I WANT IT FAST, FACTUAL, ACTIONABLE - TAILORING COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE TO EXECUTIVES NEEDS

Today even corporate giants have been awakened from slumbering complacency by the intensifying forces of global competition. Deepening recession, political upheaval, volatile currency markets, and new, and more aggressive, competition all combined to signal the end of 'the good old days'. As the hard hit fortunes of DEC, GM, IBM, NEC, Merck, Philips Electronics, VW and others prove, no company is invincible. In response to new and changing pressures in the competitive environment, managers virtually stumble into each other as they scramble for yet another look inwards, before the inevitable decision to restructure or fine-tune the organization and its offerings. But this is not enough. In order to formulate, and effectively implement winning competitive strategies the firm must have in place a formal mechanism to collect, process, analyse, and disseminate competitive intelligence. Competitive intelligence enables managers to understand what the competition can and will do, and when and where it plans to do it. The article describes what competitive intelligence is, why it represents a key element in the strategic management system of the company, and how it works in practice.