Competitive Intelligence Be ahead of the competition. by Johannes Deltl
What is it about? Do you have competitors breathing down your neck? Does your competitive intelligence run smoothly in the enterprise? How good are you compared to your competitors? Competition is getting more intense. Globalisation has finally arrived in every country of the world. It is crucial to know your own strengths and weaknesses as well as these of your „enemies.“ Companies that want to be “ahead of the competition“ must have a well-performing radar system in order to analyse their competitors and market developments, and to be able to identify relevant opportunities or threats on time . Competitive Intelligence is the art of always staying one step ahead of the competition. The following pages will give you a comprehensive overview as well as worth-while advice on competitive intelligence.
1. The Process The deployment of competitive intelligence (CI) in companies can be demonstrated best on the basis of a recurrent process. It starts with the planning phase and runs through several individual phases until the final decision, which again is the basis for the planning phase. It is important to elaborate the process and to discuss it within the enterprise. From our experience, we know that “to shoot from the hip” doesn‘t produce any sustainable effects.

2. Planning – To Capture The Essence The most important phase is the planning phase. Hence, we must understand and grasp what are the main motives for clients to set up CI within an enterprise. Explicit targets are concrete „pain points“ and not „nice-to-have“ information. There is frequently a reason why an enterprise wants to occupy itself actively with the competition – there could be a new market player, altered framework conditions in the industry or an opening up of new markets. Once the relevant ranges of topics are circumsribed (no comma) it is recommended to transform them into questions. From Key Intelligence Topics