Ps
Another phenomenon to look out for is what we call ‘the three poisonous Ps’: politics,
prestige and prejudices. These factors, even if they are exaggerated in this text, can be
found in many organisations:
Politics:
•
•
•
•
Striving for power.
Dividing the company departments into friends and foes with the aim that your department
should have more power.
Seeking alliances with your friends and having a hidden agenda towards your foes.
Using information as a means to acquire and keep power.
Prestige:
•
•
•
•
Always thinking that your department is the most important.
Not giving credit to other departments.
Always choosing your own department as best practice.
Not changing own routines for the benefit of other departments’ routines.
Prejudices:
•
•
•
Thinking that people who are different from you cannot be trusted.
Thinking that people in lower positions than you are not worth listening to.
Thinking that people in higher positions than you are always right or wrong.
Organising competitive intelligence
If we are to start a systematic competitive intelligence process from scratch we have to
consider how it should be organised to bring the most value for the investment. There
is not just one model which fits all kinds of organisations. We can be helped by looking at other businesses which are similar to our own to get inspiration, tips and advice.
Having a central competitive intelligence function is by far the least common way
to organise competitive intelligence work. Large corporations may have intelligence
The organisational side of competitive intelligence
51
departments, but in most cases the work is decentralised. According to Comai and
Tena Millán (2006) three types of competitive intelligence functions are commonly
adopted in the corporate world: centralised, decentralised or hybrid. In the latter some
activities are centralised and other activities are decentralised. The degree of centralisation affects decision-making, priority setting and resource allocation.
In some organisations there are central functions that have competitive intelligence
as one of several areas of operation. Examples of such functions are departments for
planning, analysis or business development. Yet other organisations have one function for technology intelligence and another for business intelligence. There are many
variants, and the size and structure of the organisation as well as its business area and
degree of collaboration are important parameters when deciding on the best way to go.
Decentralised competitive intelligence requires coordination in order to avoid anarchistic scanning behaviour. According to our experience, when implementing a systematic competitive intelligence process most of the scanning and analysing activities
must still be done in the different functions as before. To succeed with a systematic
approach we need a coordinator or a coordinating function. Libraries, information
centres and/or information professionals are eminently suitable for taking on this task.
While a central intelligence unit has among its tasks participation in priority setting, monitoring the external business world and delivering analyses to other parts
of the organisation, the coordination of the competitive intelligence process is not
so much about monitoring or analysing on behalf of the rest of the organisation. It
is about organising activities, creating synergies between the different parts of the
organisation and taking the initiative to comprehensively analyse where the bits and
pieces from different functions are joined up to form a basis for strategic decisions at
the top level. A coordinator or a function with coordinating tasks should also come up
with routines for the work and the deliverables, methods for information capture and
analysis, and competence development, all adapted to the area in question.
There are some pros and cons with a centralised versus decentralised approach to
the organisation of competitive intelligence. A centralised approach means, in this
context, one or more central functions for the competitive intelligence work. A decentralised approach means that the competitive intelligence work is done separately in
the different parts of the organisation.
In a centralised approach the preconditions for strategic and long-term competitive
intelligence work are better as there is a function which has a dedicated responsibility for the operations. The resource allocation and budget are also clear. This latter
fact could, however, make such a function more vulnerable in difficult times when
resources are scarce. A central function is less integrated into the other parts of the
organisation. This could be both an advantage and a disadvantage: an advantage in that
it is easier to question the current worldview, to take a helicopter perspective and to
get the bits and pieces together, and disadvantageous in that the rest of the organisation
may not accept the result as they believe the central function is too far from their reality.
A decentralised approach is more integrated into the daily operations. This is an
advantage as the work engages many employees and as a result is better aimed at
meeting the current needs. The result can also be assumed to be more reliable as it is
‘invented here’. This fact, however, is also a disadvantage as it can prevent healthy
scepticism. In a decentralised approach it is not so clear how many resources the work
52
Table 7.1
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
Centralised versus decentralised competitive intelligence
Centralised
Decentralised
Pros
Better preconditions for strategic
and long-term work
Clearer who is responsible for the
operations and budget
Easier to question the current
worldview
Better preconditions for getting the
bits and pieces together
Competitive intelligence is better
integrated in daily operations
The deliverables have a greater chance
to meet the needs and expectations
The functions themselves produce the
deliverables – thus they are assumed to
be more trustworthy
Many eyes, ears and brains are involved
More sustainable when it builds on
prevailing organisational behaviour
Cons
Less integrated into daily operations
Greater risk that the result and
deliverables are questioned (‘not
invented here’)
If the result is negative there is the
risk of shooting the messenger
More vulnerable in times of scarce
resources
More difficult to question the current
worldview
Less strategic and shorter-term work
Less control of the distribution of the
result – risk that some target groups are
missed
Greater risk that the work will not be
prioritised
Greater risk that no resources will be
explicitly allocated
Unclear responsibility for operations
and budget
will need; it could even be assumed that no extra resources are required. The greatest
disadvantage is that there is a risk that competitive intelligence supports tactical rather
than strategic operations and decisions.
In Table 7.1 we have listed the pros and cons with a centralised versus a decentralised organisational approach.
A decentralised approach has on the whole better conditions for success despite its
disadvantages. It is a more sustainable approach as it is building on the fact that the
monitoring and analysing of the business environment is already done in the different parts of the organisation. However, to be effective and systematic, a decentralised
competitive intelligence process unconditionally requires coordination and collaboration. Without coordination the different parts work in silos, no synergy between them
is obtained and, worst of all, the result of the intelligence work will not be a good
enough basis for strategic decisions.
Note
1. This is further developed in his excellent book Den uppmärksamma organisationen (2002)
(in Swedish).
Knowledge management – a
vital component of competitive
intelligence
8
Knowledge management adding value
to competitive intelligence
Knowledge management is the internal process for sharing knowledge to improve organisational performance (Momeni, 2012). All organisations need to gather essential
knowledge for the support of management decisions. While knowledge management
gathers both internal and external information and knowledge, competitive intelligence focuses on external intelligence in the process (Momeni, 2012). It is important
to merge the gathering of information from external sources with inside knowledge
within the organisation. The value added is always a combination of analysing the
external impact factors with the internal competences collected from different departments of importance.
There is a massive amount of literature on knowledge management and knowledge
sharing. These buzz words have their ups and downs in the organisational management world. Nevertheless, they are closely connected to competitive intelligence when
it comes to adding value from above all the tacit world of knowledge, an essential
ingredient in qualitative competitive intelligence analysis. In order to add value and
exhaustively analyse competitive intelligence, it is vital to include the knowledge already existing in the organisation. What is inside the head of experienced and highly
skilled colleagues in our organisation? How do we share their knowledge in a profitable way for our parent organisation? You will also find a multitude of synergies and
overlapping areas between knowledge management and competitive intelligence in
regard to organisation, processes and challenges.
Literature on the subject often deals with the challenges involved in knowledge
management. The general conclusion is that it is important for the organisation but
difficult to implement in a cost-efficient manner (Momeni, 2012).
•
•
•
How does an organisation organise its best network and its best work processes for knowledge
management?
How does an intelligent organisation care for its tacit knowledge and transfer and communicate it in the organisation?
How does an organisation retain their knowledge when people leave?
It is no simple task to approach these concerns, but they are of the utmost importance to both the organisation as well as to the implementation and organisation of
competitive intelligence in adding value and knowledge to the competitive intelligence process.


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Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
Synergies between knowledge management
and competitive intelligence
There are several synergies between knowledge management and competitive
intelligence. Competitive intelligence is highly dependent on knowledge sharing in
the intelligence cycle. Knowledge sharing adds value to the competitive analysis performed and gives advantages for knowledge management in the organisation.
Knowledge management and competitive intelligence have the same fundamental requirements in many aspects. In both areas strategic planning is a necessity, and
management support and consent is a key to success. An organisational culture which
encourages people to share intelligence and knowledge is also a requirement. Management processes are required in order to train people to carry out the work processes
and achieve the desirable skill set. Such an example is information competence and
analytical skills combined with communicative qualifications. The organisation must
encourage independent responsibility and creative thinking (Momeni, 2012).
The different aspects of knowledge sharing
Chun Wei Choo describes the ultimate knowledge outcome of human action and
knowledge-building in the accumulation of experience through the aggregation of data:
Knowledge is information transformed through reasoning and reflection into beliefs,
explanation, and mental models that prime action.
(Choo, 2002: 258)
Choo highlights from the Johari Window:1
•
•
•
•
We know what we know.
We know what we don’t know.
We don’t know what we know.
We don’t know what we don’t know.
These statements are important to bear in mind when incorporating knowledge
sharing into the organisation. It also places importance on the competitive intelligence
processes by adding the external perspective to our own internal work processes.
Case: Knowledge sharing
In a large global Swedish corporation two market departments at head office – for
convenience we can call them A and B – were placed rather close to each other in
the same corridor. The business intelligence unit at the corporation got information
on the coming release of a new product from an important competitor. The business
intelligence unit presented this information to relevant parts of the corporation, among
them departments A and B. Their reactions were quite different. Department A found
Knowledge management – a vital component
55
the information excellent and very useful in their current work. Department B, on the
other hand, already knew these facts and therefore ruled out the information as too old
and of no use. This happened in the same corridor. What is the loss of business value,
due to lack of knowledge sharing, in this story?
Tacit and explicit knowledge
Tacit knowledge is, as mentioned before, the implicit knowledge used by people in the
organisation to perform their tasks in a skilful way. It is hard to describe since it is carried
out as an action-oriented performance. It is the knowledge which exists in a set of skills
put together as a whole. You know something more than the simple chain of skills put
together – your environmental knowledge makes the picture complete. This knowledge
contributes new and innovative knowledge to the organisation (Choo, 2002). Explicit
knowledge is the range of formalised skills described and known to the organisation.
They are easy to communicate and describe and are a set of symbols, models or procedures which can be clearly transferred and communicated within the organisation.
Everyone in an organisation contributes knowledge and should contribute to know­
ledge sharing. Once again, it is important to analyse the target groups in an organisation,
to map and prioritise the inclusions and to build the networking connections.
Choo cites Zhuge Liang in The Way of the General, c.200 AD:
An enlightened ruler does not worry about people not knowing him, he worries
about not knowing people.
He worries not about outsiders not knowing insiders,
but about insiders not knowing about outsiders.
He worries not about subordinates not knowing superiors,
but about superiors not knowing subordinates.
He worries not about the lower classes not knowing the upper class,
but about the upper classes not knowing the lower classes.
(Choo, 2002: 59)
It is important to find out who knows what, to find out how different people use
different types of information and to find out how they transfer and communicate
knowledge. It is the organisation’s responsibility to find out how knowledge sharing
works in its own structure, and to match the needs of the organisation with the know­
ledge paths of its staff.
Having a corporate culture that encourages employees to volunteer ideas and share
important information is ultimately more important than any single knowledgemanagement tool.
(EIU White Paper, 2005)
An additional aspect is cultural knowledge, the shared and common assumptions
about an organisation’s goals and efforts. It is developed through formal and informal
cultural progress, and remains with the organisation regardless of staff changes.
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Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
Figure 8.1 Model of interaction between time and space
Knowledge sharing – the aspects of space and time
Figure 8.1 is a model showing how knowledge sharing interacts in time and space.
•
•
•
•
The first quadrant – tacit knowledge here and now – describes knowledge interaction here
and now. Something happens at a meeting, be it formal or informal, perhaps a sudden occurrence or a spontaneous encounter. Knowledge is then transferred in an immediate situation
of interaction.
The second quadrant – there and now – includes both tacit and explicit knowledge. Something
happens in the immediate time but is transferred to the future by e-mail, telephone, video meeting or otherwise. In some way, certain documentation also makes the knowledge explicit.
The third quadrant – explicit knowledge here and later – also provides the possibility of information retrieval. It appears later in time but here in space. It is something which takes place
in the same space but which also expresses knowledge retrieval for those neither present nor
taking part at the moment of knowledge sharing. It must be explicitly documented and made
available for a larger group than those present at the moment of knowledge sharing.
The forth quadrant – there and later – is explicit knowledge which can be retrieved and
which is very important to communicate back to the target groups in question. One way to
deal with this to ask the participants at the end of the meeting (or at informal get-togethers):
‘To whom is this information and knowledge directed? Who else needs to know?’
This model concludes that knowledge impacts people through its accessibility
in both time and space, and we should all be aware of the distribution and retrieval of
both tacit and explicit knowledge in an organisation. Chun Wei Choo has also added
the cultural dimension of knowledge in the intelligent organisation. It can be included
in the model above, or it can be treated as a separate dimension (Choo, 2002).
Knowledge management and IT systems
Tacit knowledge is hard to organise. We need transparent processes and an organisational culture which allows and encourages people to share – even a reward system by
management could be a straightforward recommendation.
Knowledge management – a vital component
57
When it comes to explicit knowledge, we need processes which encourage sharing
in different kinds of systems. We have e-mail systems as the essential tool in sharing and
communicating, and we need similar organised and structured systems which are just
as user-friendly for the organisation.
How do we start? Partner with the IT expertise since they have access to all internal
information as well as the technical skills in data storage, even though the information is not always organised to benefit the organisation. (Most often this is not an IT
task either.) The skills found in IT and information departments can combine with our
skills and assets to prioritise, organise and structure a substantial amount of internal
information and knowledge in the organisation.
Which department is in charge of the organisation’s intranet – Communications,
Information, Library, Web, IT . . .? The intranet is a good platform to use when
presenting structured information, communicating knowledge and marketing competitive intelligence transfer. A first step could be to explore the possibilities of the
intranet.
Monitoring external information and intelligence, however, often requires specific systems outside the reaches of the intranet. Choose a computer-based intelligence
platform based on the requirements stated for the specific needs of the organisation.
Link or integrate this system to the intranet. If an organisation has been successful
in building up an excellent data warehouse system, an option could be to combine
information from this system with the competitive intelligence system. The data
warehouse primarily handles internal information and must be combined with external systems and databases to offer the entire picture from a competitive intelligence
viewpoint.
