In the first book designed for businesses of all sizes and managers at every level, Larry Kahaner explains the increasingly vital practice of competitive intelligence and how American companies can use it for success. With a wealth of case studies, Kahaner shows How to profile your competitors' executives to unmask their decision-making processes The line between legal and illegal or unethical activities How to protect your own company against your competitors' intelligence operations COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE is a practical guide to turning raw information into priceless knowledge and winning business strategy.

A practical introduction to the necessity of competitive intelligence for smarter business decisions-from a leading CI expert and speaker In Competitive Intelligence Advantage, Seena Sharp, founder of one of the first Competitive Intelligence firms in the US, provides her expert analysis on the issues and benefits of CI for today's businesses. CI is critical for making smarter business decisions and reducing risks when formulating strategies, leading to more profits and fewer mistakes. This is a practical guide that explains what CI is, why data is not intelligence, why competitor intelligence is a weak sibling to competitive intelligence, when to use it, how to find the most useful information and turn it into actual intelligence, and how to present findings in the most convincing manner. Importantly, Sharp argues that businesses would benefit from shifting their perspective on CI from viewing it as a cost to viewing it as an investment that saves money and provides immediate value. Author Seena Sharp is a noted CI expert who established Sharp Market Intelligence in 1979 Addresses all the most common myths and misconceptions about CI Includes more than sixty examples of when to use CI Completely explains the ins and outs of CI, and why your company will act faster and more aggressively with CI Competitive intelligence is a management tool that is misunderstood and underestimated, yet results in numerous benefits. If you are a senior level executive or operate a business-and you aren't tapping the power of CI to improve your decision making-you are missing a potent advantage.

An important update to this roadmap for the development of a corporate intelligence program Market intelligence is the distinct discipline by which organisations systematically gather and process information about their external operating environment in order to facilitate accurate and confident decision making that is based on insight. For companies to thrive in the global post-recession marketplace, their management needs future-oriented business information. The Handbook of Market Intelligence provides a one stop shop, step-by-step roadmap for establishing, conducting and further developing corporate intelligence programs within an organisation and then shows how organisations can turn market data into actionable insights. • Full of best practice advice from hundreds of real-life international case studies • Outlines the anticipated future trends in Strategic Market Intelligence based on unique global survey data • Provides guidance on extracting relevant, useful and accurate market information that can be used for successful business development

This text for business executives is both a strategic treatment of the need for competitor intelligence and a tactical guide to how to go about obtaining the same. It provides the tricks of the trade and includes case illustrations, key success and failure factors, skills and techniques.

Competivitive intelligence is the analytical process that transforms disaggregated market and competitor data into accurate, relevant and actionable strategic information about competitors' capabilities, intentions, performance and position.

Resource for companies to improve strategic planning and ensure they are implementing effective corporate strategy. bull; Presents a comprehensive range of methods to analyse the tools that analyse business, competitive data, and market information. bull; Consistent approach and detailed instructions allow for readers to implement strategy quickly and effectively. bull; Management consultants and strategy departments can use this book to make a case for the most effective method to apply to any problem.

Market Intelligence provides an overview of the most important tools and concepts relevant to intelligence analysis for strategic decision making. The book's focus is not only on competitors, but also on customers, suppliers, and a range of other stakeholders. It gives the reader tools used to analyze both micro and macro factors in the organization's environment to predict future outcomes better and to improve decision making. The field of competitive intelligence is studied by a diverse research community. Contributions to this field are made to aid States - on a national, regional, and local level - as well as to aid the military, non-profit organizations, and private companies. These contributions are mostly done in isolation, even though all these fields of study have much in common. The authors draw from these various fields and provide the essential insights to aid management thinking.

Value-Addedness and Information: Two Notions, One Goal -- From Data to Knowledge -- The Notion of Value -- The Value-Added Processes of Information Systems -- The Value-Added Processes of Expert and Intelligent Systems -- A Conceptual Framework for Competitive Intelligence -- The Evolution of Competitive Intelligence -- Defining Competitive Intelligence -- Competitive Intelligence and Strategy -- The Competitive Intelligence Process -- Identification of CI Needs -- Acquisition of Competitive Information -- Organization, Storage, and Retrieval. -- Analysis of Information -- Development of Intelligence Products. -- Distribution of Intelligence Products. -- Identifying the Value-Added Processes of Competitive Intelligence Software. -- Evaluating Information Technology. -- Targeting the Value-Added Dimensions. -- Other Evaluation Criteria -- Overview of Competitive Intelligence Software Applications and Related Products.]. -- A Typology of Technologies. -- Identifying CI Technology -- CI Software Products Overview. -- Evaluating Competitive Intelligence Software. -- An Evaluation Guide: Criteria and Questions -- Methodology -- Software Evaluation -- Identification of CI Needs. -- Acquisition of Competitive Information. -- Organization, Storage, and Retrieval -- Analysis of Information -- Development of CI Products -- Distribution of CI Products -- Global Assessment -- Conclusion: Competitive Intelligence Technology-Summary, Implications, and Trends -- Bibliography.

Every business manager needs intelligence to find suppliers, mobilize capital, win customers and fend off rivals. Obtaining this is often an unplanned, instinctive process. The manager who has a conscious, systematic approach to acquiring intelligence will be better placed to recognize and seize opportunities whilst safeguarding the organization against the competitive risks that endanger its prosperity – and sometimes even its survival. Christopher Murphy's Competitive Intelligence explains: • the theory of business competition • how companies try to get ahead of their rivals • methods of research and sources of information that generate the raw material for creating intelligence • analytical techniques which transform the mass of facts and opinions thus retrieved into a platform of sound, useable knowledge to support informed business decision making. The text includes plenty of examples and experiences from the author's own consulting experience. He draws on a wide variety of disciplines, including literary criticism (or how to read between the lines of company reports, announcements and media stories) and anthropology (understanding corporate culture), as well as the more obvious ones such as financial analysis, management theory and business forecasting techniques. This fusion of insights from many fields of expertise provides a very readable, practical and imaginative framework for anyone seeking to gather and make effective use of market and company data. While focused on the British business environment, the lessons drawn are of universal application, and examples are taken from across the globe. In addition a chapter is devoted to researching industries and companies in other countries. Although primarily concerned with commercial enterprises, many of the principles and techniques will also be of considerable practical relevance to managers in the public sector or not-for-profit organizations. Competitive Intelligence also provides a legal and ethical framework to guide the unwary and to curb the over-enthusiastic. The final chapter, Intelligence Countersteps, will open your eyes to the need to protect your own organization from some of the practices of less scrupulous researchers and investigators.