Competitive Intelligence Tips and Readings for Businesses of All Sizes

Active CI Tips

Admit that you have not always been focused on what your competitors are doing:

Every manager or executive tries to keep up with what the competition is doing, but those efforts are sporadic and incomplete. Worse, they assume they know what the competition is doing. Never assume you know what your competitor is doing, and, more importantly, what it is planning to do. Take the time and make the efforts to find out what is really out there!

Know who your real competitors are:

They may not be who you think they are. Ask your customers what other firms else they considered before they chose you. They should be considered competitors, too. And keep an eye on your partners, suppliers and major customers. They could turn into competitors in the near future.

Familiarize yourself with the competition -- as they are today:

Regularly take the time to visit their stores, check out their web sites, and find out who owns them. Look for information about competitors in the public domain – press releases, newsletters, government filings, etc. - as well as on their own web sites.

When you study your competitors, never assume they operate the way you do:

Just because you are organized in one way does not mean your competitors are organized that way, too. Your competitors have their own vision of the marketplace – and of you. Even if you think that vision is wrong, always keep in mind that they will be guided by it.

Don’t assume there is nothing you can do, even if you know what your competitors are up to:

Effective CI does not always provide an opportunity to develop competitive advantage, such as launching a new product. Sometimes, it provides an early warning to help you survive!

Buy your competitors’ product/service:

Evaluate it and see what kind of marketing follow-up they do.

Make sure you are developing the right kind of CI:

Not every business needs strategy-oriented CI. There are several other kinds of CI: tactics-oriented, technology-oriented, and target-oriented. Figure out which kinds you really need, and go after them. What you call them is not as important as what you produce.

Don’t rely on the national trade press:

Local general interest newspapers and regional business digests often will have more detailed, timely information, particularly on non-public companies.

Ask lots of questions:

If a customer leaves, find out why and where they’re going. Keep track of the answers you get in a customer information database. You may see a pattern that warns you of new competitor initiatives.

Decide what’s important – and what is not:

There are some things you can’t do anything about. Focus on supporting decision-making, not just curiosity. Use your CI resources wisely. Get only the data you need for important decision-making, make sense of it – and then act on it!

Review your CI every year:

Are you looking for the right CI, on the right topics, delivered to the right end-users? Doing what you did last year may not be enough this year. It may even be wrong.

Don’t get pressured into trying to measure exactly what CI is doing:

While there are many aspects of CI that you can measure, you cannot attach a number to everything CI can do for you. For example, what is the value of knowing a competitor will beat you to market?

Be realistic:

With the enhanced security on all fronts as a result of 9/11, some sources of raw data for competitive intelligence are no longer open to the public. Think through any project, keeping these changes in mind.

Don’t get caught up in metrics:

Supporters of applying metrics to CI sometimes point out that they are already being applied to some marketing research activities. That comparison ignores at least one major difference between CI and market research: CI is fundamentally qualitative, and predictive in nature, while market research is fundamentally quantitative in nature. That, in turn, means that CI is less amenable to the use of metrics than is market research, because the accuracy and consequences of qualitative and predictive activities are much harder to measure accurately.

Do it right – or don’t do it at all:

CI is an ethical, legal activity. Never let yourself get pressured into doing anything that is not ethical and legal. There is never a good reason to do it any other way.

Avoid intermediaries:

When you have a CI project, don’t just start. First stop and make sure that you and the ultimate end-user of the intelligence are on the same page. Do you understand exactly how and where the CI will be used? Does the end-user, not an intermediary, understand what you have been asked to do? Do these two items agree? Often you will find out that they do not, particularly when you deal with an intermediary.

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Defensive CI Tips

Talk to everyone at your firm:

Explain to all of your employees that your competitors are trying, or will soon try, to develop competitive intelligence on you. Tell them how that can happen. Let them know what is competitively sensitive information to you, teach them that it needs to be protected, and how!

Think about former employees:

Are all of your former employees covered by a non-disclosure agreement? Find out what they are saying about what they did for you by looking for resumes they post on the Internet.

Think ahead:

Have you considered what the increasing use of camera phones means to you? Do you really want non-employees attending a new product launch to be able to snap a photo of a confidential overhead and email it in a matter of seconds? For extremely sensitive meetings, consider either having all cell phones left with a security representative, or insisting that all attendees sign an NDA (non-disclosure agreement) stating that they will not use camera phones or PDAs with cameras. If they will not sign, exclude them.

Don’t give away sensitive competitive information to everyone:

For example, you can mention that a new product is launching in the summer, but you don’t have to reveal the exact launch date or where it will be sold. Also, use nondisclosure agreements with partners, suppliers and consultants working with you on key projects – expansions, research and IT projects among them. Have them keep quiet at least until you are past the critical ramp-up times. For particularly sensitive data, remind them to brief their own employees too.

Know who you’re talking to:

Who are the people at the other end of the telephone call, exactly what are they doing, and why are they asking questions about your company?

Don’t be fooled by technology:

Many telephone systems can tell an employee if an incoming call is from outside the firm or from the inside. However, they do not differentiate between new calls and those that are transferred. If you do not recognize a caller on an inside call, ask who they are and where they work.

Examine your own Web site:

Are you revealing too much? For example, do all distributors’ addresses need to be listed? Also, just because a page is not indexed for public access doesn’t mean others won’t find it. They will! Test out major press releases and new product information on a separate server before launching them on your home page. Don’t create any forward or back links to test pages.

Find out who’s talking about you:

Do an Internet search under your company’s name, and see what comes up. Do a back link search. What sites did you find back linked to your own site? Why? Are current or former employees posting resumes on job-search sites? What competitively sensitive details do they contain?

Use common sense:

Don’t allow employees to carry or display materials, like tote bags or caps, with the logos or names of unannounced products or services in public places, like airports. Don’t talk about business on your cell phone in the middle of a crowd. And don’t work on sensitive documents on your laptop while flying – you never know for whom your seatmate might work.

Don’t over file:

Keep to a minimum the competitively sensitive data filed with government agencies, such as the SEC, the EPA, as well as local zoning and planning commissions. If you have to provide sensitive data, provide it separately, label every page, and ask that it be kept from the public file, at least for a pre-determined time.

Share the effort:

If you have security personnel or staff focused on intellectual property issues, such as trademarks and patents, make them aware of what you are doing to protect your business from the competitive intelligence efforts of your competitors. They may help you select what data to protect and for how long.

Portions of this originally appeared in interviews in the Reading [Pennsylvania] Eagle, March 4, 2002 and in Computerworld, April 1, 2002.