Ryan Franklin

The word Intelligence has been around since the 14th century and was from Middle English. Merriam-Webster defines it as the ability to learn or understand or to deal with new or trying situations. Oxford English Dictionary defines it as an action or fact of mentally apprehending something; understanding, knowledge, cognizance, comprehension. I respect these definitions and how they help understand competitive intelligence.
The term competitive Intelligence when putting the two definitions together can be viewed as an act or fact of mentally apprehending something that is based on a competition. I don’t see how that is useful in the current business world. I will give my definition of competitive intelligence and how it relates to the business world. Competitive Intelligence is an act of understanding your opponent or competition may it be internal or external; it is the ultimate act of advancement in a company or overcoming a situation. I like to view competitive intelligence as a way that a company works to get an edge on its rivals. Since I have a strong sports background my example of getting an edge on a competitor would be when two football teams are playing each other they will watch tapes of the opposing team to see how they run plays and what plays will be called. This will allow the team to be prepared for what they have to do to stop the opposing team. This is how I view competitive intelligence in the business world.
All competitive intelligence is viewed differently from company to company, individual to individual. I see it as understanding your opponent where as some might view it as an understanding of the market such as Motorola as described in the proven strategies in competitive intelligence (Prescott & Miller p. 118). What Motorola did was to focus on the customer and go out and obtain data about there customer unlike what I was describing it as gaining information about your competitor. Another way to view competitive intelligence is by understanding you company and making the changes to it that will help it advance. In proven strategies in competitive intelligence it states that Proctor and Gamble where working on changes in there company to make it better for the future (Prescott & Miller p. 28-31).
Is there a right or wrong way to look at competitive intelligence? I say no there is more than one way to fry an egg so why can’t there be different perspectives and understandings and practices of competitive intelligence. What an individual needs to remember is what there goals are in the situation and pick the right strategy that will give them a leg up in the field. In my life right now I do need to know competitive intelligence, I am working on getting a job. I need to know what I can about myself and information about that company. It’s not possible to know what other individuals might be applying for that same job. I will not be able to “study the tapes” see what that individual brings to the table and how I can one up him. I have a different view of competitive intelligence when dealing with school. I know what every person brings to the table and I try and get ahead of some students by out performing them on a test or winning on a project. I have two different views of competitive intelligence in my life at the same time but you need to know what your surroundings are and your goal in that situation.
Does a leader need to know about competitive intelligence? I say that a leader does need to know about competitive intelligence at every level. I would say that most leaders do know about competitive intelligence even if they never heard that term. Competitive Intelligence has been used during war for centuries by the use of spies. They would try and get information about what weapons they had, number of soldiers, and what there plans of attack are. I know that times have changed and competitive intelligence is used in a legal and practical method with companies in these current times.
As for leaders I feel that competitive intelligence is in them if they are born leaders. Since leaders competitiveness and intelligent are both characteristics of a leader then they should have an understanding of how to succeed and make others around them succeed in any part of their live. Since a good leader needs to have a strong understanding of what is going on around them in the company and out of the company competitive intelligence is a perfect match for a leader. I know this is broad but the area that they would need some help is when it comes to global intelligence or another area that they are not comfortable in.
In my personal life if I was in a leader role I would like to know what is going on around me and with my company and market. I would also like to find a way to make my department better than any other department so that I would stand out in the company. That is how I would like to see competitive intelligence work for me in a leadership role.
Some interesting research that I found was on how well companies think they are doing on using competitive. “The purpose of our study was to measure the current state of competitive intelligence activities from the perspective of competitive intelligence CEOs and CEOs. The project team mailed questionnaires to competitive intelligence CEOs and CEOs drawn from 550 firms in the U.S. The return sample consisted of fifty five CEOs and eighty two competitive intelligence CEOs. A total of hundred and four respondents came from competitive intelligence-active firms, whereas thirty three respondents reported no competitive intelligence activity at their companies. The significantly lower response rate from executives with firms not active in competitive intelligence was understandable, given that this survey’s topic would likely be of less interest to them. The higher response rate from executives with competitive intelligence-active firms was similarly anticompetitive intelligence pated. Mean company size was $9.25 billion in annual sales. Fifty-two percent reported less than 10% of their annual sales come from abroad; another 20% reported foreign sales comprise between 11% and 30% of their totals(Vedder, Vanecek, Guynes, & Cappel p.112).” Figure 1 shows you how well CEO’s of this survey think that there firm is using competitive intelligence (Vedder, Vanecek, Guynes, & Cappel p.114). This is a little information on CEO’s in the business world and shows it they think that they are using competitive intelligence. I know that this is an opinion based survey so that the facts are not that reliable but it is interesting to see how people if they are using competitive intelligence. According to Vedder, Vanecek, Guynes, & Cappel their study found that “replied and the positive response rate, the results of the study suggest that considerable interest in competitive intelligence exists among CEOs and CIOs. The respondents indicated that competitive intelligence can have both offensive and defensive uses. They believe that even though competitive intelligence gathering requires the use of public and private sources of information, the benefits are worth the time and resources expended. Most competitive intelligence efforts were split between using an ad-hoc, special project approach and regular, ongoing activities. The main responsibility for most firms’ competitive intelligence efforts rested with a business function executive or planner. The effectiveness of current competitive intelligence efforts was rated as being “good to fair,” which suggests a need for improvement. Almost all the CEOs reported some competitive intelligence activity in their organizations. Further, 75% of them anticipated some increase in those activities. They view competitive intelligence activity as an important information source for identifying
business threats and opportunities. They see competitive intelligence as being useful in developing, implementing, and revising business strategies (Vedder, Vanecek, Guynes, & Cappel p.115).”
When I first heard competitive intelligence I had no idea what it was or what it meant or even referred to. After doing research on this topic I understand that it is a vast and complex process to understand and perform. There are so many different views and understanding of this term that an individual would have to come up with his own definition and that would depend on how they are currently living and dealing with competitive intelligence in there daily lives. I do not deal with the global market in my life I am dealing with a more internal structure inside Ball State University to stand out and been heard and seen. So to me that is my competitive intelligence. But I know that when I leave Ball State I will open a new door and I will have to learn a new strategy of competitive intelligence.
 
Worked Cited
Galvin, R. (1997) Competitive Intelligence at Motorola. Prescott, J & Miller, S. (Eds.) Proven Strategies in Competitive Intelligence (p. 116-122) John Wiley & sons co Canada

Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2009) “Competitive, Intelligence.” Retrieved March 19, 2009 from http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/Competitive%20Intelligence%20

Oxford English Dictionary (2009) “Competitive, Intelligence.” Retrieved March 19, 2009 from http://dictionary.oed.com/entrance.dtl
Pepper, J. (1999) Competitive Intelligence at Proctor & Gamble. Prescott, J & Miller, S. (Eds.) Proven Strategies in Competitive Intelligence (p. 23-27) John Wiley & sons co Canada

Vedder, R., Vanecek, M., Guynes, C. & Cappel, J. (1999) CEO and CIO Perspectives on Competitive Intelligence Computer of the ACM. Retrieved March 19, 2009 from http://delivery.acm.org/10.1145/320000/310982/p108-vedder.pdf?key1=310982&key2=4610847321&coll=GUIDE&dl=GUIDE&CFID=26747886&CFTOKEN=76955723