Competitive Intelligence:
Having Your Ear to the
Ground
Jill Hurst-Wahl
Hurst Associates, Ltd.
www.HurstAssociates.com
Copyright © 2004, Hurst Associates, Ltd. All rights reserved.
What is competitive intelligence?
• According to SCIP:
– “A systematic and ethical program for
gathering, analyzing, and managing
external information that can affect your
company's plans, decisions, and
operations.”
• CI believes that business decisions should
not be made on instinct or intuition, but on
information that has been gathered and
analyzed (from your point of view).
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Keep it legal
• With 80% – 90% of all information part of
public knowledge, you do not have to spy.
• If you find yourself lying about how to got a
piece of information, then you’re likely not
being legal or ethical.
• Thou shalt not steal, trespass, spy, lie, or
break any law or moral code.
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The CI analytical process
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Define the question
Gather & organize data (CMS?)
Synthesize/relate & filter the data
Analyze appropriate data
Prepare findings & draw insights
Prepare recommendations
Draft, review, approve and issue report
Follow-up – update the process
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• CI should include tracking:
– Competitors
– New technologies
– Market trends
– Government regulations
• Remember that the process needs people.
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Information resources include
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The Internet
Free and fee-based databases
Industry reports
Financial analyst reports
Newspapers (hometown, hardcopy)
Business, trade and technical journals
Press releases
Industry and government experts
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Gathering info from the field
• You frequently run into your competitors –
or the trails they leave behind – at service
calls, sales calls, meetings, etc. You need to
capture data from these encounters:
– What are they doing?
– Who are they working with?
– What are they talking about?
– What literature, articles, etc., are they
producing?
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Developing a plan of attack
• Knowing about your competitors is much
easier if you gather information continually.
– Set a weekly/monthly reminder
• Gather what is easy (and accurate) from
Internet sources.
• Do searches in NOVEL databases (and
other high quality services) looking for
analyzed/synthesized information.
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• If there is information you cannot find (or a
source that is unavailable to you), have an
information consultant continue the work for
you.
• Have your employees report what they hear
and see.
• Regularly report what you have found. Use it
to help your company’s decision-making
process.
• BTW know when to stop searching…
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How do you make
CI a long-term activity?
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Dedicate people and resources. ($)
Provide CI training opportunities.
Set information goals & deadlines.
Have project teams & management review
CI reports when making decisions.
• Inform everyone about the activities, why
you are doing it, and how they can help.
– You will never know who might come
across that one gem that you need.
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Resources
• Fuld, Leonard M. Competitor intelligence: how to
get it, how to use it. John Wiley & Sons, 1985.
• Tyson, Kirk W. M. The Complete Guide to
Competitive Intelligence (2nd Edition)
by Leading Edge Publ., 2002.
• http://www.scip.org/ci/languagebi.pdf – a
glossary of business intelligence terms.
• http://www.aiip.org – Association of Independent
Information Professionals
• http://www.scip.org – Society of Competitive
Intelligence Professionals
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Resources: For Doing CI
(A starter list)
• NOVEL databases –
http://www.nysl.nysed.gov/library/novel/database/
• http://www.infotoday.com/supersearchers/ssci.htm –
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list of resources used by CI professionals
http://www.fuld.com – Site contains CI tools.
http://www.factiva.com – collection of global
news and business information. ($)
http://www.businesswire.com
http://www.prnewswire.com
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