The main requirements for a computer-based intelligence platform are:
•
•
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•
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•
customer-made web interface;
search function based on the needs of the organisation;
the ability to create customer-made alert functions;
monitoring function from different sources – web, databases, newswires, internal documentation . . .;
ability to convert information from different formats into one;
information retrieval from both filtered information and unfiltered information;
different levels of administration for system administrators, editors, users, readers;
report possibilities, preferably with an analysis function;
transparent statistical tools for measuring different performances and usabilities.
Note also the agreement of copyright clearing procedures for the gathering and
retrieval of information selected in the intelligence platform. Sometimes this could
also be solved by linking to certain web sources, but then we have a problem with not
persistent linking. A persistent link is stable through web interface changes. This can
be compared with the DOI system. The DOI system provides a technical and social
infrastructure for the registration and use of persistent interoperable identifiers, called
DOIs, for use on digital networks.
Some of the internal IT-system projects could be very large, time-consuming and
complex for an organisation. Start with small-sized projects which offer immediate
benefits for targeted stakeholders in the organisation.
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Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
When it comes to business or competitive intelligence systems there is a neverending number on the market. You need to look at the requirements of the organisation,
and you need to look at those requirements from a knowledge management perspective. What is the purpose of doing this analysis and what business processes should it
support? Do some knowledge mapping:
(1) What information exists inside my organization and where is it located?
(2) What expertise resides inside my organization – who knows what?
(3) What relevant expertise resides outside my organization, where does this expertise exist and how do I gain access to it?
(4) What are the best sources of relevant internal and external information?
(Dietrick, 1997: 63)
Case: Information audit in the pharma industry
The task was to make essential business-relevant information available for the right
target groups at the right time. How do we go about this? On her first assignment
as Business Intelligence Manager Charlotte Håkansson started by doing an information audit. She mapped the information flow in an analysis process looking at
how information was transferred from one point to another within the organisation.
(Compare with knowledge mapping as described above.) It was important to take an
inventory on a broad scale to find out what information was available, what information was needed and who needed the information at what time. After having done the
inventory mapping, a gap analysis was made to show the missing spots in the work
processes and the provision of information. Of course there were not only quite
large amounts of overlapping resources but also gaps in the information resources
unknown to the company.
In the performance of the project process we followed Betty Jo Hibberd and Allison
Evatt’s instructions where they describe the information audit process in five tasks:
Step 1: Description of the current situation
Step 2: Description of the potential clients
Step 3: Mapping of potential clients
Step 4: Rank solutions for prioritization
Step 5: Creation of an information map
(Hibberd and Evatt, 2004: 60)
The need analysis concluded that the company needed a competitive intelligence
system and a coordinated system of networking between the different parts of the
organisation. The ‘in-licensed value chain’ – a business model for pharmaceutical
companies working with in-licensed products from research and development – was
used as an overall structural skeleton of the intranet to initiate the communication of
internal information to the different parts of the organisation. It needed to be combined with the external information flow and a business intelligence system. A setup
of the company’s product-specific alert system covering the focal areas of interest for the organisation was also added. Analysis of prioritised areas and ­delegated
Knowledge management – a vital component
59
information sources was carried out in large workshops with a set of selected skills
and competences from different parts of the organisation: product management, pro­
ject management, regulatory affairs, patent office, medical advisors, management,
market research . . . Thereafter a network of product-specific editors were selected
and asked to publish vital information from the alert system, adding comments and
news from the specific therapeutic area teams as well as the competitive landscape
of the product. The network strengthened the relationships both within each productspecific group as well as between the different areas of interest. It provided important
experience and a best-case exchange between the groups, and it provided an overall
understanding of the importance and usefulness of competitive intelligence and the
competitive landscape of the company.
Do not forget information retrieval!
Within the process of knowledge management, strategic planning for indexing, storage and retrieval of vital business and organisational documentation is of the essence.
Both external competitive intelligence information and internal core documentation
are of fundamental value for future decision-making. The future is unknown and we
live in a fast-changing world. We do not know what could be of importance for future
planning and decision-making. Once again, it is vital to be able to find historical documentation and publications with precision and efficient recall.
A systematic approach to and structural storage of both external and internal intelligence of importance is the foundation of good knowledge management and is of the
utmost value for competitive intelligence.
Explicit knowledge and documentation
Explicit knowledge is found through different ways of documenting. Knowledge sharing transfers knowledge on many levels within an organisation. We have formal and
informal networks which also include management in hidden hierarchies. Hidden
­hierarchies always exist in an organisation and are highly dependent on the organisational culture that allows these hierarchies to rule. Such hierarchies could be networks
between different groups created for a variety of reasons: organisational structures of
groups coming from a cultural environment with common values could generate an
important impact without the formal organisational role, strong leadership without
being in a leadership position, friendships or intimate relations unknown to the organisation and so on.
Correspondence by e-mail has become a working tool not only as a mail system
but also as a vital daily instrument for monitoring, structuring and storing essential
information on an individual basis. This is a powerful working tool and organisational
structure base that is highly dependent on the individual choice of and motivation for
knowledge sharing.
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Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
The development of the mobile phone not only makes a lot of internal and external
information accessible, it has also turned the working day into a 24/7 platform. Text
messaging has become a new source of knowledge sharing. How do we handle the
knowledge within e-mails and text messaging and transfer it from an organisational
perspective?
Formal documentation in public organisations must be archived in a regulated way
so that documentation can be retrieved. In other kinds of organisations, however, formal documentation archives must be defined by structured processes. Of course it is
not always necessary to save informal working documents but some could be vital to
retrieve if they deal with important projects and decisions.
External publications, newsfeed reports and other essential information from the
world outside the organisation could be very important to retrieve in order to understand the kind of information available at a given time. If we have to go back to a
specific time and find out the context around a certain choice of information retrieval
or if we need to add or replace the information chosen with something else at the given
time, then a decision needs to be made on what we need to store. All material should
be available in the back-up storage and should be easy to find, with a frontline of prioritised material organised for the actual need.
Copyright issues must also be taken into consideration. We must know if we are
allowed to use the background information and share it in a legal way.
Social media
Web communities are developing into large environments such as Facebook, ­LinkedIn,
Twitter, blogs, research gateways and more to come. These worldwide communities
are growing and the knowledge management in our organisation must follow and
­interact with them. Several forms of social media gather both essential information
and interactive knowledge in commenting fields. The network society is growing in
importance but it is out of the reach of the internal organisational knowledge structuring
and processes. There is a need for insight and ability to handle the new knowledgeinteractive platforms for use in organisational competitiveness.
Social media is of growing importance for intelligence and is sometimes stated as
a primary source of competitive intelligence. The social media arenas are changing
and developing very fast, but some networks of interest are as follows:
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•
•
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LinkedIn – a collection of competitor information similar to a large spider’s web of discussion groups which can indicate trends and movements of competitors and organisations.
Facebook – used to find business information: everything from business and organisational
marketing to VIP customers, analyses, trends and signals.
Twitter – a speedy flow of information and updates. Twitter is often used in political spheres
and is usually referred to as the social media in the press.
Research networks – examples include Research Gate, Science Networks, Academia.edu and
Wikipedia. These scholarly communities are sources of network connections and are also used
for mapping areas of high activity in specific research fields or other spheres of interest.
Knowledge management – a vital component
61
These networks enable us to reach areas of interaction other than those traditionally
accessible.
Note
1. The Johari Window is a model to enable the understanding of relations between ourselves
and others.
The human side of competitive
intelligence
9
Qualified competitive intelligence requires
qualified people
Competitive intelligence is made by human beings. This means that factors that we
are partly unconscious of are influencing the results in all phases of the competitive
intelligence process. It is therefore important to know how we act as human beings
and how we perform to fulfil our competitive intelligence tasks. The competitive
intelligence work cannot be given away to computers. While we do spare the time
and effort when using computers to collect information from different sources and
to compile, manage and structure that information, and computer-based analysis
report systems are of help when gathering the dots together and visualising and
communicating the results, still it is individuals, interacting with each other, who
are doing the work and the result will be no better than the skills of the persons
doing it.
The skills and abilities of individuals are therefore of the utmost importance for
successful competitive intelligence. Different people have of course different competences and abilities and also quite different motivation and interest in the matter. You
cannot force anyone who is not motivated to work with competitive intelligence, the
result – if there is a result at all – will not be satisfactory.
This chapter is about some of the factors we must be aware of when doing competitive intelligence as well as the competence needed to be successful. The side effects of
human behaviour also make it extra important to have a professional and systematic
approach to competitive intelligence. The factors that could be negative for successful work can be eliminated or turned into something positive when incorporated in a
conscious and systematic process.
Perception of the surrounding world
At the individual level the way the brain works is of importance for shaping a picture
of our environment. Our brains receive a huge amount of impressions at each moment and we have to sort out and ignore most of them. This is necessary because if
the sorting process were not in place the surrounding world would be chaotic for us
and we would not be able to function in society. However, because of this we can be
sure that we miss things and that the picture we are forming of the surrounding world
is incomplete.
Research into the brain has demonstrated that when forming our memories we
build on previous experiences and add new ones like building a house out of bricks.
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Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
The bricks that do not fit in we tend to sort out. This means that we tend to choose the
pieces of information that we already have some connection to or experience of from
the past when forming the house of memories (Hamrefors, 1999, based on research
by D.H. Ingvar1). The implications of the way our brain works when we carry out
competitive intelligence are on the one hand that we – most often unconsciously –
ignore potentially important pieces of information and on the other hand that we tend
to choose the pieces of information that confirm what we already know, our existing
worldview. Thus we are at risk of not discovering the unexpected factors and these
factors could be of the utmost importance to the business.
Many of us are also subject to wishful thinking. A well-known fact is that we tend
to see what we want to see. This is also related to the way our brain is working but
some of us have more of wishful thinking than others. (Perhaps it is related to whether
we are optimistic or pessimistic about the future.) The danger of wishful thinking is
that we ignore – consciously or unconsciously – the facts that are unpleasant or too far
away from our expectations of the present or coming situation.
For those who are working with competitive intelligence it is a great risk that they
ignore essential facts both in the information capture phase and during analysis. The
result will thus be incomplete or in the worst case wrong. For the people receiving the
result the risk is that they ignore or distrust the result due to the fact that it does not fit
in with their present worldview or their wishes for the future. It is in this situation that
the messenger is shot!
How we react to the surrounding world is dependent on the environment in which
we live and act. Hamrefors (1999) has studied this and written about three kinds of
environment based on the situation in which the individual is located: the enacted
environment, the contextual environment and the remote environment.
From the individual perspective the enacted environment is where we live and
where we are also able to influence the situation to some extent. In this environment
we are very observant of signals from the surrounding world. We tend to have a big
ear to catch these signals because this is the environment that is most important for us
as individuals. It is important for how we do our work, how we perform as parents,
husbands and wives, daughters and sons, friends and employees. In this environment
we have to be observant and prepared to react to signals. This fact also means that
we might see signals as more important than they actually are and that we are too
reactive to them as we have difficulties in judging their relative importance. We pay
attention even to weak signals, especially if these signals have something to do with
areas where we are vulnerable – if the signals, for example, tell us that there is a risk
of losing our job or that something dangerous threatens our children or other persons
that are close to us.
The contextual environment is the environment next to our enacted environment. In
this environment we have fewer possibilities to influence the situation but still there
are factors which are important for our ability to act and react to signals in the surrounding world. We choose to observe the signals from the contextual environment
that are closest to or have the most influence on our enacted environment. The same
risk is present here in that we could overreact to some of the signals and ignore others
that could be more important.
The human side of competitive intelligence
65
The last kind of environment is the remote environment and is the environment
furthest from the individual. Here we have difficulties in catching signals. We pay
much less attention to the signals coming from this remote environment and the obvious risk here is that we miss something important. Meanwhile, for the business the
signals from the remote environment could be the most important to catch. Structured
and systematic competitive intelligence work should be directed to catch even these
signals.
Case: Reacting to signals in the surrounding world
Maria is a marketing manager at FoodSafe,2 a consultancy company whose main business is to measure and analyse potential food hygiene hazards such as microorganisms, yeasts and spores. The main clients are caterers for schools, hospitals and the
elderly in care, sectors that are all mainly financed by public means. Maria is a part of
the management team and she is responsible for short- and long-term market plans.
Maria is continuously monitoring the surrounding business environment to discover
signals of potential expanding markets. Now and then there are outbursts of food
contamination in the catering business. Children and elderly people get sick from eating food which is handled improperly. This always causes much media attention and
as the signals influence Maria’s enacted environment, she is very attentive to them.
The media attention and Maria’s own readiness to catch these signals in her enacted
environment could lead to the conclusion that the potential market for FoodSafe’s
business is growing. This could of course be the case, but the opposite could also be
true. Maria is aware of the risk of overreacting and she is not relying solely on her own
observations and these gut feeling conclusions. Using a systematic approach when
working with market intelligence makes her more equipped and able to evaluate the
signals in their right proportions.
Competence for successful performance
In order to perform competitive intelligence in a good way we have to have a set of
competences, skills and abilities. Formal education comprises, for example, Library
and Information Science, Business and Management, and Strategic Communications,
but in principal many other higher education qualifications, where the students capture and analyse information, can be useful when performing competitive intelligence.
Formal education is of great value as it brings skills like analytical thinking and a
critical approach to facts and figures, and these are essential to do a good job. Skills
can of course also be acquired through practice and experience.
General skills and abilities to perform world-class competitive intelligence include
the following:
•
•
to be creative, curious and questioning;
to be far-sighted;
66
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•
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
to have team spirit;
to be able to catch even weak important signals;
to see what’s in it for the business;
to be able to use unconventional sources;
to expose oneself to unexpected situations;
to have an open mind;
to be able to see what happens in other businesses;
to look for what breaks the pattern, what could cause a paradigm shift;
to be able to put together different pieces and build a puzzle.
