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Introduction

Competitive Intelligence is a continuously evolving process which gives businesses an advantage in today’s dynamic marketplace. What is Competitive Intelligence? This term is actually difficult to explain in one sentence, but can rather be explained through actual and perceptual meanings, past business successes, and personal experience using the CI system. Everyone during their business and/or personal lives has used some aspect of competitive intelligence. It could be as simple as a mother seeing an opened can of pop sitting at the top of a railing next to where the cat plays. Another example could be a Walgreens being constructed directly across the street from a CVS. Remember that these are all factors, not the complete CI system which would explain any confusion linking the two situations. When used, instead of competitive intelligence, someone might have termed it commonsense, competitive edge, knowledge management, or cut throat sales. These are all small parts of the overall process of CI. We might eventually realize that it was simply a way of life that could not be articulated until now (Blenkhorn & Fleisher, 2005).

Venture for Definition: What is Competitive Intelligence?

What is competitive intelligence? Well for starters, it is not just one thing, but a bundled conceptual entity that facilitates an overall system of foreseeing competitor’s strategic marketing plans before they can even develop a semi-intelligent sales scheme. That is one attempt at defining this term in one sentence. AuroraWDC, a CI consulting firm, says that competitive intelligence “is the purposeful and coordinated monitoring of your competitor(s), wherever and whoever they may be, within a specific marketplace” (Johnson, 2000).

Aurora goes on to say that it is essential to know what your rival businesses are going to do before they do it. This gives every business a competitive edge. Its hard to perfectly look into the future, but it is not hard to realize foreshadowing evidence to predict certain future events. Any good analyst can see future prospects with the right research involved. This concept connects the two scenarios mentioned earlier. Combining the commonsense idea that the half drank can of pop could potentially be knocked off the railing by the cat with the actuality of a direct competitor moving in across the street who shares a common market could lead to a new smart system of competition, i.e., competitive intelligence.

Although the relationship can be scene, it takes a lot of work and time to make this process actually work and become possible. There are countless books on the subject now that this concept has had time to bloom over the years. John E. Prescott, A doctorial professor at Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business, located at the University of Pittsburgh, believes that there are specific situations that determine the role of a CI program. He suggested that “CI programs are primarily located in marketing, planning, and R&D functions in organizations, the role of a CI program is driven by business needs that are often rooted in underperforming aspects, and a defined role is important, but an entire administrative structure needs to be developed to successfully implement the chosen focus” (Prescott & Miller, 2001, p. 4).

This conclusion made perfect sense. Where would competitive foreknowledge always be valuable? The answer to that question is research and development, planning, and marketing departments within an organization or business. Those departments are used specifically for promotional, informational, and profitable growth. This is where the competitive intelligence practice is implemented.

Also, where is the business having the biggest difficulties? What is keeping this organization in question from taking off, or what changes or additions could take their profession to another level? (Prescott & Miller, 2001, p1).

Furthermore, once the problem is identified, and a solution is devised, documentation is essential to the continuation of competitive intelligence. It is impossible to go forward without having knowledge of where you have been. The writing process of a paper or essay can only be started once, but it can be revised an infinite amount of times.

Shell Services International Takes a Shot at the CI system

Shell Services International (SSI) benefited from the use of competitive intelligence in combination with knowledge management. Knowledge management is where databases, technical walkthroughs, and electronic libraries are heading in today’s technological environment. Jay Gillette believes knowledge management consists of the networking of information, or in other words “the movement and use of information” (Gillette, 2000)

This is great way to use information fused with strategy. Competitive Intelligence could be seen as a way to possibly control, to an extent, the flow of information, or enhance the knowledge management process.
When Bret Breeding joined up with SSI, he noticed that they had an “environment where there were no existing standards or methods in place for examining the competition” (Prescott & Miller). He brought CI efforts to the organization, which would be quite profitable monetarily as well as systematically to the company.
By implementing CI not only at the business development level, but actually making these efforts a set of core corporate principals and disciplinary processes, Shell Services would become a powerful competing entity in the market.

The next step was taking these principals and processes and sharing it with the entire work force of the company. Now, how would the company, as a whole, manage that type of communication of essential information between workers in all areas of the world? A combination of competitive intelligence and knowledge management would be needed.

This idea began the development of the Competitive Intelligence Knowledge house which provided electronic modules available privately and publicly along the SSI network. Certain areas/modules were restricted depending on the competitively compromising level of information that were present. This was an excellent way to have all of the work force interact with one another as well as a community knowledge pool where everyone could increase their knowledge about their role and maybe someone else’s role in the company. When a workforce feels more like a community or family, then trust and relationships can be built in order to provide a richer, more productive, effective, and efficient environment. These concepts and ideals yield a strong business presence with expansion capabilities in a growing global market place.

Conclusion

In today’s society, there are many buzz words and terms that are popular to convention, motivational, and promotional type of presentations/seminars. The importance behind the buzz word is the key information that it provides, or a new way of analyzing concepts. ‘Troubleshooting’ and ‘software’ are good examples of words, that although now graciously accepted by Webster and society in general, were strange to the common man when they first came about years ago. The actual practices, actions, and understandings behind these new age terms and phrases that are beneficial to society is what is really important. Competitive Intelligence, and well as Knowledge Management are just new ways of enhancing the legacy systems that did work well, but can yield much better results with the right tinkering.

References:

David L. Blenkhorn and Craig S. Fleisher, eds. (2005). Competitive Intelligence and Global
Business. Oxford: Praeger Publishers Greenwood Publishing Group.

Jay Edwin Gillette. (2000). “Information is Knowledge in Motion’: A Practical Framework for
Understanding Knowledge Management.” Unpublished. Center for Information and Communication Sciences.

Arik R. Johnson. (2000). What is Competitive Intelligence?. Retrieved April 2, 2008,
from http://www.aurorawdc.com/whatisci.htm

John E. Prescott and Stephen H. Miller. (2001). Proven Strategies in Competitive Intelligence:
Lessons from the Trenches. Washington, D. C.: Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals