Every once in a while, as I'm scanning the internet for CI material, I come across a site that stands out from the ordinary. Kartoo (www.kartoo.com) is a new internet meta-search program whose visual representation of search results is one of the most attractive and innovative I've ever seen. It rates a 10 on the 'cool' scale.
It's often difficult to find measurements on how CI affects the success of a company. PriceWaterhouseCoopers released a study last month that shows a positive relationship between how much a company values competitive intelligence and how successful it is. www.barometersurveys.com/pr/tb020327.html
Bonnie Hohhof, Editor
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KITs revisited: their use and problems.
by Jan Herring
The Key Intelligence Topics (KITs) needs identification process has become the basic tool CI professionals use to define their organization's primary intelligence requirements and plan the operations necessary to produce the intelligence that meet those needs. However, KITs are not simple to implement or use. There are several operational problems and an apparent misunderstanding of their role. Here are the most common ones.
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Business ecology 2: the ant's view.
by Kai Goerlich
Humans globalize on a grand scale: animals, plants, businesses, sports, holidays, and ideas. But we simply do what nature has done for eons. We speed things up by destroying ecosystems, making them vulnerable to invasions, and by introducing foreign species. Using a business ecology approach, we can begin to understand why companies successfully globalize, merge, and takeover.
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Competitor targeting: an interview with Ian Gordon.
by Bonnie Hohhof
Ian Gordon is author of the new book Competitor Targeting: Winning the Battle for Market and Customer Share, published by John Wiley Sons. Competitor Targetingdescribes a way to integrate CI with CRM by focusing on winning each customer. The book also discusses competitive strategies at the industry level and for the marketplace. In this interview Ian talks about this book’s development, focus, and value to CI practitioners.
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CI professionals in the next economy.
by John Nolan
Internal as well as external events have created an increased awareness of the need for greater and more effective information protection. There is also a corresponding role question: “Whose job is it anyway?” A hallmark of more sophisticated and mature CI departments is a broader suite of professional services, which include educating their network members about the signals that indicate a competitor is targeting their company as sources of information.
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Choose your words carefully: vocabulary control.
by Vernon Prior
The essence of information storage and retrieval is to find ways of connecting the indexer and the searcher, whether the process is manual or automatic. There are several approaches to achieving this meeting of the minds. But it is necessary to state (yet again) that the emphasis must be on people, not on technology.
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Managing risk with online solutions.
by Alison Bourey, Eric Lutsch
In our volatile economy, the stakes are high for choosing wisely when venturing into agreements with vendors, customers, and potential partners. How does a company effectively conduct due diligence on an alliance to ensure that the financials are good, that the leadership is sound, or that high-stakes lawsuits are not lurking in the background? Risk management is the use of information to proactively or retroactively reduce the loss of a company, entity, or an individual.
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Analyzing micro and macro market conditions.
by Kim Burkhardt
CI professionals provide value by analyzing a complex system of environmental micro and macro market conditions which affect a firm’s overall competitiveness and market strategy. Integrating both levels of market activity into market analysis and analyzing various cyclical trends support a cohesive market planning strategy. We best support our firms or clients through a continued study of market conditions and competitive industry dynamics.
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Products and services.
This is the second installment of service and product descriptions of vendors who exhibited at the SCIP annual conference. Highlighted are: - ARS WOWWW
- BOLT International
- Cipher Systems
- Financial Times Corporate Services
- Intelliseek
- Proactive Worldwide.
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FYI: new and noteworthy.
- SCIP's 'Intelligence Corporation' symposium in Chicago offers speakers and topics of interest to non-financial analysts. The early bird discount is good until May 17.
- Richard Horowitz wrote a rebuttal to CIO Magazine's "Industrial Spy" article about the relationship of EEA and CI.
- Cipher Systems is offering a new web-based course on 'Protecting Your Competitive Advantage.'
- Chapters continue to be active, hosting several meetings this month.
- And, for something different, FletcherCIS is seeking riders for its MS bike team on a two-day tour of Northern Vermont.
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