Teaching and Research In Competitive
Intelligence
Presented and Developed by
Dr. Jonathan L. Calof
Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, Co-Director,
Management Insight Program, Board Member CASIS, Fellow Society of
Competitive Intelligence Professionals
ciprof@hotmail.com
Phone: 613-228-0509
Fax: 613-562-5164
Copyright,2010
1
Definitions of competitive
intelligence Outward Insights
Competitive Intelligence the product:
Knowledge and foreknowledge of the
competitive environment —the prelude to
decision and action.
Competitive Intelligence the process:
The organizational means by which
information is systematically collected,
analyzed, processed and disseminated as
intelligence to managers who can act on it.
Competitive intelligence must be
done ethically
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To continually strive to increase the recognition and
respect of the profession.
To comply with all applicable laws.
To accurately disclose all relevant information,
including one’s identity and organization, prior to all
interviews.
To fully respect all requests for confidentiality of
information.
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 and encourage full compliance with these
ethical standards 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
The CI Wheel
Evaluation/
Management:
10-15%
Intelligence
Communication
10-15%
Planning:
10-15%
Collection/
collation
25-35
Analysis:
25-35%
What do competitive intelligence
units do?
 True
competitive intelligence projects: So
we need the complete skill set and the
wheel of intelligence
 Stick fetching:
So we need planning,
collection and communication skills.
Typical Utilization Pattern
Senior management
Competitive
10%
Strategic Decisions,
Intelligence
Tactical
Planning & Strategy
Middle management
strategic plans
20%
Intelligence
Information
70%
Company wide tactical
needs and uses
What do we track in competitive
intelligence?
People/Organizations
 Competitors
 Customers
 Regulators
 Suppliers
 …..
Events
 Opportunities
 Technology change
 New entrants
 Substitutes
…
CI Professionals intelligence focus
(from SCIP study 2006) - Ranked
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
Company profiles
Competitive benchmarking
Early warning alerts
Market or industry trends
Customer or supplier profile
Technology assessment
Economic/Political analysis
Executive Profiles
How often does your department produce the following competitive intelligence
products?
What business decisions does CI
support?
Frequently
Sometimes
Corporate or business strategy
54.1
32.7
Sale or business development
48.7
35.8
Market entry decisions
38.9
38.3
Product development
36.8
37.2
R&D/Technology
24.4
39.2
M&A,Due diligance,JV's
25.9
31.3
Regulatory/Legal
12.9
30.7
Percent of large companies with
systematic CI capability 2005
89.4
Asia-pacific
90.9
Brazil
78.6
Canada
95.1
Finland
96
Germany
88.9
Mexico
Netherlands
76
Norway
73.3
90.9
Switzerland
0
20
40
60
80
100
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Market Intelligence as a Key Success Factor in Economic
Downturn.. Companies will continue investing in Market
Intelligence, heavier emphasis on efficient sourcing and
utilization of information (Global Intelligence Alliance
Survey, Jan 27 2009)
“The government has the final political responsibility to
address broad issues about our future. For this reason it is
vital to set up a qualified analysis capacity, reporting
directly to the prime minister, but free from the day-today business.” (Innovation and Policy Blog, Sweden,
February 2009)

Europe and North America have progressed furthest in
the field of Market / Competitive Intelligence compared
to the global average, while especially Latin America will
see strong developments over the next few years. These
results were obtained from the Global Market Intelligence
Survey 2008…global average is 60%. In the researched
organizations, the average age of the MI operation was 7
years, and an average MI team consisted of 10 people. As
many as 60% of the respondents expected the investment
in MI in their organizations to increase over the next 2
years . 75 percent of the respondents saw the need for MI
to increase during a global economic downturn. (Global
Intelligence Alliance, Sept 2008)
The Value of CI: SCIP Study 2006
Value
Responses Percent
New or increased revenue 152
29.2
New product or services
147
28.3
Cost savings/avoidance
141
27.1
Time savings
116
22.3
Profit increases
105
20.2
Financial goals met
103
19.8
Applying Intelligence For Regional
Advantage
• A program to help regions/city achieve
economic success
• Helping to integrate Rural and Urban
communities
• Growth for regions
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Based on the Program: Control Your
Destiny or Someone Else Will
Created and run by
Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade
Course developers/trainers: Wayne Robinson Director
Professional Development (expert in export promotion, trade
policy, capacity building and economic development), Roland
Marcoux (expert in facilitation processes, organization
development and change management) and Jonathan Calof
(expert in strategy, competitive advantage, competitive
intelligence, technical foresight)
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Through the program
Companies said they got Region said they got
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
New product ideas
New markets identified
Cost savings
Emerging customer needs
Technology trends
New partners
Competitor plans
• Foreign investment
attracted to city
• New hospital approved
• Approval from politicians
for new tourist attraction
• Infrastructure investment
approved
• Expansion of economic base
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The Principle of the Program
• Success needs to be built on a strong
competitive advantage
• Success requires a solid understanding of the
environment
• Decisions made today take time to implement
so your CA and environment understanding
better be forward looking.
