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Wednesday, December 3, 2008
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VOLUME 1
ISSUE 14
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No matter what your experience level is, there’s always a need to review the basics of CI, how we do our job, and the tools we use. Each issue of SCIP.online tries to strike a balance between general overviews and critiques, specific techniques and checklists, and descriptions of products and services that can make you more effective.
Help keep this membership publication relevant to your needs. Let me know of techniques or products that you have found useful, people you have learned from, and questions you have. SCIP has substantial resources that can be drawn upon. You just need to ask.
Bonnie Hohhof, Editor, bhohhof@scip.org
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Creating actionable intelligence.
by Laura Bradley
Five elements form the basis of actionable intelligence: market environment, customer’s business objectives, the customer’s customer, competitive landscape and market feedback. Laura Bradley shows how, when used together, these elements create strong competitive positioning and lead to actions capable of surmounting the strongest of opponents within a dynamic and evolving market.
[FULL STORY]
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CI lessons from WorldCom and HP/Compaq.
by Bill Fiora
Sprint, AT&T and Hewlett Packard should not have been as blindsided by their competitors' actions as they appeared to have been. There are basic facts that companies should know about their competitors, and CI practitioners need to be doing the kind of 'what if' analysis needed to take a fresh, critical look at the competitive analysis they produce.
[FULL STORY]
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10 key sources of competitive data.
by Russell Secker
An effective marketing strategy requires keeping close and constant track of competitors' plans and actions. At Hoovers (and before), Russell Secker has been perfecting the tedious process of gathering company intelligence, and shares his list of the ten most important resources he's found for 'getting the low-down on the competition.'
[FULL STORY]
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New CI sources and analytical methods.
The SCIP Fellows Sources and Methods Working Group, chaired by Jan Herring, is evaluating new CI sources and analytical methods and identifying those that can provide the greatest benefit to SCIP members. Their research, which will be presented at a SCIP03 Key Topics session by Brad Ashton and published in CI magazine, focuses on understanding the areas where practitioners have the greatest difficulties and the most important unmet needs. Only aggregated results will be reported.
You can help this research by completing this online survey aimed at identifying problems you encounter when using CI sources and analytical methods. This survey takes approximately seven minutes to complete. After you submit your answers, you will see a summary of how others have responded. The Fellows need your responses by February 5th.
Each individual question has three or more scripted answers. Please click on the one answer that most resembles your personal opinion or situation. At the end of the survey, click on Submit. The program will then show you a consolidated summary of all responses received to date. Survey definitions are in the full story section.
Thank you for your participation and assistance. [Note: if you receive the plain text version of scip.online, please go to http://www.imakenews.com/scip2/index000024810.cfm to complete the survey.]
[FULL STORY]
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Early registration discounts.
by Rachael Garrity
While the summer is winding up for part of the world and just beginning for the other, most of us are looking at the “unofficial” beginning of another year, as meetings, corporate schedules, etc., pick up their pace. The early bird deadline for the European Conference in Brussels is September 6. Your conference committee, composed of SCIP professionals from Belgium, Germany, Israel, Switzerland and the UK, has put together a program that will give you a chance to learn and teach at the same time, as you hear from the experts, exchange ideas with your peers, and pose questions in an open forum. Check out the full information on the SCIP website
When it comes to sales and marketing, it’s all about measurable results. SCIP’s Sales and Marketing Intelligence Symposium is all about the practical moves that produce results. It’s a gloves-off, get-the-facts-on-the table two days, held this year October 3-4 in San Francisco. This symposium is laser sharp in its focus. Senior execs join CI professionals for an exciting agenda. The early bird deadline is September 9. You’ll find full information at the SCIP website and an easy registration process, too.
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Corporate earnings conference calls.
by Ed Curtin
Today's regulatory climate and investor sentiments have converged to transform earnings conference calls into an essential CI resources. Conference calls feature in-depth, probing Q&A on financial and operating performance, competitive trends, financial projections, and strategic opportunities and vulnerabilities. Ed Curtin reviews history and development of these conference calls, and ways to effectively integrate them into your CI tool portfolio.
[FULL STORY]
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CI profile: Dale Fehringer.
by Bonnie Hohhof
As vice-president, Market Intelligence at Visa International, Dale Fehringer is responsible for monitoring and analyzing market conditions, competitors, and opportunities in the rapidly developing Payment Service industry. He first became involved in creating a competitive intelligence group when his CEO was surprised by a competitor’s action. In this profile he reviews some of his accomplishments.
[FULL STORY]
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Services for managing information overload.
by Ranjit Shastri
Research professionals' services are in even more demand as companies seek to extract the most useful insights from the information readily available from online sources. Several companies provide outsourced services to help manage the problem of information overload. They use human experts, armed with the latest technologies, to tackle research efficiently. Ranjit Shastri reviews three of these research services organizations: SmartAnalyst, NERAC, and FindSVP.
[FULL STORY]
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Getting the most out of VC investments.
by Darrell Mockus
A venture capitalist's primary concern is balancing opportunity and risk. Making information decisions through the use of actionable intelligence minimizes competitive risk and creates competitive advantage. Early stage companies (the typical VC portfolio company) stand to gain the most from using CI to provide early warning of technological and industry threats. Darrell Mockus reviews the reasons why venture capitalists need to demand a concerted CI effort from their portfolio companies.
[FULL STORY]
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FYI: new and noteworthy.
by Bonnie Hohhof
- Summertime reflection on the competitive context of your business.
- Upcoming SCIP Chapter meetings.
- North American universities offering CI courses.
- Nominations for the AIIP technology award.
- Factiva CI Center Bulletin August 2002.
- Dialog Newsroom now a stand-alone service.
- EIU launches a web industry forecasting service.
- Guidestar.org database of non-profit institutions.
[FULL STORY]
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PDF NOTE: If you have trouble downloading the PDF version, you may need to scroll through the entire PDF issue online before saving it.
Permission to reprint a specific scip.online article is granted if:
1) the reprint specifically identifies scip.online as the source and
2) the reprint includes a link to the SCIP website www.scip.org.
For online posting permission, please contact bhohhof@scip.org.
Copyright 2003 Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals www.scip.org.
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