A perfect intelligence professional is a mixture of creativity, fantasy, analytical
skill, structure, patience and endurance. Of course no such creature exists in real life,
but with teamwork we could hopefully obtain something in that direction!
As a complement to the general skills and abilities, additional skills are needed in
the different phases of competitive intelligence.
Competence for plan and prioritise
In the plan and prioritise phase where we draw our map of the business environment
and decide what we should monitor, we primarily need knowledge of the business and
of the products or services that the business offers. It is also very important to know
the vision and mission of our business. This may sound too obvious to mention, but
according to our experience this knowledge is often lacking.
Competence for capture
In the next phase, capturing the information, an essential skill is the ability to build
networks for the more informal flow of information. Good connections in the business are a prerequisite for successful networking. Knowledge of which information
sources to use for which purpose, having a critical approach to the sources and being
able to evaluate information and information suppliers are all necessary skills in this
phase. We need to know how to research the different kinds of sources and how to tap
informants for information.
Here we can apply our specific competence as information specialists to describing the information strategy, including the presentation of search strings, information
resources and how the selection of key words was conducted. To include these facts
in systematic reviews, as in the example below, is of great value for quality assurance.
This also means that the information professional becomes an integrated part of the
research project and will be participating as an author in the final report.
Case: Information professional’s
competence – CIFOR reviews
Systematic reviews are most often conducted within the medical and pharmaceutical
industry but are more and more required in other research areas and disciplines. The
reason for this is that research projects and the number of publications are growing
The human side of competitive intelligence
67
immensely all over the world and it is becoming very difficult for one researcher or
project team to control one specific research field. Therefore there is a need for systematic reviews in each area to get an overall picture of what is going on within the
area and what kind of research is missing. Where do we find the gaps?
One way to work with systematic reviews is to follow the model developed by
Petrokofsky (Petrokofsky et al., 2011). According to the model we have to gather a
large amount of information from diverse resources and databases to thoroughly cover
the specific area to find evidence-based material.
CIFOR (Center for International Forestry Research) has adopted this model for
putting together their reviews. CIFOR works with international projects concerning
systematic reviews in international forestry research.
Included in the reviews are descriptions of the information strategies and the ­sources
used, as well as how the research was conducted. The evaluation of these ­factors is
important documentation in the validated systematic review. The competence of the
information professional is certainly needed in this work.
Competence for the manage phase
In the manage phase of competitive intelligence the weeding out of the irrelevant and
selecting the valuable pieces of information is essential but also one of the most difficult tasks. In order to be able to do that we need knowledge of the business and the
areas which we are monitoring, as well as a good eye for what is in it for our business,
but we also need the ability to quickly scrutinise large amounts of information.
Competence for the analyse and communicate phases
Knowledge of the business is critical in the analyse phase. Knowledge of which
analysis method to use in which situation and of how to use the methods are also of
great value.
In the communication phase of the results we need communications skills, presentation techniques and the ability to write short and concise reports. As the communication does not only happen here and now, we also need to make the reports researchable
for future use.
The competence of the information professional
Information professionals have in general many of the competences needed in competitive intelligence work. The process can be illustrated as a pyramid (see Figure 9.1)
where value is added at each step: at the basis is a selection of the relevant information
sources from the huge amount of information out there. The information professional
knows what sources to use for what purpose and how to access the different sources.
The next step is to do research on the topic in question from these sources, to select, to
structure and to manage the information. At the top the information is very condensed
and hopefully one hundred per cent relevant. A profound knowledge of the subject that
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Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
Figure 9.1 The chain from ‘raw’ information to analysis and the competence needed in each step
the analysis is to cover is then crucial. The information professional might not have
this knowledge as he or she often has to cover a lot of topics. In this case the analysts
take over and do their part of the teamwork based on the results which the information
professional has obtained.
The information professional covers a great part of the information value chain
from the production to the consumption of information.
Within information provision there is knowledge of:
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publishing
publishers
database hosts
Internet
information brokers.
Within the areas of information research and management tools the information
professional knows how to use:
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search engines
reference managers
text mining
suppliers of information tools.
Information competence is an important skill and is one of the core competences of
information professionals such as:
•
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needs analysis
structuring information
researching information
knowledge of sources and their quality, i.e. source criticism.
The human side of competitive intelligence
69
Communicating information is also a daily activity for information professionals
wherever they work:
•
•
•
satisfying users and their needs
presenting information
making information retrievable.
The information professional is trained in the analysis of needs – to find out what
the real needs are on both an individual and a corporate level. We also have great
knowledge and competence about the information itself: how it is produced and transmitted, how it is acquired, the actors in the information market, who they are, the
content they offer, where information is acquired and at what price. How to research
information and to make information researchable is a key competence which information professionals possess.
The information professional is used to managing information resources and tools
to find the information wanted: what tools we can use in this work, how to evaluate
them, how they are selected, acquired and at what price. The best knowledge is of
course on published sources, either in printed or electronic form. Information resources
and tools which the information professional is used to managing are, for example
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electronic information resources
physical information resources
discovery solutions
database solutions
reference management systems
publishing tools
media monitoring solutions.
Furthermore, the information professional has experience in training users in ­using the
information sources and tools. Knowledge about the organisation where the ­information
professional is working is, as mentioned above, very important: often the information
professional is kind of a hub in the organisation, knowing who is doing what and which
information is hosted where.
The hidden competence
We believe that all information professionals have experienced difficulties in visualising our competence. If we are working in a library some parts of the competence are
obvious to other people, but other parts of the competence are obscured by the very
sight of physical books. If we are working in units other than libraries or if we are
looking for a job in the alternative sector – that is outside the library sector – we often
encounter misunderstandings and lack of knowledge on the competence. What we can
do is firstly to make very clear to ourselves the elements of our unique competence
and secondly to train ourselves in explaining it to others in a clear and understandable way. Of help in this process are documents on the competence of information
professionals which the Special Libraries Association (SLA) and the Swedish Association for Information Specialists (SFIS) respectively have published (SLA, 2003;
SFIS, 2012).
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Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
Table 9.1 Ranking of competence compared to ranking of courses by
Swedish recruiting agencies*
The qualifications ranked as ‘very
important’ or ‘rather important’
The courses ranked as ‘not needed’
or ‘needed to a certain degree’
Information management (25)
Knowledge of information sources and
media (25)
Presentation technique (25)
Problem solution (25)
Internal and external communication (24)
Organising and structuring of information (23)
Analytical ability (22)
Information retrieval (22)
Marketing (22)
Knowledge transfer (21)
Competitive intelligence (20)
Library and Information Science (22)
Archive and Information
Science (20)
Technical Science (19)
Journalism Education (18)
Computer Science (15)
Social Science (14)
Economic Science (13)
Information Logistics (11)
Media and Communication (5)
* The number of respondents is shown in brackets (28 respondents in total). Translated from Swedish.
The investigation below highlights this issue. The purpose of the study was to look
at the reputation of an exam in Library and Information Sciences in the so called alternative labour market for information professionals in Sweden. The awareness of what
competence a graduate in Library and Information Sciences holds was investigated
among recruiting agencies and compared to the opinion as to which competencies were
important when it comes to information management in a broad sense. The r­ espondents
were asked to rank a number of qualifications as well as a number of c­ ourses (see
Table 9.1). The report is called Don’t Mention the ‘ L’-word (only published in S
­ wedish)
and the conclusion was that although information management was highly ranked as a
valuable qualification, the degree in Library and Information Sciences was among the
lowest ranked (Andersson and Strandberg, 2007). This investigation clearly shows that
there is a significant lack of understanding of the competence of an information professional in some sectors of Swedish society. It is expected that the same pattern will be
seen in other countries as well.
The authors of this report strongly recommend, as the title of the report suggests,
not to call the unit in question a ‘library’ in the private sector because in the minds of
employers it hides the real tasks of information professionals.
Ethical competitive intelligence
Although competitive intelligence has nothing to do with industrial espionage, ­methods
are sometimes used which are close to what is unethical or even against the law. It
could be tempting to use such methods to obtain valuable and otherwise inaccessible
The human side of competitive intelligence
71
pieces of information and it is in the capture phase that the breaking of ethical codes
most often occurs. Hedin and Sandström (2006) have listed some methods in ‘order of
ethics’. High on the ethical scale are desktop investigations, database research, market
research, engaging consultants to do research and visiting exhibitions and trade fairs
to collect information. Low on the scale are hiding one’s identity or organisational affiliation, interviews under false pretences, false employment interviews and false sales
meetings. Against the law are industrial espionage, phone tapping, trespassing, theft,
bribery, blackmail and threats.
Having a set of ethical rules is of help both for ourselves and for our employers.
The Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) organisation has developed a code of ethics for competitive intelligence professionals:
• To continually strive to increase the recognition and respect of the profession.
• To comply with all applicable laws, domestic and international.
• To accurately disclose all relevant information, including one’s identity and
organization, prior to all interviews.
• To avoid conflicts of interest in fulfilling one’s duties.
• To provide honest and realistic recommendations and conclusions in the execution of one’s duties.
• To promote this code of ethics within one’s company, with third-party contractors and within the entire profession.
• To faithfully adhere to and abide by one’s company policies, objectives and
guidelines.
(SCIP, n.d.)
When working with competitive intelligence we have to stand up for ethical values
and have the courage to refuse unethical or unlawful methods even if there are strong
expectations to find and bring back classified information from the outside world.
Notes
1. David H. Ingvar, MD, PhD (1924–2000) was a prominent Swedish neuroscientist.
2. A fictitious company.
The role of the information
professional in competitive
intelligence
10
Information professionals add value
to competitive intelligence
We are convinced that the information professional has an important role to play in
the process of competitive intelligence. The main reasons for this is that information
professionals are familiar with most of the competitive intelligence phases as they are
actually already performing many of the activities needed in their competitive intel­
ligence work. Moreover, as information professionals we are trained in some of the
competence needed and we have knowledge of the information resources and other
tools which are valuable for the process.
An investigation of five Swedish companies, performed by Ojaranta (2006) as a
master’s thesis at the Swedish School of Library and Information Science, illustrates
how the involvement (or lack of involvement) of the corporate library in competitive
intelligence operations might look. Questions were put both to business intelligence
managers and to information professionals. The main contributions from information
professionals were, as expected, in the capture and manage phases. This corresponds
well with our observations and own experiences. Often information professionals are
called upon to perform ad hoc information research as a part of competitive intel­
ligence operations. The information professional can also be asked to carry out ana­
lyses, for example network analyses. On very rare occasions the information profes­
sional participates in the whole process from start to end. In three out of five cases in
Ojaranta’s investigation there was some cooperation between the business intelligence
unit and the corporate library and there was a feeling that information professionals
could be more involved in the work than they actually were. Two of the business intel­
ligence managers, however, did not see that the corporate library could add value to
the process. The reason was that, in their opinion, information professionals lacked the
necessary competence. This contrasted to the information professionals’ own opinion:
they were convinced that they could make valuable contributions if they were involved
in the process.
Although there is no profound tradition of information professionals acting as busi­
ness intelligence officers or managers we are convinced that taking up this role would
widen the field of opportunities for information professionals. Our own experiences as
a business intelligence manager and a technology intelligence process owner, as well
as experiences from colleagues in similar positions, confirm this.
In organisations much of the intelligence work is carried out in the operational units
and in functions for business development, communications, patents, analyses and
74
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
plans, etc. The main key to success for the information professional is to work in close
cooperation with these and other relevant units of the organisation and to be visible as
a value adding partner in the competitive intelligence work.
Another application of competitive intelligence for information professionals is to
develop your own business. Competitive intelligence is a basis for all business devel­
opment, not least the business of information management (Nelke, 2012).
The different roles in competitive intelligence work
There are a number of different roles in competitive intelligence work, as men­
tioned above. Some of the more common roles are: member of the steering commit­
tee, assignment or project owner, project manager, researcher, analyst, editor and
producer.
If the commitment is large and extends over a long period of time it is wise to man­
age it like a project. A steering committee is then often needed to allocate resources,
set the framework and see that the project is on the right track and keeps to its budget.
The steering committee has the final decision-making power on strategic issues that
can pop up along the way. The committee should not, however, be involved in the
project’s operational work.
The assignment or project owner is the one who owns the competitive intelligence
commitment and who will use the results of the intelligence. The assignment or pro­
ject owner is the commissioner of the work. The project manager drives the project
and he or she is also ultimately responsible for the success of the work.
The researcher does the work to capture and manage the information which is
needed, including the selection of qualitative sources. The selection of analysis ­methods
and the actual analyses are done by the analyst. Sometimes an editor is needed,
­especially if we have a computer-based media monitoring system which ‘automat­
ically’ delivers information to the web. In that case it is valuable to have a person go­
ing through the information, weeding out the noise and adding some comments to the
news. Finally a producer communicates the results in the form of newsletters, reports,
oral presentations, etc.
This may seem like a well populated organisation, but in reality the same person
holds more than one role. Furthermore, not all roles are applicable to all competi­
tive intelligence assignments. How many roles that are needed and how many people
should be allocated to the work very much depends on the size and nature of the as­
signment. In small scale-competitive intelligence operations one single person could
take on all the roles. On the other hand, the steering committee should or often does
consist of people not involved in the actual operations.
The information professional can take on any of these roles. Some of the roles
require specialist knowledge in the area of the KITs. If the information professional
(or any other taking up this role) does not have this knowledge it is difficult to analyse
or comment on the KITs.
In Table 10.1 we summarise the content of the roles and which role the information
professional can take on.
The role of the information professional
75
Table 10.1 The roles in competitive intelligence tasks and
the contribution of the information professional
Does the information
professional take on this role?
Role
Content
Member of the
steering committee
Sets the framework, follows up,
takes strategic decisions
Assignment owner/
Project owner
Owns the project, is the
commissioner of the work
Yes
Project manager
Manages and leads the work
Yes
Researcher
Selects sources, monitors the
KITs, captures and filters the
information
Yes
Analyst
Selects analysis methods,
analyses the captured information
Yes if there is enough
knowledge on the KITs
Editor
Communicates and publishes the
information
Produces newsletters,
reports, etc.