• For regions to succeed you need to integrate
knowledge and get people working together
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Step 1: What is your vision for your
future?
• By 2015 (name of community) is a growing,
thriving hub in (name of province). New
families are moving in, and business is
expanding. Quality education and business
opportunities are valued and available. This
regions success is used as an economic
development model for the rest of Canada.
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Step 2: Assess your competitive
advantage and resources
• No company, no city can win without a solid
competitive advantage
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Step 3 – Competitive Intelligence
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What intelligence do you need for the
regional development plans
• What part of the environment affects it and
what do you need to know?
– Hathaway: How will competitors react within the
next few months.
– Indonesia: How will Parliament react to my
proposal? What is Bali going to do next in tourism
education
– In Canada: How do I get my hospital proposal
through the government?
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The Academic Side of Competitive
Intelligence: Telfer and Calof
• Research activities
• Teaching activities
Academic investigation
what is competitive intelligence
• Study 1: Map the domain of intelligence to
identify what the area of knowledge is
• Study 2: Examine the role of competitive
intelligence managers to identify through
practice what intelligence is
• Study 3: How to evaluate intelligence
• Study 4: Trade show intelligence – use and
benefits
• Study 5: Foresight critical success factors
Initiatives
• INTRAN
• Telfer Foresight Leadership Forum
• Foresight Synergy Network
Teaching Competitive Intelligence:
Different Approaches
• Integrative approach – CI integrated into
existing courses
• One CI course – Introduction/CI 101
(Examples: Telfer, Thunderbird, BYU, CIT)
• CI concentration/Certificate (Examples: Trinity,
Drexel, DeMontefort, John Hopkins)
• CI degree (Examples: Mercyhurst, American
Public University, Amity, Rhein-Neckar)
Outline: Calof (Telfer)
Class 1 Introduction to the competitive intelligence process:
Concepts class
Exercise: What’s your CIQ and Ethics exercise. Conduct the CI ethics test. How should CI be
conducted if you know that your competitors are using unethical and illegal methods?
Class 2 Planning an intelligence project -Forms, process and
requirements : Concepts and skills:
Exercise 1: Start to develop an intelligence project- develop an Intelligence topic. Be sure to
include: the decision/action being made on the basis of the KIT, who the client would be, the KIT
itself and the information needs. Fill in the intelligence planning forms. Make sure it is a true
intelligence requirement. Be prepared to make a brief presentation to the class.
Exercise 2: You have been asked to identify whether there are good opportunities for your
company in the United Kingdom – is it a good market for widgets. Fill in the planning forms.
Class 3 Intelligence and collection : Skills
Exercise 1: Your target is Dr. Jonathan Calof – the task: profile him. Design an intelligence project
that would require a profile of Dr. Calof and then use the internet to develop a profile of
Jonathan Calof – be sure to outline your search strategy and include your project plan? You will
be required to hand in this exercise and you can only use secondary sources,
Class 4 Analysis and Intelligence: Concepts and Skills
Exercise: Read the Embosser Industry and TVI.
From Embosser, the decision-maker is trying to determine whether or not the UK market is an
attractive one and how it should be entered. Specify the analytical technique used and how
develop the appropriate intelligence for the decision maker.
