Teaching and Research In Competitive Intelligence

Presented and Developed by

Dr. Jonathan L. Calof

Telfer School of Management, University of Ottawa, Co-Director, Management Insight Program, Board Member CASIS, Fellow Society of

Competitive Intelligence Professionals

ciprof@hotmail.com

Phone: 613-228-0509

Fax: 613-562-5164

Copyright,2010

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Definitions of competitive intelligence Outward Insights

Competitive Intelligence the product: Knowledge and foreknowledge of the competitive environment —the prelude to decision and action.

Competitive Intelligence the process: The organizational means by which information is systematically collected, analyzed, processed and disseminated as intelligence to managers who can act on it.

Competitive intelligence must be done ethically To continually strive to increase the recognition and

respect of the profession. To comply with all applicable laws. To accurately disclose all relevant information,

including one’s identity and organization, prior to all interviews.

To fully respect all requests for confidentiality of information.

To avoid conflicts of interest in fulfilling one's duties. To provide honest and realistic recommendations and

conclusions in the execution of one's duties. To promote and encourage full compliance with these

ethical standards within one’s company, with third party contractors and within the entire profession.

To faithfully adhere to and abide by one's company policies, objectives, and guidelines

Collection/collation25-35

The CI WheelPlanning:10-15%

Analysis:25-35%

IntelligenceCommunication10-15%

Evaluation/Management:10-15%

What do competitive intelligence units do?

True competitive intelligence projects: So we need the complete skill set and the wheel of intelligence

Stick fetching: So we need planning, collection and communication skills.

Typical Utilization Pattern

Competitive

Intelligence

10%Senior management

Strategic Decisions,

Planning & Strategy

20%Middle management strategic plans

Tactical

Intelligence

70%Company wide tactical needs and usesInformation

What do we track in competitive intelligence?People/Organizations Competitors Customers Regulators Suppliers …..

Events Opportunities Technology change New entrants Substitutes …

CI Professionals intelligence focus (from SCIP study 2006) - Ranked

1. Company profiles2. Competitive benchmarking3. Early warning alerts4. Market or industry trends5. Customer or supplier profile6. Technology assessment7. Economic/Political analysis8. Executive Profiles

How often does your department produce the following competitive intelligence products?

What business decisions does CI support?

Frequently Sometimes

Corporate or business strategy 54.1 32.7

Sale or business development 48.7 35.8

Market entry decisions 38.9 38.3

Product development 36.8 37.2

R&D/Technology 24.4 39.2

M&A,Due diligance,JV's 25.9 31.3

Regulatory/Legal 12.9 30.7

Percent of large companies with systematic CI capability 2005

90.9

73.3

76

88.9

96

95.1

78.6

90.9

89.4

0 20 40 60 80 100

Switzerland

Norway

Netherlands

Mexico

Germany

Finland

Canada

Brazil

Asia-pacific

Market Intelligence as a Key Success Factor in Economic Downturn.. Companies will continue investing in Market Intelligence, heavier emphasis on efficient sourcing and utilization of information (Global Intelligence Alliance Survey, Jan 27 2009)

“The government has the final political responsibility to address broad issues about our future. For this reason it is vital to set up a qualified analysis capacity, reporting directly to the prime minister, but free from the day-to-day business.” (Innovation and Policy Blog, Sweden, February 2009)

Europe and North America have progressed furthest in the field of Market / Competitive Intelligence compared to the global average, while especially Latin America will see strong developments over the next few years. These results were obtained from the Global Market Intelligence Survey 2008…global average is 60%. In the researched organizations, the average age of the MI operation was 7 years, and an average MI team consisted of 10 people. As many as 60% of the respondents expected the investment in MI in their organizations to increase over the next 2 years . 75 percent of the respondents saw the need for MI to increase during a global economic downturn. (Global Intelligence Alliance, Sept 2008)

The Value of CI: SCIP Study 2006

Value Responses Percent

New or increased revenue 152 29.2

New product or services 147 28.3

Cost savings/avoidance 141 27.1

Time savings 116 22.3

Profit increases 105 20.2

Financial goals met 103 19.8

Applying Intelligence For Regional Advantage

• A program to help regions/city achieve economic success

• Helping to integrate Rural and Urban communities

• Growth for regions

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Based on the Program: Control Your Destiny or Someone Else Will

