Shveta Sharma

COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE AND GLOBAL BUSINESS
According to the authors, David Blenkhorn and Craig Fleisher, in their book, Competitive Intelligence and Global Business, competitive intelligence should be recognized as an important part while taking important business decisions. They state that, “One needs accurate, complete and timely information before making key business decisions in a global context.” (Blenkhorn, 2005, p.3). This would help the company stay ahead in the competitive environment and hence assist in its success.
However, the authors further suggest that while conducting competitive intelligence on a global scale, one needs to be aware of various challenges like different norms and cultures in different countries, and difficulty in gathering data because of lack of understanding of language in those countries, etc. (Blenkhorn, 2005, p.4).
While trying to figure out the competitive environment, the companies should keep in mind the following issues:
1. Global Competitive trends: In the global marketplace, which kind of industry will be successful and which kind of company will be the trendsetter. (Blenkhorn, 2005, p.8)
2. Customer or End User Preferences and Trends: The factors for the change and the degree of change in the needs and desires of the consumers with the change in the marketplace? How are the competitors handling this change? Based on this information, how the company should be conducting its business so as to attract maximum customers. (Blenkhorn, 2005, p.8)
3. Technological Trends: Does your company have the latest technology and the capability to handle it? Also, how will your competition handle these technologies? (Blenkhorn, 2005, p.8)
4. Diversification Opportunities: How can the company diversify in the global market? Where all does the scope for this exists? And what kind of competition should the company expect? (Blenkhorn, 2005, p.9)
5. Internal Capabilities: Does the company have the necessary resources to compete in global market and if not how to attain them. (Blenkhorn, 2005, p.9)
6. Joint Ventures, Strategic Alliances and other partnering opportunities: How does becoming partners with other companies help you in the global sector? Are you compatible with these companies? (Blenkhorn, 2005, p.9)
7. General Nation-State and Regional Economic and Business Conditions: How to get accurate and unbiased information on the current and future business and political scenario in the global market? (Blenkhorn, 2005, p.9)
8. Regulatory Issues: What are the laws and regulations in the market are changes expected and how different are they from your current regulatory scenario? (Blenkhorn, 2005, p.9)
9. Supplier Trends: What is the nature of supplier base in the market, is it expected to change and how will change in the supplier base effect your operations? (Blenkhorn, 2005, p.9)
10. Understanding Reasons for Past International Success and Failures: Learn from your and other companies past failures and keep in mind the current winners in the market. (Blenkhorn, 2005, p.9)
11. Performance: What are the performance indicators in global market and are they different from your current market? (Blenkhorn, 2005, p.9)
CI Operation in a Global Company
Once these parameters are identified, the company needs to decide the structure and the system for effective CI monitoring.
• Structure: The need to decide whether the CI structure be centralized or decentralized. Centralized structure will be when the executives are sitting in one place and making decisions keeping the global market in mind. Decentralized structure will be handling the CI functions in local environment by the local people who know that market better. (Blenkhorn, 2005, p.10)
• System: It includes all the hard (technical, hardware, software etc.) and soft (policies, cultures, languages etc.) facets of the organization that will help in effective working of the company in global market. (Blenkhorn, 2005, p.11)

PROVEN STRATEGIES IN COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE: CI AND KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT CONVERGENCE
In this case study, author Bret Breeding explains how competitive intelligence at his company, Shell Services International (SSI), has been affected by employing knowledge management.
The author first explains the problems and issues faced by the intelligence producers and users. The users feel that the information is too shallow or is not credible enough. They further state that the information is not provided in a very timely manner and that the focus is missing. Additionally, they are not very sure as to how to gather the intelligence from the producers. (Breeding, 2001, p.47)
On the other hand, producers of intelligence feel that they don’t have enough time to satisfy all users, low budget; there is lack of feedback from users, no sharing of information, too much information to get through, etc. (Breeding, 2001, p.48)
The author realized that one can never get rid of all these problems, so the team devised plans to minimize these issues in following steps:
1. Corporate Processes Affected by CI (Audience Identification): In order for CI to deliver results and add value, it should interact with other corporate functions. To add value to SSI, the author and the team decided that CI should interact with new product development, strategy (mergers and acquisitions), sales and proposals, HR and recruiting, and marketing communications. (Breeding, 2001, p.49)
2. Activities Performed by CI Analysts: Once the audience to be served is identified, analysts need to identify the activities that should be performed to serve this audience. The projects that add highest value get maximum time daily than the ones that are just mundane tasks. The activities are:
a. Ad-Hoc Requests: CI analysts answer Ad Hoc request like, demographics, statistics, company financial comparisons, executive biographies, emerging marketing overviews, investment analysts’ reports, competitive information etc. (Breeding, 2001, p.51)
The analysts should inquire more so that they can figure out what exactly the user is looking for. As for finding the information, the analysts already have some in their databases (proactive requests). For the rest of information, they conduct researches (reactive requests). (Breeding, 2001, p.52)
b. Monitoring Market Alerts: The CI analysts should analyze the external market and report to the core audience. They should keep track of what is happening with their competitors, know about the latest technologies etc., add competitive implications and keep the audience informed. Finally, the analysts should conduct a survey the audience periodically to ascertain the quantity, quality, usability of information. (Breeding, 2001, p.53)
c. KM Systems: Once all this information is gathered, it is disseminated on the intranet system of the company which is called the CI Knowledge House. Further, it is required to check this information so as to make sure that the content is fresh. This also ensures reusability of the information. (Breeding, 2001, p.55)
Indra K. Nooyi, the CEO of Pepsi Co. believes in constant reinvention: "The minute you've developed a new business model, it's extinct, because somebody is going to copy it." (CNN.com)
Additionally, the core audience also gets access to this information. In this way redundant questions can be eliminated and work can be done faster.
d. Simulation Deal Support: The CI group should spend 25 to 50 percent of its time providing deal support. It involves ”simulating the anticipated competitive responses of SSI competitors” (Breeding, 2001, p.56)

CONCLUSION
Before entering a global market, an industry should keep in mind that it will not be the same as in the home country where it is established. So it should do a complete check on the scenario in the target market and collect all the competitive intelligence to have a good idea as to how to go about in that area.
Furthermore it is imperative that whatever competitive intelligence is collected from the market be properly distributed in the organization to ensure that this information is properly used and is continually updated. This is where knowledge management comes in.
Hence, coming together of these two areas helps in determining the knowledge flows and gaps to better evaluate where you are, what all you need to know and what is the best way to find out.

REFERENCES

1. Breeding, Bret. “CI and KM Convergence: A Case Study at Shell Services International.” Proven Strategies in Competitive Intelligence: Lessons From the Trenches. Prescott, John E. and Miller, Stephen H. Wiley Publishers, 2001
2. Blenkhorn, David L. and Fleisher, Craig S. “The state of our understanding of research and practice in competitive intelligence and global business.” Competitive Intelligence in Global Business. Blenkhorn, David L. and Fleisher, Craig S. Oxford: Praeger Publishes Greenwood Publishing Group, 2005.
3. Clavell, James, The Art of War: Sun Tzu, Delta, January 1998.