p.3,6,11,16 Four overarching lessons that emerged from the cases in this book can benefit firms as they
implement their CI efforts. The four overarching lessons are each described below.
Lesson 1 CI programs require a clearly articulated role that emerges through a process of (re)learning the
intelligence needs of organizational members...
Lesson 2 The set of outputs from a CI program must be disseminated on a timely basis, provide actionable
implementations, and be perceived as credible and trustworthy...
Lesson 3 In organizations, an intelligence-driven culture is built one person at a time, through intelligence
skill enhancement, human network development, and mechanisms that facilitate the flow of information...
Lesson 4 The evolution of CI programs is a natural phenomenon driven by the needs of the corporation, feedback,
and quality-enhancement techniques.
p.43 Actionable intelligence is the goal of our competitive intelligence operation.
p.73 Competitive intelligence is any information or knowledge about the marketplace that keeps our
company competitive.
p.84 strategic control is "hitting what you aim at." CI "lights up the targets." CI must be a functional
part of the strategic management system.
p.93 What do executives look for in competitive intelligence? It all comes down to basically one
thing - guidance... Tell them what they do NOT know... That's where your creativity and your innovation come into
play.
p.95 what is intelligence? It's actionable information... When you start to provide actual
guidance, you then begin to make an impact.
p.98 When you make a recommendation, you make it based on what you know in a still uncertain environment
and things can change.
p.140 Competitive intelligence allows you to focus on the things that are critical to your success... Competitive
intelligence is a mechanism for looking at the future, so a strategy can be put in place that will give the company an opportunity
to adapt to a changing world... The big payoff for competitive intelligence is that it will point out weaknesses
that you have internally because you find the strengths of your competitors.
p.142 As I mentioned, it was significant that we changed our plans as a result of the war games exercise.
Something is going to happen differently in the marketplace as a result of investing a lot of people's time for two days and
trying to think through how we might increase the probability of our success
p.160 In the end, however, it is the transformation of information into intelligence that provides
decision support... Specially designed intelligence analytical techniques can allow for sound interpretation of the
external environment and thus support strategic decision-making... The end result of this analytic activity is an assessment
of what is occurring externally and what it means for the company... there are about a half-dozen techniques that
tend to frequently offer the beleaguered analyst the ability to make sense of confusing data and information that have demonstrated
their versatility
