What is CI? 

No business is an island. For success, the business will need to deal with customers, distributors, suppliers and traders. In almost all cases, there will also be other organizations offering similar products to similar customers. These other organizations are competitors. And their objective is the same as yours – to grow – financially and geographically & succeed.  

Effectively, the businesses are at war – fighting to gain the same resource and territory – The Customer. And like in war, it is necessary to understand the enemy – your competitor 

-          how he thinks

-          His strengths and weaknesses

-          What could be his next move?

-          Where he can be attacked? Etc etc 

And like in war, the competitor will have secrets that can be the difference between profit and loss, expansion or close down of the business. Identifying these secrets is thus crucial for business survival. Leaders are looking at how to win war against your competitors to gain competitive advantage in the market. 

Around the year 500 B.C, the great Chinese military strategist, Sun Tzu wrote a treatise on the Art of War.  From 21st century perspective, many of Sun Tzu’s approaches would be viewed as barbaric today. Nevertheless, his views on strategy are still relevant today.

If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles.  

If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat.  

If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle-         
Sun Tzu’s Art of War

Your competitors are of FOUR types: 

-          Company who makes the same product or service

-          Company who makes the similar product or service

-          Company that could offer the same or similar products or service in future

-          Company that could remove the need for a product or service 

By knowing your competitors, you may be able to: 

-          predict his next moves

-          undermine his strengths &

-          exploit his weaknesses 

Competitive Intelligence refers to legal and ethical collection, analysis and dissemination of information about a business environment, industry competitors or specific organizations

CI is the process of discovering, analyzing and using intelligence from publicly available, non-proprietary information sources for the purpose of becoming more competitive
 

“The best way to differentiate your company from competition, the best way to put distance between you and the crowd is to do an outstanding job with information…..How you gather, manage and use information will determine whether you win or lose”
 
-          Bill Gates, 1999

CI is not simply about finding information. It is not about spying on your competitors. It is about analyzing information in a continuous process that is tightly linked to the strategic planning of your organization 

CI makes you better informed about critical issues on a formal and systematic basis. Its focus is on generating insights to help you make decisions regarding future events