front flap Competitive intelligence (CI) reveals the true state of your
business, exposes the unknown, and shows you how to tackle the current market conditions.
viii Competitive intelligence gets at the truth. It objectively deals with what
is happening, much of which may be unknown... Unless you conduct an analysis of current conditions, the information
that you know is only partially current and may be only partially accurate.
x To survive and grow during these turbulent times, a
company must gain a measure of control.
xiii As Michael Porter stated in Competitive Strategy, "To be competitive,
we have to constantly reexamine our assumptions."
xii Competitive intelligence significantly reduces the likelihood of being
blindsided.
xiii Perhaps now you're ready to enter the world and advantages of competitive
intelligence. If so, fasten your seatbelt, and start to read.
xiv That's the essence of competitive intelligence; it's a decision
input tool whose output is better decisions. Informed risk is your competitive advantage.
xiv Perhaps now you're ready to enter the world and advantages of competitive intelligence. If so, fasten
your seatbelt, and start to read. CI is an incredible journey, with an even more incredible payoff.
p.1 The mind can only see what it is prepared to see. -Edward
de Bono
p.4 Today's success only entitles you to compete tomorrow.
p.5 Refusing to acknowledge problems merely ensures that they won't be solved.
p.40 the purpose of competitive intelligence is to support the development of more resilient, more
robust strategies and tactics and to minimize risk. A narrower focus will not help achieve that purpose.
p.42 The best competitive advantage and least risky strategy is to know
your industry broadly, narrowly, and deeply and to be aware of all the external forces that affect your ability to succeed.
p.74 As a best practice strategy, executives should be listening for, observing,
or looking for the unexpected - day in and day out, month in and month out.
p.79 Strategy is built on intelligence - insightful, current,
relevant, accurate, and sufficient intelligence.
p.79 The purpose of intelligence is action.
p.91 Data is the most available of the three segments,
and it's the largest segment. Data is the easiest to gather, requires the least skill of the three, and more people can get
it.
Information, however, provides more value than data. Moving up the pyramid, information is
more difficult to uncover and fewer people have the skills to provide it.
Intelligence really is
the tip and top of the pyramid, and this visual is a true reflection. There is far less intelligence than data; very few people
understand what it is; and even fewer appear to have the skills to provide it.
p.91 The goal in competitive intelligence is to gather accurate
and current data, then use that data to move to information and from there to intelligence.
p.98 Intelligence drives strategy and smart decisions, and reduces risk.
p.101 The real purpose of competitive intelligence is to learn and
to act.
p.101 Competitive intelligence is created when data is collected
and only when that information is analyzed, refined, and distilled into something that has very clear implications for decision
making.
p.154 the more you learn, the more likely you are to stay ahead of change
and to implement changes
p.158 The goal of competitive intelligence is to produce actionable intelligence for decision makers
p.211 In Arthur Conan Doyle's first novel, A Study in Scarlet,
protagonist Sherlock Holmes stated that "A fool takes in all... he comes across, so that the knowledge which might be useful
to him gets crowded out... The skillful workman will have nothing but the tools which may help him... It is of the highest
importance, therefore, not to have useless facts elbowing out the useful ones."
p.249 Whether the company takes action immediately, based on new learning
or insight, or monitors what's happening to gain more information, it will act sooner than without CI.