Created and run by

Estey Centre for Law and Economics in International Trade

Course developers/trainers: Wayne Robinson Director Professional Development (expert in export promotion, trade policy, capacity building and economic development), Roland

Marcoux (expert in facilitation processes, organization development and change management) and Jonathan Calof

(expert in strategy, competitive advantage, competitive intelligence, technical foresight)

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Through the program

• New product ideas• New markets identified• Cost savings• Emerging customer needs• Technology trends• New partners • Competitor plans

• Foreign investment attracted to city

• New hospital approved• Approval from politicians

for new tourist attraction• Infrastructure investment

approved• Expansion of economic base

Companies said they got Region said they got

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The Principle of the Program

• Success needs to be built on a strong competitive advantage

• Success requires a solid understanding of the environment

• Decisions made today take time to implement so your CA and environment understanding better be forward looking.

• For regions to succeed you need to integrate knowledge and get people working together

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Step 1: What is your vision for your future?

• By 2015 (name of community) is a growing, thriving hub in (name of province). New families are moving in, and business is expanding. Quality education and business opportunities are valued and available. This regions success is used as an economic development model for the rest of Canada.

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Step 2: Assess your competitive advantage and resources

• No company, no city can win without a solid competitive advantage

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Step 3 – Competitive Intelligence

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What intelligence do you need for the regional development plans

• What part of the environment affects it and what do you need to know?– Hathaway: How will competitors react within the

next few months.– Indonesia: How will Parliament react to my

proposal? What is Bali going to do next in tourism education

– In Canada: How do I get my hospital proposal through the government?

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The Academic Side of Competitive Intelligence: Telfer and Calof

• Research activities

• Teaching activities

Academic investigationwhat is competitive intelligence

• Study 1: Map the domain of intelligence to identify what the area of knowledge is

• Study 2: Examine the role of competitive intelligence managers to identify through practice what intelligence is

• Study 3: How to evaluate intelligence • Study 4: Trade show intelligence – use and

benefits• Study 5: Foresight critical success factors

Initiatives

• INTRAN• Telfer Foresight Leadership Forum• Foresight Synergy Network

Teaching Competitive Intelligence: Different Approaches

• Integrative approach – CI integrated into existing courses

• One CI course – Introduction/CI 101 (Examples: Telfer, Thunderbird, BYU, CIT)

• CI concentration/Certificate (Examples: Trinity, Drexel, DeMontefort, John Hopkins)

• CI degree (Examples: Mercyhurst, American Public University, Amity, Rhein-Neckar)

Outline: Calof (Telfer)Class 1 Introduction to the competitive intelligence process:

Concepts class Exercise: What’s your CIQ and Ethics exercise. Conduct the CI ethics test. How should CI be

conducted if you know that your competitors are using unethical and illegal methods?

Class 2 Planning an intelligence project -Forms, process and requirements : Concepts and skills:

Exercise 1: Start to develop an intelligence project- develop an Intelligence topic. Be sure to include: the decision/action being made on the basis of the KIT, who the client would be, the KIT itself and the information needs. Fill in the intelligence planning forms. Make sure it is a true intelligence requirement. Be prepared to make a brief presentation to the class.

Exercise 2: You have been asked to identify whether there are good opportunities for your company in the United Kingdom – is it a good market for widgets. Fill in the planning forms.

Class 3 Intelligence and collection : SkillsExercise 1: Your target is Dr. Jonathan Calof – the task: profile him. Design an intelligence project that would require a profile of Dr. Calof and then use the internet to develop a profile of Jonathan Calof – be sure to outline your search strategy and include your project plan? You will be required to hand in this exercise and you can only use secondary sources,

Class 4 Analysis and Intelligence: Concepts and SkillsExercise: Read the Embosser Industry and TVI. From Embosser, the decision-maker is trying to determine whether or not the UK market is an attractive one and how it should be entered. Specify the analytical technique used and how develop the appropriate intelligence for the decision maker.For TVI – is TVI planning to enter the security recording market. Advise Security Inc. management on the appropriate response

