“The prize goes to the person who sees the future the quickest.”

William Stiritz

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Short history of Competitive Intelligence

Competitive Intelligence or Intelligence in Business has it’s origins in the military intelligence activity and was born over four decades ago in the United States. Some of the big American companies have hired retired officers from the intelligence services in order to create early warning systems on the actions of competitors. If at that time things were delicate, as in the case of Marriott, today the activity of competitive intelligence is an activity of collecting and analyzing information placed fully in the ethical and lawful zone. There is a big difference between an IT specialist and an intelligence analyst. There aren’t any IT specialists who can make good intelligence analysis as there aren’t any intelligence analysts who can create good IT programs.

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From Data to Intelligence

The lack of culture in terms of the activity of competitive intelligence or otherwise competitiveness through value-added information, often puts them in a position to do serious confusion between information and intelligence. Although similar, these two terms are at different pyramid levels.
There is a big difference between an IT specialist and an intelligence analyst. There aren’t any IT specialists who can make good intelligence analysis as there aren’t any intelligence analysts who can create good IT programs.

  • Data
  • Information
  • Knowledge
  • Intelligence
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Rethinking Competitive Intelligence

Competitive Intelligence Quotes

“The wisdom of any decision is proportional to the range and depth of context that informs it.”

@Max Boisot, British architect and management consultant, professor of Strategic Management at the ESADE business school in Barcelona

“The ability to learn faster than your competitors may be the only sustainable competitive advantage.”

@Arie du Geus, Dutch business executive and business theorist, head of Royal Dutch Shell 's Strategic Planning Group

“He who can handle the quickest rate of change survives.”

@Col. John Boyd, American military strategist and Pentagon consultant in the second half of the 20th century.

Why Competitive Intelligence?

Over 90% of the companies from FORTUNE 500 use competitive intelligence as a way of sustaining the firms decisions. Western European countries are present in this rankings with many companies from different industries and business sectors.
In contrast, with a single exception, companies from the East Europe are not part from Fortune 500: a company from Poland managed to rank in this top on the 454th place. This says a lot about the power that the resource of intelligence has in a company.

How we do it?

In the digital economy characterized by rapidity, where the unpredictability is the only certainty, more and more large companies develop their own competitive intelligence structure. That is why experts of competitive intelligence have the experience, knowledge and skills necessary for the collection and the processing of information.In contrast, with a single exception, companies from the East Europe are not part from Fortune 500: a company from Poland managed to rank in this top on the 454th place. This says a lot about the power that the resource of intelligence has in a company.

Our Process

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What we do?

However, creating these type of structure involves costs that can reach hundreds of thousands of EUR/USD per year for one or two specialists. As a result, they are unsustainable for small and medium sized companies. Therefore, through our program for outsourcing to companies, we consider the delicate issue of this costs as resolved.

Our Solutions

Weekly Bulletin

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Warning Alert

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Due Diligence

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Have a project in mind? Let’s discuss

Competitive Intelligence Stories & Latest News

Global E-commerce Logistics Market Share Global Growth, Trends, Forecast 2021
This report is presented in a clear and concise way to help you better understand market structure and...
Global E-commerce Logistics Market Share Global Growth, Trends, Forecast 2021
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Five reasons why businesses are going big on automation
Simon Spring at WhereScape describes the many reasons that businesses are embracing automation, including agility, efficiency and better...
Five reasons why businesses are going big on automation
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US leads race in artificial intelligence as China rises to the top – survey
Washington – The United States is leading rivals in development and use of artificial intelligence while China is...
US leads race in artificial intelligence as China rises to the top – survey
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Frequently Asked Questions

Competitive intelligence, sometimes referred to as corporate intelligence, refers to the ability to gather, analyze, and use information collected on competitors, customers, and other market factors that contribute to a business's competitive advantage. Competitive intelligence is important because it helps businesses understand their competitive environment and the opportunities and challenges it presents. Businesses analyze the information to create effective and efficient business practices.

By definition, competitive intelligence assembles actionable information from diverse published and unpublished sources, collected efficiently and ethically. Ideally, a business successfully employs competitive intelligence by cultivating a detailed enough portrait of the marketplace so it may anticipate and respond to challenges and problems before they arise. Competitive intelligence transcends the simple cliché "know your enemy."

Companies essentially face three major challenges: internationalization, innovation, and intelligence analysis. To address these challenges, companies must introduce and incorporate economic and competitive intelligence into their organizational structures. Access to reliable information and the ability to analyze it are increasingly important factors in avoiding impulsive decisions with a high level of uncertainty.

Intelligence can be categorized according to who gathers it. When gathered by public services, it is referred to as “economic intelligence,” but when gathered by companies, it is called “competitive intelligence.” Competitive intelligence is a legal business practice, as opposed to industrial espionage, which is illegal.

Depends on the type of the product and complexity. Creating an internal Competitive Intelligence structure involves costs that can reach hundreds of thousands of EUR/USD per year for one or two specialists.

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