Ineffective Competitive Intelligence – A 6th Reason

In the last post, I presented 5 reasons why Competitive Intelligence is generally ineffective, or at least much less effective than it could be in bringing about positive business change.

I’m grateful to Arthur Weiss, Founder and Managing Partner of AWARE (A competitive intelligence firm in the U.K.), for his comment regarding the need for Competitive Intelligence departments or teams to show their positive benefits. In his words:

“In fact I think that there is another reason why CI is often not seen as effective. Consider the following scenario:

The CI team are doing a fantastic job, getting good intelligence to all who need it. This intelligence is acted on, and the company succeeds as a result. The question is: who gets the credit for the success? Is it the CI professional or the decision maker? I believe that often (usually?) it will be the decision maker who is praised for their insight and wisdom, rather than the CI analyst who gave them the wherewithal to make the decision. So CI is not really valued in the company - and may even be seen as a wasteful overhead, if the decision makers who use it don't realize or admit to themselves that their brilliance is because of the great CI they receive.

Now consider that a mistake is made - based on poor intelligence. The decision maker will not want to take the credit, and instead will seek a scapegoat to blame. Guess who? So in the second case, the CI department gets blamed for the failure, whereas in the 1st case they don't get the credit for the success.

Does this sound like your company? If it does, you know what you need to do: blow your own trumpet! So a 6th reason why CI is not effective is that the CI team fail to communicate what they contribute. I guess this could come under "communication problems" but I think that it is in fact so important that it should really be seen in a class of its own.”

In my opinion, everyone in the company has to show positive benefit, and the CI department is no different. I echo Arthur’s recommendation to stand up and display your positive results. Don’t be shy. Don’t let your hard work go unnoticed.

Thanks again to Arthur for his contribution. It is this cross-dialogue and exchange of thoughts that will propel the effectiveness of competitive intelligence to higher levels.

Let’s consider this topic an open forum. The invitation is extended to all to provide other reasons or examples of solutions to the problem of ineffective intelligence. Leave a comment here or send me an idea (cdalley@primary-intel.com)

Why is Competitive Intelligence Not Effective?

Competitive Intelligence. Everyone is doing it. You should too. (Of course, you already do)

You have a CI department. So do your competitors. So does everyone else. The question really is whether your intelligence efforts are effective at strengthening your competitive position, discovering new markets or developing your product/service/solution.

In short, does your company make changes to increase revenues and profitability based on your intelligence efforts?

Based on our experience, if you are like most companies, the effect of your intelligence efforts are minimized and, often, substantially. Why? There are five primary reasons that intelligence is not leveraged to its maximum potential:

1. Indecision
2. Delays and Timeliness
3. Misunderstanding Other’s Worlds
4. Communication Problems
5. Lack of Acceptance

Most of the time, these reasons apply mostly to the executive level of your company. If the change agents in your company are not committed to using intelligence as a road map or do not find your intelligence relevant, they will continue to make decisions based on intuition and whatever information they find helpful.

Overcoming these challenges takes effort, evangelization and commitment. Habits are not easily replaced.

For more information on increasing the effectiveness of your intelligence efforts, let’s chat. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter - Personal Relationships Provide Better Results

Please enjoy this week's edition of the newsletter. We are very happy to bring these thoughts on Sales and Competitive Intelligence to our readers. If you would like to subscribe, simply send me an email (newsletter@primaryintelligence.com) and we'll add you. You will receive a copy of the next edition.

Webinar Technical Difficulties
Yesterday, we attempted to host a webinar about making business change with intelligence. However, our conference call provider experienced a phone outage in the area code we were using for the organizer line. For those that were effected, please accept our apologies. We'll reschedule the webinar soon and send invitations to those that were interested. If any that read this blog are interested in the topic, email me and I'll add you to the list of invitees (cdalley@primary-intel.com)

Cover Story
When In Doubt, Choose the Personal Touch for Intelligence
By Lan Bui, Primary Intelligence
If you want to make sure that your intelligence is effective (in other words, that it provides the power to increase market share or create new market opportunities), you need to make the right decision... (For more, click here)

BlogCentral
Competitive Intelligence, Right Under Your Nose
The fact of the matter is that your customers know nearly as much about the competition as they do about you. They evaluated the competition before selecting you as their vendor. They are regularly courted by the competition and many of your best clients also have purchased from your competitors, either in the past or currently... (For more, click here)

The A-List Archive
How Salesforce.com Won a 1,500-Seat CRM Contract with Staples
Originally Published in Feb. 2005.
Based on concerns voiced by sales representatives, executives at Staples decided to reassess the Company's CRM solution and look at possible alternative solutions. Staples began by creating a short list of competitors that included Salesforce.com and Siebel Systems... (For more, click here)

Competitive Intelligence – Ask the CI Expert

Just a quick reminder..

