TABLE OF CONTENTS It is essential to define Competitive Intelligence (CI) before we discuss how it is a key enabler of business success in the Information Age. It is also important to distinguish CI from other forms of information collection that may be misrepresented as CI.
The need to gather information for decision makers has been playfully described as the second oldest profession, and one with a romanticized history played out in endless movies, novels, and plays over the centuries. The domain of the spy and spying has fired the imagination of countless people over the years. However glorious espionage may have been, it has mainly been associated with defense and military efforts. The advent of vast global organizations competing for survival at the speed of online connections, has brought the term competitive intelligence to the forefront of business operations.
Competitive intelligence has been well defined as "... a systematic program for gathering and analyzing information about your competitors' activities and general business trends to further your own company's goals." [1] Note that the definition does not imply or address legal or ethical factors, it is neutral, merely describing the objective: to gather useful information to support the company's goals.
There are schools in various nations these days that have courses in business intelligence and competitive intelligence. According to one source, there is at least one school in Paris, France, and others in Idaho and Florida in the United States, just to name a few.
One cannot...
