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Thursday, November 26, 2009
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ISSUE 53
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Strategic and competitive analysis: methods and techniques for analyzing business competition.
Craig Fleisher and Babette Bensoussan $77.00 (list) $70 (SCIP)
Prentice Hall March 2002.
To compensate for this popular CI analysis book not arriving at the SCIP04 bookstore, the publisher has arranged to offer it to members for $70, 10% off list price. (Amazon does not discount this book). To place your order, please send an email with your name, number of copies and a shipping address to Elodie at eslawinski@scip.org. If you requested this book at SCIP04, we still have your name, but please resend your order information.
From Competitive Intelligence Magazine, September/October 2002 book review by John McGonagle:
In this book, Professor Craig Fleisher and Babette Bensoussan have carefully, usefully and successfully balanced the approach of the academic with the needs of the CI practitioner. They look at the theoretical base of each more than two dozen analytical techniques, and using their own proprietary rating system, let the practitioner know, at a glance, what benefits each technique potentially provides.
I suspect that a vast amount of work went into this deceptively simple book. At the beginning of the book, they provide a refreshing look at the overall process of analysis, including its pitfalls. They remind us that the choice of analytical technique is not something that just “happens” at the end of the collection cycle. Not only is analysis more important than data collection, but the type of analysis to be used should drive the data collection efforts and not the other way around.
For every technique they have selected, they take the reader through the background of the technique, then review the strategic rationale and implications of that technique. From there, they look at strengths and weaknesses, advantages and limitations of the technique. Then, they show you, in most cases using a published case study as the basis, how to apply that particular technique. It is a thorough approach and, given its highly structured format, very readable and digestable.
Given that more CI analysts now work with tactics-oriented and target-oriented CI than with strategy-oriented or technology-oriented CI, I was pleased to see that the book did not overlook providing specific tools for these analysts. The six techniques in this area (blind-spot analysis, competitor analysis, customer segmentation analysis, customer value analysis, functional capability and resources analysis, and management profiling) should provide this large group of CI analysts with a very useful toolbox.
Who should have this? Let me turn this question around. Who doesn’t need it? I cannot think of any serious CI professional or even a student of CI who could not use at least one pass through the entire book. It is a real gem and a unique contribution to the CI profession.
Craig Fleisher and Babette Bensoussan are both SCIP Fellows.
[PRINTER FRIENDLY VERSION]
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