Yes if there is enough
knowledge on the KITs
Yes – but some deliveries
require more knowledge on
the KITs than others
Producer
Yes
Information professionals and analysis
The trickiest part of the competitive intelligence process from the information profes­
sional’s point of view is the phase where the information is analysed. Most people
agree that if a qualitative analysis is to be performed, it requires good knowledge of
the subject in question. This knowledge is partly derived from secondary sources,
what has been read and learnt, but a great part is also tacit knowledge derived from
previous experiences of working in the area and from the formal or informal networks
this person belongs to. The information professional may not have this kind of tacit
knowledge – unless the analyses are about our own area: information management.
However, it is not very clear what analysing actually means, where it starts and
where it stops. There are different opinions about what is and what is not analysing.
We argue that analysing has already started when selecting the sources and formulat­
ing search strategies in the capture phase as well as filtering and preparing the infor­
mation in the manage phase. To select sources and to filter and manage information
are key elements of the information professional’s tasks. This an information profes­
sional does all the time, but often neither the information professional nor the client
thinks of it as analysing. Ojaranta’s investigation brings out this phenomenon and she
quotes Sara van der Voort’s analyst checklist1 which points out that the information
professional is engaged in quite a few analytic activities in order to:
•
•
determine what information is relevant;
select the best source/article;
76
•
•
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
highlight critical data;
review information and highlight salient points in executive summaries.
It was interesting to notice that only two out of the five information professionals
in the investigation thought of their contribution in terms of ‘analysing’ although they
performed the activities listed in van der Voort’s analyst checklist. The conclusion
drawn from the investigation was as follows:
The bottom line seems to be that most corporate librarians in the study are analyzing information but they clearly do not think of it as analyzing. They are daily
adding value to information in various ways and helping the decision-maker to take
action on the basis of the information. This was clearly seen in the interviews.
(Ojaranta, 2006: 68)
Ojaranta’s recommendation is that information professionals should promote their
contributions as ‘analysed information’.
In order to highlight the qualified work around the processes of creating search
strategies as well as evaluating and selecting information sources, information profes­
sionals should document these processes. This also serves as a label of quality for the
outcome.
The question of information professionals’ contribution or not to analyses and the
nature of the contribution is probably very much about definitions and self-confidence.
Scenarios of the contributions of information
professionals
In the previous section we have seen that the information professional has the
ability to take on all the roles in the competitive intelligence process. If, however,
enough knowledge of the prioritised KITs is lacking it is difficult to take the roles
as analyst, editor and producer. In the following we will elaborate some scenarios
for different competitive intelligence projects and the possible role of the informa­
tion professional versus other units in the organisation. Two of the scenarios are
on a general and broad level and the third is a more specific task. All scenarios
have occurred in real life, but as to the third the corporate library in this case got
involved when the acquisition was already completed and it was discovered that the
homework had not been properly done. The corporate library was then called in as a
plumber to fix the leaks. Scenario 3 below is about how it could be done right from
the beginning.
The selected scenarios are:
1. The management decides to improve its competitive intelligence and gives the information
professional a task to conduct a feasibility study (see Table 10.2).
2. The information professional is asked to take on the responsibility for starting up and leading
systematic competitive intelligence work in the organisation (see Table 10.3).
3. The communication department is about to acquire a computer-based media monitoring
solution – the information professional is participating (see Table 10.4).
The role of the information professional
Table 10.2
77
Scenario 1: Feasibility study
Roles
Task
Information professional
Representatives from other
units/management
Specify purpose and
expectations
Map status quo
Draw up the business
environment map
Analyse and recommend
Report, present
Manages
Participate /make decisions
Manages
Manages and facilitates
sessions
Manages
Manages
Participate
Participate
Comment and make decisions
Comment and make decisions
Table 10.3 Scenario 2: Starting up and leading competitive
intelligence work
Roles
Task
Information professional
Representatives from
other units/management
Specify purpose and
expectations
Plan, manage and distribute
the work
Draw up the business
environment map
Do the research and manage
the information
Analyse and recommend
Report, present
Manages
Participate /make decisions
Manages
Participate
Manages and facilitates
sessions
Manages mainly secondary
sources
Participates
Participates
Participate
Evaluate
Manages
Manage mainly primary
sources including networks
Manage
Comment and make
decisions
Participate
Case: Information professional’s role in the technology
intelligence process
In 1999 Margareta Nelke had been for ten years the manager of the unit at Tetra Pak
which, after several changes of name, at that time was called the Research Intelli­
gence Library.2 At this time an innovative process had started at Tetra Pak to work
in a process-oriented way with research and innovation.3 The first phase in this in­
novation process consisted of a business and technology intelligence module. When
Nelke heard about the innovation process she contacted the global R&D manager
and discussed the possibility of the library hosting the technology intelligence part
78
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
Table 10.4 Scenario 3: The communication unit is about to acquire a
media monitoring solution
Roles
Task
Information professional
Communication
unit/management
Specify purpose and
expectations
Draw up the business
environment map
Make the specifications
of the system
Acquisition
Manage the search profiles
Participates
Manages/makes decisions
Facilitates sessions or
­participates
Participates
Manages
–
Manages and modifies in
cooperation with the supplier
Manages
Participates
Acquires and owns
Gives feedback
Select the sources
Evaluate
Manages
Participates
Manages
of the intelligence process. After some discussions the management decided on this
and Nelke was offered the position as the global Technology Intelligence Process
Owner.
The innovation process was organised as a number of modules with a process own­
er for each module. As the intelligence process was divided into Business Intelligence
and Technology Intelligence there were two process owners for this phase. Some other
phases were Strategy and Planning and Product Development. The process owners
had regular meetings to discuss development and implementation.
The Technology Intelligence Process (TIP) was defined as the chain of activi­
ties to identify and transform the disaggregated, unstructured mass of information
and knowledge on technology-related opportunities, threats or developments into
manageable intelligence to be acted on. Nelke’s task as a process owner was to
manage the process development and implementation and to organise the process
network. The process network consisted of a number of local process owners at
the different R&D sites. They were responsible for the local implementation of the
process.
In addition to this, a network of key technologies was formed. The aim of the net­
work was to conduct continuous environmental scanning and produce key technology
intelligence reports three to four times a year. These reports were also managed in
the TIP system. Once or twice a year there were meetings with the Key Technology
managers and the process owner.
The purpose of the Technology Intelligence Process was to offer a working model,
methods and tools to create and exchange technology intelligence to support innova­
tion and strategic decisions. The idea was that before any product development started
the R&D people should go through the TIP to ensure that the necessary investigations
The role of the information professional
79
had been done before starting the actual development work. They should get know­
ledge of the state of the art through information research in literature, patents and Tetra
Pak’s own development reports.
An important part of the work was to define the users’ short-term and long-term
needs of information and intelligence. Examples of short-term needs were to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
solve technical problems;
investigate prior art;4
identify business partners;
feed information to projects;
conduct competitor analysis;
increase the awareness of and focus on the external business environment.
The more long-term needs were mostly at the management or corporate level. Ex­
amples of long-term needs were to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
anticipate threats;
identify new business opportunities;
identify technology road maps;
increase technology knowledge;
save development costs;
conduct technology assessment;
monitor emerging technologies.
The whole innovation process was published on Tetra Pak’s intranet and could
be accessed by those authorised. In the technology intelligence module there were,
besides working models and documents, a number of tools available for the R&D
people. Examples of tools were:
•
•
•
•
guidelines on how to create technology environment maps;
source guides with links to important information resources (subscription-based or free on
the Internet);
templates of intelligence reports;
lists of members of intelligence networks.
One important part of the implementation was to train the users of the tools. This
was done by the Technology Intelligence unit or by local process owners.
For some time Nelke simultaneously held the positions of Technology Intelligence
manager and TIP owner but the idea was to let go of the position of manager and
instead focus on the role as a process owner. Another manager for the Technology
Intelligence unit was recruited and Nelke concentrated on developing and imple­
menting the process together with the Business Intelligence process owner. During
Nelke’s last period at Tetra Pak she worked together with the business intelligence
process owner to merge business and technology intelligence into one single intel­
ligence process.
The work as an intelligence process owner was demanding but very stimulating. The
easier phases were to develop the process and the tools. The most challenging phases
were to implement the process in the whole R&D organisation – a work that was not
completely finished when Nelke left Tetra Pak in 2004 to start her own business.
80
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
Notes
1.
2.
3.
4.
Van der Voort (1998).
The journey from Library to Technology Intelligence is described in Nelke (2012).
The innovation process is described by Deschamps and Nayak (1995).
Prior art consists of all publicly available information on a subject. Prior art investigation is,
for example, a mandatory part of the patent application process.
Promoting competitive intelligence:
the importance of marketing,
communication and evaluation
11
The importance of marketing, communication
and evaluation
Competitive intelligence must be promoted in a well-planned manner that has been
analysed in depth. It is a crucial and critical success factor for the implementation in
any organisation or business environment. It is also important to consider the various
aspects of marketing, communication and evaluation as a connected process influencing each other which should also be planned and performed from the perspective
of the target groups. A well performed communication plan appended to the overall
strategic plan makes the marketing much easier to carry out.
Many a small thing has been made large by the right kind of advertising.
(Mark Twain)
Use this chapter as a checklist for marketing, communication and evaluation. It also
covers the relationship between marketing and knowledge of target groups. Who do
we address and what do the needs of specific target groups look like?
Don’t find customers for your products, find products for your customers.
(Seth Godin)
Some of the questions below are a good way to start thinking about the purpose and
effort that are needed when planning for good, successful promotion.
•
•
•
Is a structured form of marketing planning required?
Why is it important to communicate competitive intelligence internally and externally?
Why put time and effort into the evaluation of plans, processes and activities for competitive
intelligence?
The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or
service fits him and sells itself.
(Peter F. Drucker)
It is useful to think of all the parts in the communication plan as one process put
together. Marketing, communication and evaluation are connected in the planning
process and are linked together in repeated loops going forwards and backwards depending on the feedback from our users and target groups. What is in it for them? We
82
Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
will be more prepared for the next steps in the planning processes and the value of
evaluation will be more deeply rooted if we consider user opinions.
Definition of marketing
The essence of marketing is communication. We need to present, communicate and
transfer what we are producing in our organisation. Marketing is a process which
draws attention to the information which we want to communicate and deliver to the
designated target groups in our organisation, business or project. We must draw attention, we must know that vital messages have been received, we must hold interest and
we must retain knowledge of services, skills and products.
In Wikipedia marketing is defined as follows:
Marketing can be looked at as an organizational function and a set of processes
for creating, delivering and communicating value to customers, and managing
customer relationships in ways that also benefit the organization and its
shareholders.
Philip Kotler and Gary Armstrong (2010) are often quoted in the scholarly world
of marketing management. Their definition of marketing goes beyond promoting and
selling to include product development, distribution and pricing. They define the five
Ps as: Product, Place, Price, Promotion and Purpose.
•
•
•
•
•
Product stands for what you want to distribute and deliver. With regard to competitive intelligence this could be the specific skill set of consulting as an advisor, project management
for specific projects or a deliverable of analyses or information.
Place means being in the right place and at the right strategic level in the parent organisation. This means that we have to expose competitive intelligence in strategically important
environments and also aim for implementing competitive intelligence on the right level in
the organisation.
Price is the search for the correct balance in the budget between input and outcome in order
to be able to deliver. Here it is important to find the balance. What is the value of competitive
intelligence for our organisation? What does it give back? How much resources are competitive intelligence worth?
Promotion makes the product attractive for users and it shows the purpose of the product.
The product must be visible not only for the target groups but also for other stakeholders in
the organisation.
Purpose of the product for the entire organisation – both for the customers and the staff.
A well-defined purpose makes the product more sustainable and easy to market in a serious way.
Marketing is not only about branding. Marketing and communication are very
closely integrated and sometimes they overlap or are defined in the same way. Marketing the objectives and activities of competitive intelligence internally and externally is
essential in order to develop and broaden strategic messages and all-round activities to
Marketing, communication and evaluation
83
reach the goals put in place for the organisation. We know what we are doing but how
do we get target groups involved and aware?
A good idea is to start with eye-catching messages and stories to make competitive
intelligence perceivable and transparent. Work internally to produce clear plans and
messages before communicating them. A message must be entirely clear to us before
it can be delivered. One part of our overall strategic plan is the strategic marketing
plan, where we begin by asking the obvious: what do we want to achieve and who are
the target groups?
Initially we have to do some ‘eye opening’. But we also have to define and
communicate complex processes and systems which often are quite difficult to
explain. An example is when we are trying to explain the complexity of background resource infrastructures and processes. Marketing an explanation of these
processes requires resources and skills – and for those doing research it should be
presented as one transparent and accessible endpoint. A wide range of skills and
competences is required in the process of acquiring and implementing information resources. We need knowledge of the landscape of information provision in
the global arena; we need skills to evaluate and prioritise the information. Several
resources overlap each other. A core competence of information professionals is
the unique knowledge of the international palette of information resources. It is
essential to keep updated knowledge about constant product changes in the information industry. In addition, there is a need to negotiate and evaluate the content,
services and providers as well as the requirements specified by the organisation.
Following this, there is a need for competence in implementing and marketing the
resources acquired. In the case of major projects, there is considerable commitment by the organisation.
It is important to include marketing activities in the budget. We must decide on
the cost in relation to what we can afford. Marketing activities should also be defined
in the activity plan and time schedule and, let us not forget, be included in our work
descriptions.
The difference between marketing and branding
Marketing is not only about branding. Branding is when target groups associate the
values of competitive intelligence which you want to communicate with the product.
This could be specific competitive competence, user reliability and/or specific skills
useful to your organisation. When choosing a new car I (Charlotte) was looking for
safety and comfort. Saab was the immediate choice – this was of course prior to
Saab’s exit from Swedish ownership – as the Saab trademark had been associated
with safety and comfort since its beginnings in the aerospace industry. Saab has also
strengthened its trademark through high rankings in various customer tests and branch
evaluations. My choice was based on what I perceived as a strong car brand for the
criteria I had decided to use.
