Competitive Intelligence
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- Date Submitted: 03/07/2011 10:22 PM
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Competitive Intelligence
With the advent the World Wide Web and communications technology, it would be foolish to not conduct competitive intelligence research. The process was slow, tedious, expensive and cumbersome. Businesses had to rely on the telephone, fax machine and interviews as their main competitive intelligence tools (Gikandi). What once cost an exorbitant amount of resources to conduct research internally or externally can now be performed at a fraction of the cost.
The avenue of obtaining Competitive Intelligence has become expeditious but the cycle of collection remains the same. The Competitive Intelligence Cycle is the process by which raw information is acquired, gathered, transmitted, evaluated, analyzed and made available as finished intelligence for policymakers to use in decision-making and action (GCC Consulting). Some consulting firms promote a five or six stage process but share the basic four stages.
The first basic stage of the Competitive Intelligence Cycle is Planning and Directions. This stage discerns what kind of intelligence is required. Gonzalez Industries produces novelty USB flash memory devices. A topic Gonzalez Industries would like to research is what current product is on the market and which types sell the most. Paying for copy written themes will sell more units because the franchise is already known. We would like to know what brands our competitors currently have agreements with and which can we exploit. An example would be Disney branded memory sticks. Memory devices shaped like Mickey Mouse or something to that effect. Our competitor may have an exclusive agreement with Disney that is due to expire in the near future. This sort of intelligence would allow Gonzalez Industries to react and position itself with a stronger foothold in the market segment.
The second Stage in the cycle is the Collection phase. Data can now be collected from so many sources on the World Wide Web. Financial websites such as...
With the advent the World Wide Web and communications technology, it would be foolish to not conduct competitive intelligence research. The process was slow, tedious, expensive and cumbersome. Businesses had to rely on the telephone, fax machine and interviews as their main competitive intelligence tools (Gikandi). What once cost an exorbitant amount of resources to conduct research internally or externally can now be performed at a fraction of the cost.
The avenue of obtaining Competitive Intelligence has become expeditious but the cycle of collection remains the same. The Competitive Intelligence Cycle is the process by which raw information is acquired, gathered, transmitted, evaluated, analyzed and made available as finished intelligence for policymakers to use in decision-making and action (GCC Consulting). Some consulting firms promote a five or six stage process but share the basic four stages.
The first basic stage of the Competitive Intelligence Cycle is Planning and Directions. This stage discerns what kind of intelligence is required. Gonzalez Industries produces novelty USB flash memory devices. A topic Gonzalez Industries would like to research is what current product is on the market and which types sell the most. Paying for copy written themes will sell more units because the franchise is already known. We would like to know what brands our competitors currently have agreements with and which can we exploit. An example would be Disney branded memory sticks. Memory devices shaped like Mickey Mouse or something to that effect. Our competitor may have an exclusive agreement with Disney that is due to expire in the near future. This sort of intelligence would allow Gonzalez Industries to react and position itself with a stronger foothold in the market segment.
The second Stage in the cycle is the Collection phase. Data can now be collected from so many sources on the World Wide Web. Financial websites such as...