p.3 the goal for managing CI more effectively shouldn't be to simply perform
CI better, but to perform better in the product or service marketplace of today and tomorrow.
p.4 In general, CI is the process by which organizations gather actionable information about competitors
and the competitive environment and, ideally, apply it to their decision-making and planning process in order to improve their
performance. Competitive intelligence links apparently unrelated signals, events, perceptions, and data into patterns
and trends concerning the business environment.
p.4-5 the information the CI practitioner needs is readily available
p.6 CI can potentially be if great value to organizations in any competitive industry... Why wouldn't
an organization utilize CI?
p.7 One way to understand CI is to view it as a progression from raw inputs to finished outputs... Information
becomes intelligence when it is placed into a format useful to a decision-maker's unique or critical intelligence needs (CINs);
good CI is needs-driven... Competitive intelligence is the refined intelligence product that meets a decision-maker's
unique needs for understanding a competitive aspect of the internal and/or external environment. Competitive intelligence
helps the decision maker make a decision. Effective CI helps the decision-maker make a better decision!
p.7-8 Competitive intelligence programs support organizational decision-making and are focused on achieving
competitive marketplace goals such as proactively detecting opportunities or threats, eliminating or reducing blindspots,
risks and/or surprises, and reducing reaction time to competitor and marketplace changes... attempt to ensure that decision-makers
have accurate, current information about the organization's competitive environment, and a plan for using that information
to the organization's competitive advantage.
p.9 My MBA students wonder why they had not heard of CI prior to taking my course in managing CI. Several
have questioned whether the field can be that important, since CI courses are rarely offered in MBA programs.
p.10 strategy without intelligence had become a contradiction in terms.
p.10 Competitive intelligence is commonly practiced in countries that have fought or have been fighting
a war for their survival.
p.11 Competitive intelligence can conceivably be performed by any person or organizational
department [JLJ - even a machine playing a game]
p.15-16 The items retrieved during data collection are not intelligence. They have to be processed into
intelligence and then disseminated. The driving purpose of performing business and competitive analysis is to better
understand one's industry and competitors in order to develop a strategy that provides a sustainable competitive advantage
and achieves continuing performance results that are superior to one's competitors.
p.16 the gathered information tells me something new or original that I need to know about the marketplace
that can meet the decision-maker's CIN.
p.17 Organizations frequently fail because they are unable to read the typically weak and ambiguous
signals that are ubiquitous in their environments and markets (Gilad, 1996). A systematic, powerful CI and learning
capability are competitive skills necessary for improving decision-making and market performance in this environment.
p.66 Currently, there are over 300 search engines available on the Internet... the following search engines
index more of the WWW than others: [JLJ - and where are these today?]
- Northern Light...
- Snap!...
- Altavista...
- Hotbot