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Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
The AIDAS model
One frequently used marketing model is AIDAS.1 It is a step-by-step way to reach
clients and create interest for the product or project we want to promote. It provides
a better understanding of how to plan promotion and how to get and keep attention:
•
•
•
•
•
Attention
Interest
Desire
Action
Satisfaction.
AIDAS is a useful model and tool to have in mind when creating something new
and starting the process of reaching out to our target groups.
Choosing manners and methods of marketing
It is essential to work with marketing in a well-planned and thoughtful manner. It is
not only about creating a logo, using branded devices or marketing a website. We need
to plan thoroughly and work with the underlying values in order to acquire a common
sense of the objectives, definitions and achievements. What does it mean and what
does it stand for? This is an essential and complex process and a well-defined marketing plan is of great benefit.
One way is to tell a story, a saga. The annual report could also be delivered as an
interesting story of our competitive intelligence function, of a project or of the organisation. What does competitive intelligence do? How does it do it? What’s in it for
me? An analysis of different target groups must be made. An annual report could be a
summary of positive information, but it could be presented in an exciting and different
manner.
Another way is to collect success stories and communicate them to the appropriate
audience. Even better, our target groups could tell and write stories about us and communicate them within their own groups. Having someone else, for example our users,
tell our stories will provide far more validation and impact than telling the ­stories
ourselves.
Collecting users’ comments to enhance our activities and processes is another way.
The value and the use of competitive intelligence should be made as transparent as
possible for management, customers and users. All of the above can also be additional
complements to statistics and numbers when evaluating the function.
If working in a competitive intelligence organisation or a library organisation, the
role played by various documents such as activity plans, library plans, websites, pro­
ject plans, internal communication, planning reports and protocols, etc. must be made
visible. Sometimes this can be something of a battle, as in the case example which follows, and it takes awareness, creativity and ‘guts’ to succeed. The proactive planning
and work with making the competitive intelligence process transparent is essential for
visibility and inclusion.
Marketing, communication and evaluation
85
Case: The battle for visibility
As an example, when Charlotte Håkansson was working with the implementation
of competitive intelligence processes in a pharmaceutical company it was not obvious that the process should be included in the important strategic plans. Competitive
intelligence was crucial for the marketing sector, but it was not included in the strategy plan. A new pre-launch document was created but the competitive intelligence
process was missing. How can new managers find out about its strategic importance?
What should be done? We wrote our own chapter in the document and insisted it be
included in the strategy plan. Having indicated proactively we had something to deliver, we were not excluded from the process but instead offered visibility in a larger
strategic plan within the organisation. It is not always easy to find these blind spots,
but it is extremely vital to be proactive and deliver to these internal strategic planning
processes.
The key is transparency and visibility across the entire organisation. Our role, the
arguments, our mandates and our value should be clear, and they should be communicated through library plans, management plans, annual reports, project plans, etc.
Target groups
All communication has one or more target groups, and individuals and groups have
different needs. One and the same target group can also have different needs at different times. We must thus define and analyse the important target groups in order to
be able to make the right priorities and to tailor our marketing. The analyses include
defining our primary target groups as well as our secondary ones. Mapping the informal managers and management and disclosing the hidden hierarchy should also be
included in the analyses, a difficult but ever so important task.
Moreover, target groups in different regions may have different preferences due to
cultural and organisational factors. Marketing aimed at the target groups should take
this into consideration.
If necessary, we should divide target groups into those which are the target for marketing and communication and those which are the target for receiving deliverables.
Target groups are not static – they are dynamic and often changed. The analysis
thus needs to be frequently updated.
The needs of the different target groups will not only influence the structure of the
presentation but also the choice of formats as well as the means and methods for storage and information retrieval. If there are different target groups, with different needs
and interests, we focus on the primary ones when preparing the presentations. Some
issues we have to address are as follows:
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Which additional target groups, besides the primary ones, need access to the information?
How do we ensure that the information will be available for these target groups today and in
the future?
If the information is classified, how do we ensure that it will not reach unauthorised people?
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When preparing presentations, reports and other communications there are, according to our own and other’s experiences, some rules of thumb to consider. These
are, however, general and will not be applicable in every situation.
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Information should be sorted with the most important information at the beginning, for example key findings and conclusions.
Communication should preferably be concise and precise! This makes it much easier to perceive
and to remember. Many people, but especially executives, want short and concise information.
The university world is more willing to digest long reports than the corporate world. However, this is changing rapidly as every sector increasingly wants concise information.
People working with research and development, more often than other groups, want to be
able to familiarise themselves with the underlying facts to see if the conclusions are valid.
People working with research and development are also more often reluctant to adopt other
people’s conclusions as they prefer to make their own.
It is more effective to be concrete instead of abstract. It is good to use cases and real-life
examples.
It is what the target groups perceive that matters, not what you communicate! It is essential
to find out how our target groups catch our messages. It could be something completely different to what we expect.
Visualisation is always good. Graphs, pictures, word clouds, charts, etc. should be used
whenever possible. Just make sure they are meaningful and support the message and are not
only used for aesthetic reasons.
What is obvious – and important – is that the information delivered should be
reliable and that accurate and validated sources are used. The target groups should
have confidence in the message and the messenger, and this takes time to create and
develop. It is of importance who presents the result. Prescott (2003) writes about the
‘social capital’ which the competitive intelligence professional needs to develop to
ensure that their analyses and conclusions will be accepted. The social capital consists
of advice, trust and friendship networks.
The reliability of the messenger is of great importance especially for groups who
do not have the time to familiarise themselves with the background information. Their
credibility, in turn, is influenced by human relations and networks, personal characteristics and unfortunately sometimes innate characteristics like skin colour and gender.
The credibility of the messenger is put on test especially when the message is
negative for the target group. The phenomenon ‘shooting the messenger’ has a long
tradition. If the result of the analysis is a disappointment, it is not unusual to blame the
person who is communicating the bad news.
Marketing and communication plan
It is a good idea to invest some time and effort in systematically working out a strategic
marketing and communication plan.
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We should start by asking why. Why are we doing this?
When the question is answered we will go on with the definition and description of our
objectives.
Marketing, communication and evaluation
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What is the meaning – what and how?
What are the actions?
What does the time schedule look like? Set up the time schedule on an annual basis.
Who is responsible and what is the result? What is the result of importance?
What should be measured and evaluated?
Note the importance of analysing the target groups.
Which channels of communication and communication arenas will be used?
Carry out creative workshops on competitive intelligence.
See that communication is a standing item on the agenda for both management meetings and
staff meetings.
Use a competitive intelligence portal, the intranet and internal news channels.
Write daily, weekly and/or monthly competitive intelligence newsletters.
Make solid decision deliverables proactively to key target groups from a competitive intelligence perspective.
State the goal values simply and clearly.
Present the connection between input and outcome.
Use a simple report template.
Quote sources, verify facts and quote experts within our organisation and outside.
Make the marketing and communication plan a part of the overall strategic plan!
Communicating results2
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Plan and work with the format of the presentation, its dissemination, archiving and retrieval.
On what level do we do it and for whom?
Work through the material and present it in a report template marked with our distinguishing
symbol – logo, contacts, pictures . . .
The collection of information could be a searchable database of the analysed
material. It could also be important to save material which was not analysed as a
historical back-up. We sometimes have to go back in time and refine our analysis
and if that is the case it is necessary to track the original material. Things change
and the results of an analysis could change the premises. Time and effort will be
saved if there is a distinct, searchable and well-indexed database for fast and safe
retrieval.
Do not forget copyright issues surrounding accessible material! Information provided to the database must be copyright-cleared, stored and disseminated in the organisation. Archiving and reuse must be permitted.
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How are we allowed to spread the material?
What about links – persistent links and material which will not be accessible in the future?
A back-up?
Evaluation
Evaluation is very important but is quite often forgotten or not planned. Always put
evaluation into a strategy plan.
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What questions should we ask before we start?
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What do we want to evaluate and why?
For what purpose should it be used?
What are the benefits? The benefits of evaluation are:
• the acquisition of input for the development of our organisation;
• the ability to prioritise.
Communications to management and our organisation are crucial. Prove that intelligence is
creating value for money.
Evaluation also confirms our strategies and how we should go forward.
It provides feedback on goals and activities for further development, and it shows staff that
we are striving towards valuable achievements.
As previously mentioned, there is a wide range of ways to measure. One way is
to focus on statistics and cold facts. This way is very convincing within certain target
groups but could easily be tampered with and is sometimes difficult to interpret. It
could also be fragmented and not provide the entire picture.
Measurements
Key performance indicators (KPIs) are one way of measuring an organisation’s
achievements. They compare different parts of the organisation with each other in
a full-scale manner and describe their interaction and collaboration with each other.
KPIs are quantifiable measurements which have been agreed upon beforehand and
which reflect the critical success factors of an organisation. They will differ depending
on the organisation (Reh, 2014).
Take the measurement of a few indicators – the main ones – and get a true view of
their efficiency and performance for the entire organisation.3
It takes a bit of thought to figure out how to use this in an efficient manner. How
and when should it be used?
Balanced scorecards are another method used in organisations as a means to ­meas­ure
and follow up internal performance as compared to external performance. The financial parameters are balanced using internal processes (how well the organisation performs), clients (how satisfied the clients are), learning and growth (competence and
skills). Each scorecard has its objectives, targets, measures and initiatives. The vision
and strategies of the organisation guide the scorecards (Nelke, 2012).
User investigations are useful when aiming at finding value for the target groups.
They could also be used to figure out how to prioritise for a specific target group or
between target groups.
Define critical success factors and make them measurable. However, do not define
too many factors and make them achievable. They should also be measured against the
overall goals of the organisation.
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One very frequent used method is SMART which stands for:
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Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Reliable
Time-bound.
The goals should be specific for the marketing strategy of competitive intelligence.
They should be measurable against what you want to obtain during a certain period of
time. They should also be realistic and reliable with regard to what should be achieved
and obtained within the planned time schedule.
Case: Statistics from intelligence portals
Here are examples of KPIs chosen from larger projects in a competitive intelligence
department.
Statistics for the competitive intelligence portal:
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Monitoring editorial activity per product:
incoming information
how much is published
frequency.
User statistics:
• unique user visits per day
• what is most frequently read
• user groups.
Web activities on the intranet:
• applicable websites.
Success stories:
• voices from the users
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Statistics for the competitor portal:
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Visits:
monthly activity.
User groups:
• core project team
• medical advisors
• commercial, medical, pre-clinical, project sub-teams
• local offices.
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In addition, surveys/remarks from the users are collected in the portals at the beginning of the year.
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Challenge the measurements and the methods
It is very important to begin by analysing what we want and need to measure. What
is the needed outcome and how are we going to use it. Challenge the classical way of
measuring! Why should we measure in a certain manner?
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What is the value of the information found?
What is the value of the information not found?
How do we connect to the overall goals? What is the value of that?
What are the goals of the overall organisation compared to individual goals?
Compare/benchmark with other departments and functions.
How do we measure what is not measurable? For example, performing a lot of information
research but not getting any results.
Measure time and resources against value: how much time should be put into the balance
between effort and value?
Are we measuring what we need to measure or are we measuring just what is easy to
measure?
Notes
1. Read more about AIDAS in Chapter 12 on tools and methods.
2. See also Chapter 6 on analysing and communicating.
3. See also Chapter 12 on tools and methods.
Tools and methods
12
A toolbox
The aim of this chapter is to supply a toolbox of commonly used methods for shortand long-term business planning, evaluation and measurement, business environment
mapping, prioritising and positioning as well as analyses of markets, competition and
other critical parameters for a successful business.
This is just a selection of the methods available – there are many more. An investigation on the Internet, for example, will give many descriptions of different tools to be
used. We have selected those which, according to our experience, are relatively useful
and also relatively easy to use. War gaming is perhaps the most complicated method
in the toolbox as it needs a lot of preparation and also puts high demands on the facilitator. However, it is also a method which, in the right context, gives a lot of useful
insights and thus the effort and resources required can be justified.
Most of the methods should be carried out as teamwork with a facilitator leading
the sessions. It is important that the participants come to the sessions as well prepared
as possible to ensure a successful outcome.
The sessions should be carefully prepared and organised. For example, in ana­
lysis sessions, summaries of the results from the capture and manage phase must be
known by the participants and these are to be distributed beforehand. If we suspect
that the participants have not familiarised themselves with this documentation before the session, which may be the case if they are very busy, the session should
open with an oral presentation of the results. It is always of value that the facilitator
of the session is an outside person who is not directly involved in the matter. Other
tips for organising analysis and other sessions are to see that there is enough to eat
and drink and rather to have many shorter sessions than fewer longer ones. The
premises should be well ventilated and bright and they should be equipped for writing down and sharing thoughts and ideas with others. To arrange the sessions out of
office could also be advantageous, as this means that the participants focus more on
the actual session.
When describing the tools the following literature has been used: Åkerblom (1998),
Dragon (2011), Fehringer and Sawka (2003), Genf and Laurent (2008), Kotler and
Armstrong (2010), Lindgren and Bandhold (2003), Nelke (2006, 2012), Porter (2008),
St Elmo Lewis (1903), Wikipedia (2014a).
LOTS strategic design for innovation
LOTS is a management model for organisations and deals with the balance between
the outside-in and inside-out perspectives. The outside-in perspective is when we try
to look at the perspective of our users outside our own organisation. It could be the


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perspective of the closest of colleagues but more often it is the perspective of our target
groups outside our own department or organisation. What is in it for them? How do
they perceive our organisation, approach, deliverables? All this should balance with
the aim of development from our own perspective and individual driving forces.
LOTS is a structured method of working with strategic planning and action plans.
It is also a method of daily life planning.
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LOTS offers a holistic view on any issue. We deal with the start to end process in a circular
way.
The method consists of sub-processes and steps which are handled in a step-by-step approach in a practical way.
LOTS is based on a structured process with open questions. This provides a more flexible
mode to work within even if it is done in a systematic way.