For TVI – is TVI planning to enter the security recording market. Advise Security Inc.
management on the appropriate response
Class 5 Competitive Intelligence – Organizational requirements and
other dimensions of CI
Exercise : Add 3 more questions to the CI audit questionnaire. Provide an
explanation for the additional questions, what area of intelligence it is designed to address, how
you would assess the respondents answer, and what the recommended answers would be. You
will be required to hand in the exercise.
http://wiki.telfer.uottawa.ca/ci-wiki
• together with two-three other students you
are going to help develop a School of
Management book on competitive intelligence
for Canadians. You will need to get a
password/account for our wikki site
Planning Skill Requirements
 Understand how to identify and elicit the
intelligence needs of decision makers exactly.
 Develop effective communication,
interviewing, and presentation skills.
 Understand basic psychology types to
appreciate the different orientations of
decision makers.
 Know the organizational structure, culture,
and environment as well as the key
informants.
 Remain objective.
 Articulate intelligence needs into the
intelligence cycle.
 Know the internal and external capabilities.
 Conduct an information resource gap analysis
Skills for Collection
 Obtain knowledge of primary and secondary sources.
 Know the various methods for accessing internal and
external, primary and secondary sources.
 Manage primary and secondary sources appropriately.
 Know how to execute the triangulation, multimethod,
multi-source approach.
 Develop confidence level by ensuring reliability and
validity of sources.
 Recognize anomalies in the information.
 Know the difference between hypothesized and open
assumptions and why.
 Develop formal research skills.
 Know the ethics associated with data gathering.
Skill Requirements for Analysis
• Recognize the interaction between the collection and analysis
phases.
• Analyze creatively.
• Employ inductive and deductive reasoning
• Use network analysis, alternative thinking
• Obtain an overview of basic analytical models
• Know when to use the different models
• Recognize the existence of gaps
• Know when to stop analyzing
Communication Skills
 Use persuasive presentation skills.
 Demonstrate empathy and use counseling
skills, when appropriate.
 Organize findings and convey them with
assertiveness and diplomacy.
 Use the format or media appropriate for each
end-user.
 Recognize the effective volume and level of
disseminating intelligence.
 Realize that listening can also be a form of
presenting
Skills for Creating and Managing CI
• Define the intelligence function
• Explain how the intelligence cycle transforms information into
intelligence
• Explain the role of CI within decision making, strategic
planning and business development
• Differentiate between different types of intelligence
• Present models for the structure and organization of CI
• Know how to conduct a decision, information, and knowledge
audit
• Present ways to keep current with advancements in
information technology
Skills for Creating and Managing CI
• Present methods for creating a competitive intelligence
culture
• The methods and importance of conducting an ongoing 360
degree SWOT analysis
• Discuss ways to market/sell competitive intelligence within
the organization
The Educational Infrastructure
• Consultants
• Universities
• Colleges
Are the skills being taught?
Use the skills for an audit
Example of University/College
training problems
• Analysis
• Collection
Focus of CI analysis
A step in the production of intelligence in which
intelligence information is subjected to
systematic examination in order to identify
relevant facts, determine significant
relationships and derive key findings &
conclusions.. In intelligence we begin with the
parts and in some fashion define or analytically
derive the whole. Herring, 1998
Implications of analytical
techniques
This means students have to develop skills in both macro
level techniques such as five forces and micro
techniques such as personality profiling.
Students have to be given more cases with missing
information…need more information no longer a
recommendation.
Tomorrow’s student will need to possess breadth in
technical, marketing, strategy, etc.
Focus of CI - Collection
• 80% reliance is placed on primary, 20%
secondary
• >90% within the organization
• Washington Researchers “85% gathered
through telephone interviews”
• Interviewing techniques >90% success
What’s the formal educational
infrastructure?
• US: Degrees: (Mercyhurst, Monticello),
Courses: (Rutgers, UCLA, Simmons,
Pittsburgh, Thunderbird, Idaho State,
Indiana)
• France: Degrees (CRRM, Thesues)
• Sweden: High-school to PhD: Lund,
University of Stokholm
What’s the formal educational
infrastructure?
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Australia: Course: Macquarie
UK: Course: De Montfort
Germany: Course: Weppertal
Canada: Course: Ottawa, Wilfrid Laurier,
Acadia
• China: 30 Universities preparing courses
Executive Education
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Japan: Intelligence Institute
France: Government sponsored
Israel: Intelligence Institute
US: Consultant based training
China: Intelligence Institute
Canada: University executive programs,
government sponsorship