Two CI PPT Presentations on bloobbleblog

I like this: “The mean time between decisions is greater than the mean time between surprises”

Competitive Intelligence: Do you know what NDS is doing ?

Competitive Intelligence: Do you know what Motorola is doing?

Three Online Competitive Research Tools

via CI Marketplace:

Paulson Management Group posted a list of Competitive Analysis, Paid Search and SEO Tools.  Here’s what they had listed under Competitive Analysis:

Compete.com – Lets you see traffic trends of competing websites, demographic information as well as other important predictors.

quantcast.com – I verified on three sites the monthly uniques are pretty close, good tool for competitive intelligence.

Xinu.com - This one is my new favorite – This tool will be very important as the new Google Universal search is being slowly integrated over the next 6 months. Check it out.

Star Trek, Competitive Intelligence and Analytics

Whether you are focused on market, sales or competitive intelligence, analytics are becoming more important, and useful, every day. Of course, the analytics tool you use has to be focused on your specific need. I see tools come and go that try to be everything to everyone, which ends up working for nobody.

Source and more: PI Blog – Intelligence for Business

Intuition’s role in making decisions

When I read this paragraph I imagine just one CI technology advanced-software - Traction - for a company in 21st Century:

“The information overload that results from the acceleration of — and addiction to — new input has individual and organizational consequences. Not only are we bombarded with too much irrelevant information, we also suffer from information “underload”: not enough relevant information. To understand decision-making, neither overload nor underload is the problem. Good decisions are not always rational or deliberate, and as we will see, expert individuals or teams operate at a much higher bandwidth — in terms of both the volume and speed of input received and considered — than our information systems can support.“

Article wrote by Steve Barth and Richard Marrs which appeared in the July-August issue of SCIP’s Competitive Intelligence Magazine. (www.scip.org). You can download here the article in pdf format.

Why Is Competitive Intelligence Not Effective?

Most important factors by Christopher Dalley:

1. Indecision
2. Delays and Timeliness
3. Misunderstanding Other’s Worlds
4. Communication Problems
5. Lack of Acceptance

But the most interesting ‘factor’ appears to be the next paragraph where the executive level is the main cause for these factors:

“Most of the time, these reasons apply mostly to the executive level of your company. If the change agents in your company are not committed to using intelligence as a road map or do not find your intelligence relevant, they will continue to make decisions based on intuition and whatever information they find helpful.”

New Competitive Intelligence Benchmarking Report

New Competitive Intelligence Benchmarking Report: Right Structure & Alignment With Company Leaders Is Crucial for Optimal CI Output

The Competitive Intelligence unit plays a vital role by providing senior management and key decision makers with actionable information they need to respond strategically to external change. However, CI is a relatively new corporate function, often underdeveloped and undervalued; at most companies the CI group was established only in the last five years.

To be effective, a CI group needs an environment that includes proximity to key customers and/or executives, opportunities for frequent interaction with stakeholders, direct management by an executive champion, functional independence and a seat at the decision table.According to a new study, “Building & Sustaining Impactful Competitive Intelligence Organizations,” by benchmarking leader Best Practices, LLC there is no cookie-cutter approach to structuring CI groups for high performance; rather it is “the emphasis and direction senior leadership place on CI [that] determine the best placement,” states one interviewed executive. However, to achieve better alignment with company decision-makers, 47 percent of companies prefer fully centralization of their CI group.

The comprehensive report, online with a complimentary summary at http://www3.best-in-class.com/rr841.htm, is focused on several major topic areas: (1) creating and communicating CI value, (2) optimal structure and alignment, (3) resource levels, (4) key primary and secondary intelligence sources, (5) high impact CI activities, and (6) effective stakeholder relationships.

Insights and metrics were collected from surveys and in-depth interviews with CI leaders across industries, including Amgen, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Boeing, Citigroup, Eli Lilly, Fidelity Investments, IBM, Kraft, LexisNexis, Merck, Motorola, Novartis, Procter & Gamble, Raytheon, Roche, Sanofi-Aventis, SAS, and Wyeth. Data is presented for the full benchmark class and the pharmaceutical segment.

Sample findings around structure and alignment of the CI group include:
    — 64 percent of benchmarked companies have standalone CI departments.
    — 26 percent of CI groups report to either strategic planning, 26 percent to marketing and 22 percent report to market research.
    — On average, there are only 2.7 levels of management between the CI head and the CEO, which helps achieve greater proximity to company decision-makers.

Download additional findings in the complimentary report summary at:

http://www3.best-in-class.com/rr841.htm or contact our Solution Specialists at (919) 403-0251 or

bestpractices@best-in-class.com.

If you would like to speak to us about how our research can benefit your Competitive Intelligence Organization or other initiatives in your company, please contact Cameron Tew, Manager of Research and Publishing at Best Practices, LLC at (919) 767-9246 or ctew@best-in-class.com.

About Best Practices, LLC Best Practices, LLC, conducts work based on the simple yet profound principle that organizations can chart a course to superior economic performance by studying the best business practices, operating tactics and winning strategies of world-class companies. Best Practices, LLC has been a leader in pharmaceutical research and consulting for nearly 15 years; our clients include 43 out of the top 50 pharmaceutical companies.

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Source: Best Practices, LLC via http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/070815/clw055.html?.v=98