The method follows the questions and analysis in the process and develops on the results of
this. It facilitates future planning and directs the path forward in the process.
LOTS offers templates, reflection tools and reflection letters. Here tools and methods have
already been invented which makes it easier to proceed onto the essential work processes.
Step by step
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Start point. We start by looking at the assignment: what are we to consider and make a decision on?
Purpose. We then have to handle the purpose: what will we do, for whom and why? This
should be worked out together with the overall perspective for the organisation.
Critical success factors. What are our success factors? How will we be recognised in order
to be appreciated and successful?
Objectives. Then we set the objectives: what are we going to achieve over the long and the
short term?
Activities. What sort of activities need we plan to achieve the objectives? What are we going to continue doing, begin doing and stop doing to achieve our objectives? What will the
financial consequences be?
Figure 12.1 LOTS model
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Personnel and organisation. Then we have to consider the personnel resources and organisation that are required to fulfil the plan. Who will be responsible for what and who will we
interact with? What will we do to obtain the competence we need? What will the financial
consequences be?
Reporting and communication. A very important part of the planning is the reporting and
communication. Who should be reported to? What should be delivered? How should we
communicate? This is a part that should interact with all other parts of the process.
Evaluation. The evaluation is often forgotten or missing in the structure of the planning
process. We must ask ourselves how this should be used. What do we want to achieve with
the evaluation? How does it connect back to the overall strategy, goals and objectives? What
must we follow up – and how – in order to achieve our objectives?
Tips and pitfalls
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The LOTS process is dependent on the involvement and consistency of the participants in
following the systematic route.
The process could be experienced as cumbersome and too detailed.
‘LOTS is an organized and structured tool. It is founded on systematic thinking. But you
must be aware that its excellence is wholly dependent on yours’ (Åkerblom, 1998: 20).
SMART
SMART1 is a structural method of measuring the values of how we achieve our
objectives and succeed with the implementation of these objectives in our organisation.
Figure 12.2 SMART
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Step by step
SMART stands for:
S: S pecific. This means that the goals must be clear and understandable. Here again we can
use the five questions:
Why? Specific reasons, purposes or benefits of accomplishing the goal.
What? What do we want to accomplish?
Who? Who should be involved?
When? When to set the time schedule and when the assignment needs to be delivered.
How? How do we deal with the structure of the assignment and how do we work with the
task or assignment?
M: Measurable. Stands for finding out measurable criteria during the process of achieving the
goals to be able to follow the outlined course of the plan.
A: Achievable. The measurable criteria should be reachable and not unrealistic. How can we
achieve our goals and objectives?
R: Realistic. The objectives and goals should be possible to fulfil. We have to be careful to
match the expectations.
T: Time-bound. We need to do a time schedule to be able to reach our goals in a set time plan
and in this it should be clear what kind of time space we have for short-term and long-term
actions.
Tips and pitfalls
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SMART is one method we can use in action planning but we could also use other methods
such as LOTS or Why, What, Who, When and How.
Figure 12.3 Business environment map
Tools and methods
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In larger organisations there could be clashes if different methods and tools are used for the
strategic and daily work planning.
It is more effective to apply the same methods within the organisation and learn them
well.
It is more efficient to use a tool that both saves time and makes an effective decision basis
for future actions.
PEST
One of the most frequent methods used besides SWOT is the PEST2 analysis. The
method derives from Porter’s Five Forces and the original combination of letters –
PEST – stands for Politics, Economics, Society and Technology. We can extend the
letters to environmental impact factors important to our specific areas of interest and
what is important for our organisation.
Step by step
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Start by deciding the important competitive angle and formulating the main question.
Decide which impact factors have an influence on that specific question in relation to our
organisation.
What are the critical success factors and how do they connect to our strategic plans?
Prioritise the most important factors connected to the objectives and the critical success factors. This could be, for example, in chosen levels from one to three.
When this is decided we have to draw the map with the question in the middle – marked as a
star – and the impact factors around it and try to connect it to the success factors and objectives.
When this is done we have a business environment map with impact factors such as political,
economic, social, technical, ecological, legal, ethical and demographic as well as any other
aspects we have chosen to include. This gives a good overview and a good collection of environmental impact factors that we could prioritise in a group or a workshop with different
experts and people from different departments.
The next step is to identify information sources that should be of interest and under surveillance. Some sources could be alerts in databases, RSS flow, e-mail alerts, networking
or ad hoc searches following a certain time schedule. It could also be by word of mouth or
networking alliances. It is not possible to monitor everything but we have an overview of
important impact factors and how to keep track of most of them.
From the workshop the outcome is:
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a common business environment map;
mapping of the prioritised areas;
identification of relevant information resources:
• alerts
• basis for analysis;
basis for current updating and systematic competitive intelligence;
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engagement of relevant target groups in the organisation and a common view of competitive
foundation;
display of the external impact factors that have an impact on the organisation;
a map that could be used to prioritise;
possibilities for keeping track of the areas of importance.
For the workshop:
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Pick a number of factors from the decided PEST.
Write one factor on each Post-it note.
Put it on the appropriate letter of PEST on the whiteboard or use a mind manager directly.
Prioritise five factors in relation to the issue and the strategic objectives and put one pin on
the Post-it notes or mind manager.
Comment!
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It is important to prioritise. It could also be difficult to get all the teams together for workshops that may seem perhaps not immediately beneficial for the organisation.
Do not cover too much!
Make the issues and the factors hands-on applicable.
Validate the outcome with the participants and concerned stakeholders.
Relation matrix brainstorming
The relation matrix is a brainstorming technique which can be used on a number
of different occasions, for example as a means to identify key intelligence topics,
when preparing SWOT analyses or scenario planning, or in risk or idea management. A relation matrix session is not finalised until the result of the brainstorming
is structured and prioritised. These steps make the result more useful than other
brainstorming sessions which only bring out unsorted thoughts and ideas. However,
it means that it is usually necessary to go through more than one session to reach a
good result.
Relation matrix sessions are conducted in teams of 5 to 15 people. A person who
should be neutral (preferably from outside the organisation) facilitates the session.
The session takes place in a room with a whiteboard and flip-charts. A lot of Post-it
notes are needed. The notes can be placed either on the whiteboard or the flipchart, but
the latter is to be preferred as the charts are then easy to remove and take back home
for documentation. An alternative is to take photos of the notes. There are of course
digital tools to use instead of Post-it notes, but in our experience Post-it notes work
well enough for this purpose.
Before the session starts the main question that relates to the purpose of the competitive analysis should be formulated. The question should be broad, but still as specific as possible. If it is limited to a certain time period or a certain geographical area,
this should be stated. The question should be short and concise while still as clearly
formulated as possible. It is very important to devote time and effort to formulating
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the main question. It can be tricky as rather contradictory demands are put on the
formulations.
The main question can be tested by answering the following questions:
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Is the question clear enough?
Is it future oriented?
Is it limited in time and space?
Is there only one question?
Examples of questions with the purpose of identifying KITs are as follows:
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Which factors in the surrounding world affect our university’s ability to attract external
funders?
Which factors in the surrounding world affect our corporation’s ability to expand in the
Spanish market in five years’ time?
Which factors in the surrounding world affect our municipality’s ability to attract trade and
industry?
Step by step
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Ensure that the participants understand the question and have the same view on the purpose
of the session and what the session should provide.
Ensure that the participants are in agreement with the ‘rules’ of the sessions: open discussions; no censorship, that is no questions or arguments should be viewed as nonsensical;
listen to the other participants; no attempts to dominate the session.
Each participant writes individually a number of factors on Post-it notes during a time period
of 10 to 15 minutes; only one factor per Post-it note.
The first participant reads out aloud what s/he has written and places the note on the flipchart.
The other participants read their notes in turn and place them close to notes with related factors, thus forming clusters of related factors.
When all participants have read their notes, the notes are further grouped and duplicates are
removed.
Headlines are noted for each cluster.
The participants go through the notes and the headlines and discuss them. Revisions are
made and unclear notes are clarified.
The clusters are prioritised. Each participant adds a number between, for example, 1 and 5
to each cluster – 1 being the highest priority and 5 the lowest (more or less numbers of levels
is of course possible).
The team discusses the priorities and which clusters that consequently are the most important to continue with.
The result is documented (even the factors which have lower priority).
Plan for next steps.
Tips and pitfalls
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It is important that the participants have the same view of the main question. We recommend
taking extra time to explain and discuss it.
A common pitfall is that the factors identified are too broad to be useful. In that case they can
be split into more detailed parts.
The factors must be further processed to serve as key words in search strategies.
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Participants may be afraid of losing face by suggesting nonsensical factors. This situation
occurs more often when a dominant person in a superior position is participating. This must
be taken into consideration when forming the team and the facilitator must encourage free
discussions and suggestions.
In some cases the participants can be too focused on placing each factor in its ‘right’ place
in the structure. It is not important to get this right; the purpose of the session is to bring
as many factors to the table as possible. The facilitator should be aware of this and lead the
session forward.
Impact analysis
Impact analysis is used on a number of different occasions when we need to evaluate
the degree of importance of factors in the surrounding business environment. In risk
management it is common to evaluate possible risk factors by combining the likelihood of a factor occurring with the impact it has on the business if it occurs. Impact
can also be combined with cost to assess if the actions proposed are worth their price.
An impact analysis is a good tool in the competitive intelligence process when we
prioritise the factors we have identified in the SWOT analysis. We must determine if
they are to be threats or opportunities for our business in order to see if they qualify
as key intelligence topics. There is an abundance of different models, more or less
sophisticated, for doing so. However, a rather simple matrix is easy to start with and
can be of sufficient help.
The analysis is best conducted in a session with knowledgeable participants representing different areas. The session should be facilitated by a neutral person, preferably not involved in the scope of the analysis.
Step by step
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Agree on the time perspective.
Choose the factors to be assessed. The factors are identified by relation matrix brainstorming, PEST, SWOT or other methods.
Write down the factors on Post-it notes.
Draw a six-quadrant matrix on a flipchart.
Decide for each factor the impact it has on the business: high, medium or low.
Decide for each factor the likelihood of its occurrence (if it is an upcoming factor) or the
degree of its presence (if it is an ongoing factor).
Place each factor in the matrix.
Discuss, reflect and revise if needed.
Document the result.
Plan for the next steps.
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In this analysis it is difficult to assess the impact and probability independently. It is of
course logical to think that the factor which is the most likely to occur also has the most
impact on our business. To get the most out of this method we must, however, try to evaluate
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Figure 12.4 Impact analysis for a fictitious business supplying equipment and services to
farmers
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the impact and probability separately. By starting with assessing the impact we can diminish
the risk of this pitfall.
The method is very much dependent on the participants’ subjective estimations. Thus it
is even more important to put a good team together with knowledgeable and unbiased
participants.
SWOT
SWOT is a commonly used method of analysis for identifying and analysing business opportunities and threats and how well our own organisation is equipped to meet
them. SWOT stands for Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats. Strengths
and Weaknesses are factors inside the organisation; Opportunities and Threats are external factors.
The advantage with the SWOT method is that it is relatively easy to understand
and perform. It is, however, important to do a good job with identifying the important
factors of each of the four areas; this can be done by relation matrix or PEST sessions.
SWOT analysis is best carried out in small teams (five to ten people) with a facilitator.
Step by step
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Define what belongs to the external world and what belongs to the internal one. Where does
the internal world stop and the external world begin? Make sure that the participants have
the same view on this.
Identify and prioritise the external factors Opportunities and Threats as well as the internal
factors Strengths and Weaknesses by relation matrix or PEST sessions.
Draw a four-quadrant matrix on a flipchart.
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Figure 12.5 SWOT analysis for a fictitious business supplying equipment and services to
farmers.
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Participants gather around the flipchart. They read the factors aloud in turn and put them in
their respective quadrant.
Participants discuss the factors to make sure that they are understood and perceived as relevant.
The most important part of the SWOT now starts: to match the external opportunities and
threats with the internal strengths and weaknesses.
The result is documented.
Plan for the next steps.
Tips and pitfalls
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One common pitfall when conducting a SWOT analysis is ambiguity between what is internal
and what is external. Where does the external world start – outside the department, organisation, university, or where? Make sure that the participants have the same view of this.
Also make sure that the participants identify internal factors when treating Strengths and
Weaknesses, and external factors when treating Opportunities and Threats.
Some factors can be both a strength and a weakness, or an opportunity and a threat. In that
case two notes should be made and placed in both quadrants and explained.
It is essential that enough time is devoted to match the external opportunities and threats with
the internal strengths and weaknesses. It is now that the really useful analysis starts.
Porter’s five forces
Porter’s five forces are often used when mapping a marketing plan of competitive
forces having an impact of our own organisation or corporate business. It is an analytic tool that looks upon the strengths and weaknesses of existing and future external
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forces that could be a threat to the development of our competitive advantage. The five
forces are described by Porter as
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the threat of substitute products or services;
the threat of established rivals;
the threat of new entrants;
the bargaining power of suppliers;
the bargaining power of customers.
Porter’s five forces are very useful as a start-up model when initialising an analysis
of the organisation.
Step by step
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To assess the competitive environment it is useful to carry out a PEST analysis of the factors
that have an impact. Here competition could come not only from competitors but also from
suppliers and customers.
Look at the forces and apply this to your own organisation.
Work with the PEST analysis or if needed an enlarged EPISTELM analysis.
Put the mapping into the business or organisational plan for continual updating and the addition of new information.
The content of the action plan is prioritised following the outcome of the analysis.
Figure 12.6 Porter’s five forces
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Tips and pitfalls
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The model shows no connection between the different players and misses where there is
interaction between them. The model also lacks other dimensions that could be important
for competitive mapping and these have to be added into the individual organisational plan
from the organisation’s specific areas of interest and conditions.
Yale School of Management has added a sixth force – the government or the public – to
emphasise the importance of strategic alliances. The sixth force should help to explain the
reasoning behind other kinds of influential relationships.
