As businesses learn more about competitive intelligence (CI) and how to use it, the ferocity of competition rises to a new level. Naturally, people will seek ways to protect themselves and their organizations against CI, but how? McGonagle and Vella, specialists in CI and what can be called CI countermeasures, have studied the problem from its beginning, and now offer corporate executives and executives in public and nonprofit organizations a portfolio of strategies and tactics. Each one is designed to meet two mutually important criteria: self-protection against the competitive...

Almost two decades after it emerged as an essential business tool, competitive intelligence is still finding its way. Despite its recognized importance, companies struggle to acquire the kind of intelligence they need and measure its effectiveness and value. This book provides essential tools for selecting the right kind of CI and assessing its contributions to a company's financial performance.

The authors identify three fundamental, intertwined mistakes a company can make, showing how to evaluate them and repair the damage they may have done. McGonagle and Vella dissect the...

There is very little material available that provides practical, hands-on assistance for the CI professional who is providing CI to one client--his or her employer--and who constitutes the largest single group of CI practitioners in existence. This book meets that need by serving as a desk reference for CI managers to help them understand their own circumstances and determine what works best for them.

Competitive intelligence (CI) is now becoming a mature profession. With that maturation comes the need to develop and understand the how's and why's of managing CI, as distinguished from...

Written for planning professionals in corporations and the nonprofit sector, this book addresses the need for adequate competitive intelligence. Types of corporate planning are examined and practical, detailed advice on using CI techniques to make planning more effective are offered. The book begins with an overview of CI and business planning, subsequent chapters address procedures involved in using CI. Each chapter includes a list of key references. The book concludes with a glossary of terms and four appendixes that deal with the CI process as a whole. "Business Information Alert"...

McGonagle and Vella maintain that competitive intelligence as we know it is just the first step toward the creation of true corporate intelligence. Their book thus explores ways in which new channels of communication and new uses of information and intelligence will change corporations, and how these changes can be anticipated now in an organization's strategic planning, crisis management, benchmarking, reverse engineering, and defensive intelligence activities. In doing so, they introduce readers to new techniques, such as shadow benchmarking and fractal management analysis. Readable,...

Two of the most prolific and challenging authorities on the topic of competitive intelligence (CI) reflect on and respond to the changes in the field over the last decade. The authors point out that CI users have to change what they are doing, show why they are doing it, and provide ways of doing it. Their book reviews the problems in the development of CI since the 1980s, discusses the impact of the Internet and the rise in use of other secondary sources, and draws from and provides access to the growing body of CI information, knowledge, and literature.

Combining a scholarly approach...

Traditionally, tapping into the power of competitive intelligence (CI) meant investing in the development of an internal CI unit or hiring outside consultants who specialized in CI. Proactive Intelligence: The Successful Executive's Guide to Intelligence offers an alternative: learn how to do it yourself and how to effectively manage the parts you cannot. The tools and techniques that will enable you to produce your own CI for your consumption are out there, and have been honed by decades of work. But, you cannot just adopt them - you have to adapt them.

Why? Because, when...

Traditionally, tapping into the power of competitive intelligence (CI) meant investing in the development of an internal CI unit or hiring outside consultants who specialized in CI. Proactive Intelligence: The Successful Executive's Guide to Intelligence offers an alternative: learn how to do it yourself and how to effectively manage the parts you cannot. The tools and techniques that will enable you to produce your own CI for your consumption are out there, and have been honed by decades of work. But, you cannot just adopt them - you have to adapt them.

Why? Because, when...

All organizations need to stay competitive in their respective fields to ensure success. Competitive intelligence (CI) is an established discipline that focuses on giving businesses and nonprofit organizations the advantage of staying fully informed about what their competitors are doing, are capable of doing, and will likely do. CI is a particularly valuable and powerful tool that supports everything from strategic planning to marketing and new business development to human resources--if it's executed properly. This groundbreaking book uses real-world case studies to expose common CI...