| Your
competitive intelligence policy
Don’t think about setting up a
competitive intelligence function for your organisation unless you first
have a clear idea of its purpose. Good competitive intelligence means
saving money and opening new opportunities.
Your business can save money by
understanding suppliers and input costs better; by anticipating
competitive price moves; or by learning about new products, technology
and patents. You can create new opportunities by learning about
competitor strategy; by obtaining partners or revealing acquisitions; or
by researching new markets.
Get
the competitive intelligence team to cut its teeth on key strategies
that are planned. By analysing the impact of these opportunities from
the point of view of the competitive environment they can add real
value, improve decisions and save a potential disaster. If a competitive
intelligence cannot add value in this kind of key decision area then it
will never be of use to your organisation. |
|
Your
competitive intelligence objectives
The key to making a competitive
intelligence team effective is to set clear, measurable objectives:
- What are the types of intelligence you
expect and covering what categories (e.g. new products, technology,
competitive strategy, financial data or acquisitions)?
- What specific strategies can
competitive intelligence contribute to over the next twelve months
(e.g. that key acquisition, that major new product launch or that
plan to open up the market in Eastern Europe)?
- How
much can the organisation afford to contribute in the way of
resource to competitive intelligence? How many people, at what level
and how much of a budget to pay for research data?
|