Benchmarking
Benchmarking is when you compare your own business with other similar ones according to a set of predefined criteria. There is a variety of purposes for benchmarking:
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to get tips for developing our business;
to get an idea of how well we perform in comparison with others;
to position our business externally and internally;
to motivate more resources;
to use as sales arguments;
to use for external or internal promotion;
to ensure we have a right quality level.
In benchmarking the collection of facts is often done separately, but identifying
criteria and analysing the facts are best carried out as team work.
Step by step
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Identify the criteria we want to compare.
Formulate the questions.
Carry out information research to find the basic facts as well as potential benchmark organisations.
Choose organisations for benchmarking.
Collect information on the selected benchmarking organisations.
Conduct interviews by visit or by telephone.
Based on the collected facts and with the help of, for example, a six-quadrant chart, analyse:
• which criteria are of high or medium significance;
• how we perform in relation to the benchmarked organisation: inferior, on a par (that is
equally) or superior.
Document the results.
Plan for the next steps.
Tips and pitfalls
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In order to get the most out of benchmarking it is essential to make thorough preparations
when it comes to identifying criteria, formulating questions and finding the right benchmark
organisations.
It is important to be well prepared with good information on the selected benchmark organisations before meeting them.
Tools and methods
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Figure 12.7 Benchmarking in a fictitious business supplying equipment and services to
farmers
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Benchmarking is based on reciprocity which means that each party must be prepared not
only to receive but also to give information.
The greatest drawback with this method is perhaps that the parties are not honest but reluctant to ‘admit’ inferior performance. This is difficult to overcome unless very good relations
are established.
War gaming
War gaming originated from the military and is about strategic planning to handle
the threats coming from the enemy. When using war gaming in competitive intelligence we put ourselves in the position of our competitors and try to understand the
competitive angle between our corporation and other organisations. War gaming is
used in business corporations to create a greater understanding of the competitive
landscape. We have to put on the hats of our competitors and understand how they
think and how they plan their actions to compete in our field. It is a difficult position
because we are all so involved in and coloured by our own organisational culture that
it is sometimes hard to see from other people’s perspective. However, if we can do so
we will be more able to learn something about our competition, and we will also get
greater knowledge about ourselves. Actually we have to look at ourselves with the
eyes of our enemies!
Step by step
•
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Start by finding out what competitive angles are the most important to focus on. What actions
do we want to plan to meet the competition and what preparations can we make to do this?
We need to gather as much information as possible about our competitors and about the
competitive angles.
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Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
We also need to involve the expertise to be found in different areas within the organisation to
help out with the collection of information as well as in the workshops that are a part of the
war game. This is already needed in the planning process.
Preparation is the most important criterion for success in a war game. The best way is to hold
some preparatory workshops with a project team and then make the plans for the full session
of the war game.
It is often recommended to bring in a facilitator and/or a consultant team with outstanding competence because it is takes a lot of work both before, during and after the war
game.
We start by gathering as much information as possible about the competitors and competition to be able to put this into perspective with our own competitive plans. The preparation
includes information searches for competitors’ strategic plans, market plans, web presentations, company webpages, annual reports, publications, alliances, partners, actions on the
market and so on. What information is important to target for the outcome of the war game
and the gathering of information around these themes?
The workshops should also gather participants from different areas of expertise and departments that could be of use for the competitive action plans. The participants play an important role when providing the areas of expertise in information ahead of time.
Of course it is important to prioritise the competition and look at the most important areas
and focus on the most crucial threats.
Then we put together teams taking the role of the competitor or the competitive view to look
at our own business or organisation. Putting on the competitor’s hat may be more difficult
than expected but is very useful.
As mentioned above the different teams should be put together from different kinds of
expertise – this is of great value because it brings a lot of different perspectives to the outcome of the war game.
All this should be put together in actionable plans with clearly defined tasks, analyses, actions, time schedules, responsibilities, communication plans and evaluation plans.
Tips and pitfalls
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The best way to carry out the actions of the war game is to plan for a couple of days depending on how large the scope is. Looking for more than a couple of threats will take time. Usually a threat is how a competitor will target their actions against our competition.
The well prepared workshop requires every participant to do their homework and to learn as
much as possible about the competitive angles provided in advance.
Trying to get the external competitive perspective of our own business and organisation
entails having intensive workshops. What are our plans and intentions to meet this?
Use participants from different areas – think outside the box and gather expertise that is not
expected. It is very useful to bring in members who do not usually participate in strategic
planning – people from the legal department, financial department, administrative department, information professionals, patent office, etc. The teams should be a mixture that gives
unexpected and unusual views on our organisation.
It could be beneficial to bring in outside expertise and consultants to facilitate this. A lot of
administrative work and information gathering is necessary and it always adds value to bring
in an objective third party.
Do not put effort into the wrong things! Focus on what is essential such as getting all the
knowledge sharing and knowledge analysing together and let somebody else do the administrative, facilitating and organisational parts.
Tools and methods
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It is difficult to take the position of an outside competitor and see the competitive angle
inside our own organisation. Do not underestimate the difficulties for the participants.
Also take into consideration the scepticism that may arise when putting together diverse teams
that are going to do something that they perhaps have never done before. Moreover, consider
the potential difficulties of gathering the many different participants that are needed from the
organisation. This will take some time and effort from all participants to do a good job.
The success of the war game depends on the excellence of the preparation!
Scenario planning
Much competitive intelligence aims to foresee what will happen in the future so that
we are prepared to take the initiative and are able to control what is happening, not
simply react. But, as the proverb says, ‘He who predicts the future lies, even if he tells
the truth.’ Predicting the future is extremely difficult; the longer the time horizon, the
more difficult the task. This is the way many organisations use scenario planning,
looking at several different scenarios as a means to cope with the uncertainties of the
future.
In scenario planning a variety of scenarios for the future are built, based on
known or anticipated driving forces in the business environment. As with many
other analytical activities, scenario planning is not a task for a single person but has
to be done as teamwork. As scenario planning is rather complicated, several sessions will probably be needed to make reliable scenarios. It is an advantage to have
a facilitator who knows the method well and can guide the participants through the
different activities.
The scenarios are visualised in a four-quadrant matrix. More than four scenarios
are of course possible, but it is recommended to deal with just four at any one time
to simplify matters. The starting point is the key intelligence topic that needs to be
addressed. Information research is often needed to get sufficient information on
the KIT.
Step by step
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Make sure that the team members have understood the KIT and agreed that this KIT is the
theme of the scenario planning.
Identify the critical drivers that are influencing the KIT.
Choose two main driving forces and create four scenarios based on these forces.
Reflect and discuss.
Plan for the next steps.
In the following example scenarios are created around the situation facing farmers
in coming years in the European Union. The chosen driving forces are ‘tariff barriers
against countries outside the EU’ and ‘degree of regulation within the agricultural sector’. Four scenarios can be created: Security, New map, Polarisation and Wild West:
•
Security. In this scenario tranquillity prevails. The farmers are protected by tariff barriers and
the agricultural sector is regulated.
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Figure 12.8 Scenario planning for a fictitious business supplying equipment and services to
farmers
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New map. The farmers are protected against competition from outside countries, but competition within the EU increases. Farming is concentrated into fertile areas with a favourable
climate within the EU.
Polarisation. Regulations exist but competition increases as there are low barriers to imports
from countries outside the EU. Polarisation of production will occur: mass production in
countries outside the EU and production for a niche market within the EU.
Wild West. This is a tough scenario for farmers: there is no protection in the form of regulations as well as hard competition from all directions. The closing of farms, consolidations
and unemployment in the agricultural sector is expected in this scenario.
Tips and pitfalls
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It is important that the driving forces are independent of each other. Changes in one driving
force should not cause automatic changes in the other.
The facilitator should see to it that personal preferences for one or other scenario do not
dominate the outcome.
The work does not stop when the scenarios have been created. We should establish a monitoring system to follow the scenarios to see which one is the most likely to occur.
When monitoring the different scenarios to see which one will persist, we should look out
for factors that contradict the scenarios as well as factors that confirm them.
Allow scenario planning to take time.
Why, what, who, when and how?
These five questions – why, what, who, when and how – are used for information
gathering in different investigative situations.
Why, what, who, when and how is a common journalistic method for covering an
area of investigation in a structured way. This method is very useful to apply in both
larger projects and smaller assigments.
Tools and methods
107
Figure 12.9 The flow of the W-questions
Step by step
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Why. We start by asking ourselves or our users why we should undertake the project, assignment or task. Define the purpose together with the user. Then we get the purpose explained.
What. What is the problem or question connected with the assignment? Then we get the
definition of the problem or tasks.
Who. Who should be involved? Who does it concern? Who is responsible? Who do we need
to contact? Who should we deliver to? This specifies resources and target groups.
When. Asking the question when sets the time schedule and when the assignment needs to
be delivered. This will provide us with the time schedule for problem-solving and the basis
of the project plan.
How. How do we deal with the structure of the assignment and how do we work within a task
or an assignment?
Tips and pitfalls
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Always begin with the why question.
All steps are not always required. Make it feasible.
It is also possible that we need to expand into other question areas depending on the problemsolving ahead of us. Analyse this.
User investigation
User investigation is something we carry out when we need to find out something
about our specific target groups.
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What do they need?
What do they want?
How satisfied are the users of our deliverables?
This method can be performed in many different ways. It is also very important to
decide how we should use the outcome of the investigation. Do we want an immediate
impression and comments on the deliverable, action or performance or do we want
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Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
our users to reflect on the deliverable over a longer time perspective? Do we want to
evaluate in a follow-up assessment to find out if our deliverables last in the long run
and if the outcomes have been sustainable? What kind of format is the most effective
for our objectives with the investigation?
Step by step
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The first step is to decide what the investigation will be used for. What is the purpose? Who
should we ask? What do we need to know? How should we use it?
How do we formulate the questions? Do we select optional choices decided beforehand or
do we use reflective writing which lets the respondent describe the situation in their own
words? How deep do we need to dig?
Do we need to hire a professional investigator? Do we need to do interviews? Perhaps we need
to start with a few questions and then go on with interviews to get a deeper understanding.
What kind of format should we use? Paper? Web-based? Tools?
We also need to reflect on how to collect the results. How should we analyse the results? How
should they be presented? To whom should we send the results? How should they be used?
Should the investigation be anonymous or should it collect comments from given named
persons chosen from the target groups? Do we want to use the comments for marketing our
results to the organisation? In that case we have to ask for permission from the people that
have been interviewed.
Tips and pitfalls
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It is very important to think about and reflect on the questions, what the outcome should be
and how that outcome should be used. User investigations that are too large are often tedious
for the respondent. Perhaps one or two questions will give us the same results.
It is very easy to misunderstand the intention of questions and they could be interpreted in
different ways. If that happens, how do we use the result?
It is difficult to conduct a user investigation a long time after the performance or delivery of
a task. It is also difficult to engage full participation in a user investigation.
It is a very good idea to simplify the investigation without losing the outcome needed and to
use a reward of some kind to fulfil the effort and time it takes to make a serious input to the
investigation.
We have to be aware of the possibility of people giving false or wrong inputs to user investigations and often we need to do a follow-up to secure the results. Perhaps we need a reference group to make the investigation even sounder.
When using the collection of ‘Facebooks-likes’ always explain and analyse what the ‘likes’
stands for. Only use this if it can be repeated it the same way to find out user satisfaction. If
we have done something one year that we measure we want to find out if the satisfaction is
still valid the next year.
AIDAS
AIDAS is often used in business marketing and advertising and stands for Attention –
Interest – Desire – Action. We can also add Satisfaction at the end – AIDAS. The plan
is to do something that attracts the user – that awakens the attention and curiosity. It
is important to create something that keeps the interest for as long as it takes to make
Tools and methods
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the user desire something and then make the user react and proact. When aiming at
keeping the user and developing a long and sustainable relationship it is important that
the user is satisfied.
There is an ongoing debate about who first created the concept of AIDAS. Elias
St Elmo Lewis has been well cited as its inventor but recently it has been suggested
that Frank Hutchinson Dukesmith, editor of the 1904 Salesmanship, came up with the
concept twenty years earlier than St Elmo Lewis. In any event, according to St Elmo
Lewis:
The mission of an advertisement is to attract a reader, so that he will look at the advertisement and start to read it; then to interest him, so that he will continue to read
it; then to convince him, so that when he has read it he will believe it. If an advertisement contains these three qualities of success, it is a successful advertisement.
(St Elmo Lewis, 1903, quoted in Wikipedia, 2014a)
Step by step
When it comes to competitive intelligence the AIDAS concept is valuable when promoting intelligence but also in the process of implementing new working processes or
competitive intelligence systems. If we get the assignment of constructing a competitive intelligence organisation in our corporation, authority or other public or private
organisation the promotional part will be a large piece of the strategic implementation
plan. The AIDAS concept could of course be used at this overall level but is also of use
in smaller parts of assignments and working processes.
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Attention. How do we draw attention to our organisation, processes and tasks? Of course
there are thousands of ways to do this – the only limit is our imagination. But here again it
is important to carry out our target group analysis – who do we want to attract? What is in
it for them? It could be something unusual or familiar, interesting or something that gives an
immediate benefit. A win-win situation at a first glance!
Interest. When we have caught the attention interest should be created to find out more about
what we want to promote and implement. Try to keep interest up in different ways. Make the
user stay for a while.
Desire. Interest grows into a desire within our specific target group to know more about what
we want to promote. The interest and desire could also bring other stakeholders to the area
and make them interested in finding out more about our messages and of course then becoming attracted.
Action. Of course we want a reaction to and action on the implementation of organisational
processes and collaborative assignments regarding competitive intelligence. We want to
achieve our goal of interaction with our target groups.
Satisfaction. To proceed and keep development ongoing we need to fulfil and satisfy our
target groups. There must be something in it for them in the long run. We need to keep up
our stakeholders’ desire to be involved in our processes.
Tips and pitfalls
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The AIDAS must be linked together in order to be sustainable. One part of the concept must relate to another part of the concept. If we look back over the other parts it should all make sense.
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Competitive Intelligence for Information Professionals
What catches the interest of the user in the first place and why did it do so?