Class 5 Competitive Intelligence – Organizational requirements and other dimensions of CIExercise : Add 3 more questions to the CI audit questionnaire. Provide an explanation for the additional questions, what area of intelligence it is designed to address, how you would assess the respondents answer, and what the recommended answers would be. You will be required to hand in the exercise.

http://wiki.telfer.uottawa.ca/ci-wiki

• together with two-three other students you are going to help develop a School of Management book on competitive intelligence for Canadians. You will need to get a password/account for our wikki site

Planning Skill Requirements Understand how to identify and elicit the

intelligence needs of decision makers exactly. Develop effective communication,

interviewing, and presentation skills. Understand basic psychology types to

appreciate the different orientations ofdecision makers.

Know the organizational structure, culture,and environment as well as the keyinformants.

Remain objective. Articulate intelligence needs into the

intelligence cycle. Know the internal and external capabilities. Conduct an information resource gap analysis

Skills for Collection

Obtain knowledge of primary and secondary sources. Know the various methods for accessing internal and

external, primary and secondary sources. Manage primary and secondary sources appropriately. Know how to execute the triangulation, multimethod,

multi-source approach. Develop confidence level by ensuring reliability and

validity of sources. Recognize anomalies in the information. Know the difference between hypothesized and open

assumptions and why. Develop formal research skills. Know the ethics associated with data gathering.

Skill Requirements for Analysis

• Recognize the interaction between the collection and analysis phases.

• Analyze creatively.• Employ inductive and deductive reasoning• Use network analysis, alternative thinking• Obtain an overview of basic analytical models• Know when to use the different models• Recognize the existence of gaps • Know when to stop analyzing

Communication Skills

Use persuasive presentation skills. Demonstrate empathy and use counselingskills, when appropriate. Organize findings and convey them withassertiveness and diplomacy. Use the format or media appropriate for eachend-user. Recognize the effective volume and level ofdisseminating intelligence. Realize that listening can also be a form ofpresenting

Skills for Creating and Managing CI

• Define the intelligence function• Explain how the intelligence cycle transforms information into

intelligence• Explain the role of CI within decision making, strategic

planning and business development• Differentiate between different types of intelligence• Present models for the structure and organization of CI• Know how to conduct a decision, information, and knowledge

audit• Present ways to keep current with advancements in

information technology

Skills for Creating and Managing CI

• Present methods for creating a competitive intelligence culture

• The methods and importance of conducting an ongoing 360 degree SWOT analysis

• Discuss ways to market/sell competitive intelligence within the organization

The Educational Infrastructure

• Consultants• Universities• Colleges

Are the skills being taught?

Use the skills for an audit

Example of University/College training problems

• Analysis

• Collection

Focus of CI analysis

A step in the production of intelligence in which intelligence information is subjected to

systematic examination in order to identify relevant facts, determine significant

relationships and derive key findings & conclusions.. In intelligence we begin with the

parts and in some fashion define or analytically derive the whole. Herring, 1998

Implications of analytical techniques

This means students have to develop skills in both macro level techniques such as five forces and micro techniques

such as personality profiling.

Students have to be given more cases with missing information…need more information no longer a

recommendation.

Tomorrow’s student will need to possess breadth in technical, marketing, strategy, etc.

Focus of CI - Collection• 80% reliance is placed on primary, 20% secondary

• >90% within the organization

• Washington Researchers “85% gathered through telephone interviews”

• Interviewing techniques >90% success

What’s the formal educational infrastructure?

• US: Degrees: (Mercyhurst, Monticello), Courses: (Rutgers, UCLA, Simmons, Pittsburgh, Thunderbird, Idaho State, Indiana)

• France: Degrees (CRRM, Thesues)

• Sweden: High-school to PhD: Lund, University of Stokholm

What’s the formal educational infrastructure?

• Australia: Course: Macquarie• UK: Course: De Montfort• Germany: Course: Weppertal• Canada: Course: Ottawa, Wilfrid Laurier,

Acadia• China: 30 Universities preparing courses

Executive Education

• Japan: Intelligence Institute• France: Government sponsored• Israel: Intelligence Institute• US: Consultant based training• China: Intelligence Institute• Canada: University executive programs,

government sponsorship