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Bottom Line Competitive Intelligence Strategies
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| Building
Competitive Intelligence Strategies which produce Business Benefits |
| "Chance
favours the prepared mind" |
| Unless CI
contributes significant business benefits in terms of profitability
and competitiveness it is likely to be a waste of resources. Many CI
operations have little positive impact on the bottom line, because
they lack competitive intelligence strategies which focus on delivering specific
business benefits.
EMP has the expertise and experience
to help you develop competitive intelligence strategies which deliver significant bottom line
benefits. Examples include:
- Earlier identification of
competitive opportunities and threats/risks
- Raising business efficiency or
productivity
- Reducing costs in key areas
- Retention of key accounts
- Acquisition of new business
- Enter new markets more confidently
- Improved decision making
- Faster, better NPD
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| One of
the great myths about CI centres on the word
"intelligence". People use it because it
sounds more important and perhaps a touch more exciting
compared to the more humble and down-market word
"information". But in fact they have different
meanings. Intelligence is processed information.
Processed can mean anything from slight editing or
rearrangement to extensive analysis. |
| It's
important to know if the business requirement is largely
for information or for intelligence. The name of the
game is to satisfy internal CI market requirements and
if the business wants information rather than
intelligence then that what should be produced. Even so,
as time
goes on, the demand for intelligence is likely
to grow. |
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| If
you don't know where you're going any strategy will get
you there |
| A great
deal of effort should go into deciding the copmpetitive intelligence strategies
of the business. For much will depend on it. Clear
measurable objective are vital. Choosing the wrong
strategy can reduce considerably the benefit produced by
the CI operation. One of the most common mistakes is to
rush into CI without a proper evaluation of alternative
competitive intelligence strategies. |
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| Avoiding
Information Overload |
| If you
choose a good CI strategy, one beneficial by-product is
the avoidance of information overload. Frequently too
much is collected because CI collection objectives are
too vague. Another common cause is a lack of discipline
in CI time management. |
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