Our target groups should not be tricked into something that is not valuable or sustainable in
the long run. The building of the relationship should be solid.
Use the imagination but with careful strategic planning behind it. It is easy to attract attention for the moment but harder to turn that attention into serious desire which is action
oriented.
Key performance indicators
Key performance indicators – or KPIs – are a way of measuring the performance in an
organisation and its success in achieving goals. The best use of KPIs is when success
is defined in terms of making progress towards strategic goals but often the measurement of success stays at the level of the individual and operational goals. If the KPIs
are fully developed and implemented within the overall strategic planning for an organisation or business they also become a measurement of the overall success of the
organisational development. The individuals perform for the organisational whole and
have understood the overall strategic goals for the organisation.
Step by step
When we as individuals look at our long-term and short-term goals they must be put
in the context of the overall strategy for the organisation. When the goals, activities,
resources and responsibilities are determined in the action plan the measurable KPIs
are decided on to fulfil these goals. The aim is to be able to benchmark different departments and sectors in the organisation in the same way. Ideally these KPIs connect
to the overall strategy of the organisation.
The important stages in identifying KPIs in an organisation are as follows:
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Pre-define an organisational process. This makes it easier to move forward when implementing the use of KPIs in all parts of our organisation.
Create requirements for the strategic plan.
Implement quantitative and qualitative measurements of the results and comparisons with
set goals.
Cover up missing areas and weak parts of the processes and cover up any lack of resources
that are needed to achieve short-term goals.
When working with KPIs it is useful to look at the SMART criteria:
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Specific meaning to the purpose of the organisation.
Measurable to really get a value of the KPIs.
Achievable to fulfil the purposes of the improvement.
Relevant to the organisation is a must to succeed with the KPIs.
Time-bound to measure what is done during a relevant time period.
Working with action plans for different large projects is important for the success
of the competitive intelligence organisation. The overall goal for competitive intelligence is to provide business critical information and analysis to the right target groups
in the organisation.
Tools and methods
111
Tips and pitfalls
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Do not create too many KPIs.
Make KPIs meaningful and achievable. They must be linked to target values so that they
measure the right ones.
They must not only say something about your individual performance but also something
about the performance of the whole organisation.
Some things are difficult to measure and this makes it difficult to get the full picture of organisational achievement.
The welfare, the ‘softer’ aspects of working conditions, and the moral behaviour of employees are hard to put indicators on.
Measure what is important to measure. What do we need to know? How do we want to use it?
Lastly . . .
The variety of tools and methods is endless and new methods are being invented all the
time. The trick is to work with the tools and methods that are familiar and well known
to both the facilitators as well as to the organisation. Ask colleagues about their ex­
periences and help each other in different situations when support is needed. It is also
valuable and fun to interact in different departments and projects in which participation may not be that obvious. The team’s common results will be better than its parts!
Notes
1. There is a large variety of definitions in the SMART terminology. Use a terminology that is
applicable to your organisation.
2. PEST can be used in an wide range of letter combinations such as EPISTELM, PESTLE,
STEP, STEEP, PESTE, PESTEL, PESTLE, LEPEST, STEEPLE, STEEPLED.
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(accessed 6 April 2014).
Index
A
Abilities, 18, 63, 65, 66
to convert information from different
formats, 57
corporation/ university/ municipality, 97
to handle the new knowledge interactive
platforms, 60
information professionals, 76
AIDAS (Attention–Interest–Desire–Action),
108
model for, 84
step by step, 109
tips/pitfalls, 109
Allocating resources, intelligence work, 26
Analysis methods
intelligence work, 43
overview of, 44
qualified guesses vs. established analysis,
45
tools, summary of, 45
working with, 46
Analysis phase, competitive intelligence,
43
Anarchistic scanning, 49
Attention–Interest–Desire–Action. See
AIDAS (Attention–Interest–
Desire–Action)
Authorisation, 5, 79, 85
Authority, 36
for AIDAS concept, 109
formal, 15
to institutionalise the discipline, 18
B
Balanced scorecards, 88
Benchmarking
business development, 18
fictitious business supplying equipment,
103
purposes for, 102
step by step, 102
tips/pitfalls, 102
Brand marketing, differences, 83
BRICS countries, competition, 3
Business environment map. See Mapping,
business environment
Business intelligence
cycles, 23
definition, 1
IT department, 1
Business/organisational management
business development, tips for, 17
challenges, 17
long-term planning, 17
lower hanging, 17
outsource fear, 17
right information to right person, 17
C
Capture phase
explicit information, secondary sources, 35
search strategies, 37
sources of information, 33
patent databases, 38
presentation, result to user, 41
tacit information, primary sources, 33
Center for International Forestry Research.
See CIFOR (Center for International
Forestry Research)
Checklist, 23
Choo, Chun Wei, 54, 56
CIFOR (Center for International Forestry
Research), 66, 67
Communication
deliverables, 47
presentation software, 47
situation, 47
importance of, 81
phase, time allocation, 47
results, 87
strategic marketing, 86
target groups, 85
Competence
for analyse and communicate phases, 67
ethical competitive intelligence, 70
hidden, 69
118
Competence (cont.)
information capturing, 66
of information professional, 67
information professional’s, 66
intelligence portals, statistics, 71
for manage phase, 67
plan and priorities phase, 66
ranking of courses, 70
raw information chain, 68
successful performance, 65
Competition
in corporation/organisation/public sector, 3
traditional working opportunities, 3
Competitive intelligence, 1, 18
adding value, 8
approaches for, 7
library functions, 7
local enterprise, 7
public sector, 7
critical success factors (CSFs), 9
cycles for, 23
definition of, 1
essential elements of, 6
importance of, 1
common view, 4
competition, 3
complexity of society, 3
crises, 4
demand for knowledge, 3
globalisation, 2
individualisation, 2
IT development, 4
threats, 4
measures of effectiveness (MOEs), 11
operations for, 22
ad hoc studies, 22
continuous and specific scanning and
analysis, 22
continuous and unspecific scanning and
analyses, 22
regular processes, 22
organisation, different types of, 22
Porter’s five forces, 8
purposes for, 25
question of survival!, 10
range of departments, 5
responsibilities in strategic plan, 5
time, 7
Competitor analysis, 9
Index
Competitor intelligence, 1
implementation of concept, 1
Complexity, of society, 3
Computer-based intelligence platform, 57
Contextual environment, 64
Copyright clearing procedures, 57
Corporate myths, 30
Corporate taboos, 30
Cost-effective analysis methods, 43
Crises, experienced by society, 4
Critical success factors (CSFs), 9
CSFs. See Critical success factors (CSFs)
D
Data→Information→Knowledge→
Wisdom, 4
Deliverables, communication, 47
Documentation, explicit knowledge, 59
Don’t Mention the ‘ L’-word, 70
E
Early warning systems (EWS), 44, 45
key intelligence topics (KITs), 45
e-mail systems, 57
Employees’ eyes, ears and brains, 34
Enacted environment, 64
EPISTELM model, 30
Evaluation, importance of, 81, 87
Evatt, Allison, 58
EWS. See Early warning systems (EWS)
Excel worksheets, 35
Explicit knowledge, 55, 59
External publications, 60
F
Facebook (social media), 60
Feedback, 88
Filter, for information selection, 40
G
Gilad, Benjamin, 30
Globalisation, changing structures, 2
Googling, information, 3
H
Håkansson, Charlotte, 30
Hibberd, Betty Jo, 58
Hybrid organisations, 50
Index
I
Impact analysis, 98
for fictitious business supplying
equipment, 99
step by step work processes, 98
tips/pitfalls, 98
Individualisation, in society, 2
Information
gathering of, 106, 107
organisation, 18
overload, 39
research, 18
resources, evaluation of, 18
retrieval of, 59
speed of transferring, 46
Information professionals
analysis of, 75
competitive intelligence, 73
work and different roles in, 74, 75
role in technology intelligence process,
77
scenarios of contributions, 76
communication unit, 78
feasibility study, 77
starting up and leading work, 77
Innovation, LOTS strategic design in, 91
Internet, investigation, 91
IT development, access to information, 4
K
Key intelligence topics (KITs), 27, 28, 45,
74
Key performance indicators (KPIs), 88, 110
step by step, 110
tips/pitfalls, 111
KITs. See Key intelligence topics (KITs)
Knowledge management
and competitive intelligence, 54
and IT systems, 56
knowledge sharing, different aspects, 54
literature, 53
challenges, 53
pharma industry, information audit, 58
sharing knowledge to improve
organisational performance, 53
Knowledge organisation, 18
Knowledge sharing
aspects of space and time, 56
119
cases of, 54
different aspects, 54
value added, 54
Knowledge transfer, 21
L
Leadership Learning Community (LLC)
organisation, 19
Leadership, right
business development, tips for, 17
business/organisational management,
challenges of, 17
definition of, 18
different types of, 14
agile, 14
balanced, 14
competent, 15
coordinated, 15
creative, 15
customer-related, 15
divided, 15
employeeship, 16
fragmented, 15
global, 15
improvised, 15
passionate, 16
storytelling, 16
technical, 16
visionary, 16
future changes/preparations, 20
future leadership development, 19
human resources, need for access, 13
information professionals, 18
manager’s responsibility, 14
meaning of, 13
motivation, 13
Reinelt, Claire, 19
responsibility, 13
team members’ responsibility, 14
LinkedIn (social media), 60
Literature, on knowledge management,
53
LLC. See Leadership Learning Community
(LLC) organisation
LOTS strategic design, 92
for innovation, 91
step by step work processes, 92
strategic planning/action plans, 92
tips/pitfalls, 93
120
M
Managing, captured information, 39
Mapping, business environment, 27
blind spots, 30
corporate myths, 30
corporate taboos, 30
unchallenged assumptions, 30
bottom-up approach, 29
critical success factors, 31
KITs defined, 31
purpose defined, 31
teamwork, 31
time, 31
top management engagement, 31
top-down approach, 30
Market analyses, 48
Marketing
branding, differences, 83
definition of, 82
importance of, 81
manners and methods choosing, 84
transparency and visibility, 85
Market intelligence, 1
Measurements
challenge, 90
key performance indicators (KPIs),
88
methods, 90
Measures of effectiveness (MOEs), 9, 11
Millán, Tena, 50
MOEs. See Measures of effectiveness
(MOEs)
O
Objectivity, 16, 36, 44, 71, 82, 84, 86, 88,
92, 93
goals and, 5, 94
success factors and, 95
third party, 104
Oral presentation, 47
Organisational conditions, competitive
intelligence, 49, 50
anarchistic scanning, 49
centralised vs. decentralised, 52
directed scanning, 50
private scanning behaviour, 49
scanning in principle, 49
three poisonous Ps, 50
politics, 50
Index
prejudices, 50
prestige, 50
Organisational management. See Business/
organisational management
Outsource fear, business/organisational
management, 17
Overload information, 39
P
Patent research, 38
PCMAC (Plan Capture Manage Analyse
Communicate) model, 23
for competitive intelligence, 23
plan and prioritise phase, 23
Perception, of surrounding world, 63
reacting to signals, 65
Performance, competence for successful, 65
PEST (Politics, Economics, Society and
Technology), 28, 94
business environment map, 95
step by step work processes, 94
tips/pitfalls, 96
Plan Capture Manage Analyse Communicate
model. See PCMAC (Plan Capture
Manage Analyse Communicate)
model
Plan, intelligence work, 26
Politics, Economics, Society and Technology.
See PEST (Politics, Economics,
Society and Technology)
Porter’s five forces, 8, 100, 101
step by step, 101
tips/pitfalls, 102
Presentation, result to user. See Capture
phase
Prioritisation, 28. See also PCMAC model
Process-oriented approach, 21
Project manager, 26, 74
Public sector, competitive intelligence, 7
Q
Qualified competitive intelligence, 63
skills and abilities, 63
Quality assurance, 21, 48
R
Reference managing systems, 41
Relation matrix brainstorming, 96
Index
step by step work processes, 97
tips/pitfalls, 97
Reliability, 36, 41, 51, 86, 105
Remote environment, 64, 65
Repeatability, 21
Research networks, social media, 60
Responsibility
leadership, 1
manager’s, 2
team members, 2
S
Scanning behaviour, 49
Scenario planning, 105
fictitious business supplying equipment
and services, 106
step by step, 105
tips/pitfalls, 106
Scientific intelligence, 1
SCIP organisation, 71
Skill, definition of, 18
SLA. See Special Libraries Association
(SLA)
SMART strategic design, 93
step by step work processes, 94
tips/pitfalls, 94
Social media, 60
Sources
evaluation of, 36
scheme, 36
identifying and prioritising, 35
information, 33
of information, 38
information research, 37
patent databases, 38
Space and time aspect, model of interaction,
37
Special Libraries Association (SLA), 69
Steering committee, 74
Strategic business development, 13
Strategic business planning, 13
Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and
threats. See SWOT (Strengths,
weaknesses, opportunities and
threats)
Structure information, 40
Swedish Association for Information
Specialists, 18
121
SWOT (Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities
and threats), 27, 99
fictitious business supplying equipment
analysis, 100
step by step, 99
tips/pitfalls, 100
Systematic competitive intelligence, 21
Systematic delivery, strategy plan, 8
T
Tacit knowledge, 55
Target groups, 81
Technology Intelligence Process (TIP), 1, 78
Technology trends analyses, 48
Templates, 48
Tetra Pak’s key technologies, 48
Threats, experienced by society, 4
Time saving, 21
TIP. See Technology Intelligence Process
(TIP)
Toolbox, 91
Transparency, 21
Twitter, social media, 60
U
Unchallenged assumptions, 30
User investigations, 88, 107
step by step, 108
tips/pitfalls, 108
V
Validation, reference managing systems, 41
van der Voort’s analyst checklist, 75
W
Waiting to hear versus keeping yourself
informed, 14
War gaming, 103
step by step, 103
tips/pitfalls, 104
Warning systems, early. See Early warning
systems (EWS)
Word document, 47
Working together, competitive intelligence, 11
Y
Yale School of Management, 102