Friday morning, from 10AM until 1PM ET, we invite anyone to chat with resident expert, Adam Dunford, by phone to discuss major intelligence ideas, implementation questions, how to use intelligence most effectively, etc…

There is NO COST for the call...all Adam asks in return is that we limit the conversation to 30 minutes so that we can accommodate as many of you as possible during this 3 hour period.

If you have been thinking about some new directions for your organization in 2007, this is an EXCELLENT opportunity to "kick" around some ideas and to get some feedback on your plans.

Mark your calendar and plan to give Adam a call Friday morning at: 801-838-9600 x5040.

Internet Explorer and gmail users may click HERE to receive an Outlook calander reminder.

Competitive Intelligence and Analysis Paralysis

The repository of all truth and knowledge, Wikipedia, defines Analysis Paralysis as “an informal phrase applied to when the opportunity cost of decision analysis exceeds the benefits. Analysis paralysis applies to any situation where analysis may be applied to help make a decision and may be a dysfunctional element of organizational behavior.”

For the past few posts, I have tried to make a strong case for using competitive, sales and market intelligence at the highest levels of a business to effect change and create a stronger market position. While intelligence is key to making the right moves, every decision-maker has to employ methods of evaluating intelligence and interpreting it based on the entire market picture.

Information is ubiquitous. Analysts tell you their opinion. 3rd-parties produce prodigious amounts of intelligence. Emails, RSS feeds, newsletters, web scrapers, financial reports, word of mouth, and dozens of other sources never stop producing “must-have” information. And, much of this information contradicts (partially or entirely) information from other sources.

So, how do you overcome Paralysis by Analysis? Let’s look at a few points that should help clear the logjam and get the business decision-making process back on track:

1. Define what success looks like for your company. Create initiatives that support the plan.


2. Concentrate on what you really want to know - Are you concerned with increasing market share or do you want to know the competition’s proprietary commission structure? How much will knowing the square footage of your prime competitor’s new warehouse in Des Moines help you attract new business and partners? Figure out what really matters.


3. Ignore intelligence that doesn’t support your initiatives that support success. The rest is distracting fluff at best. We all know that taking your eyes off the road to text-message is a recipe for disaster. Don’t take your eye off the ball, no matter how intriguing a data source may be.


4. Create a weighting system to deal with the intelligence that remains. Make sure that the critical intelligence supports or protects your success goal. If it doesn’t, categorize it as “interesting, but not essential” and move on.


5. Employ or contract with an analyst to help interpret the intelligence that is considered valuable.


6. Make a decision, move forward and refine your direction – Most of the time, moving in a direction is less harmful than staying put. And, if you are using the right kinds of intelligence, a bad decision will likely stub your toe before you crash into something dangerous.

For more information, I recommend an article by Michael Useem, Wharton School of Business. In his article, he comments, “A less than ideal action stands a chance of success, whereas no action stands no chance.”

Well said.

Good luck sifting and prioritizing. Intelligence is important and essential, but too much of a good thing can create big problems.

As always, if you have thoughts, leave me a post, call (801-838-9600 x5050) or email (cdalley@primary-intel.com)

How Can You Tell if Competitive Intelligence is Effective?

Any electrical socket around you provides a tap to a near endless supply of energy. Inside the wires, there is enough power to run a houseful of gadgets, recharge your electric car or deliver a nasty shock (don’t try that at home).

But, until you use the power in the line to do something (turn on the TV, cook a gourmet dinner, recharge MP3 players and such), it really isn’t of much value. In order for the electricity to be effective, it has to power something that is important to you. Otherwise, it is just a bunch of electrons with potential energy sitting in copper wiring.

Your competitive intelligence is very similar to the electricity in your wires. You can produce as much sales, market or competitive intelligence as you like, but until someone uses it to power change in your organization, it really isn’t effective at all.

And, that’s how I would define “Effective Competitive Intelligence.” The intelligence is effective if it:

1. Strengthens your company’s position
2. Discovers new markets
3. Develops new products/services/solutions

Competitive Intelligence is simply a means to an end. It is not the end itself. Improvement can be made without intelligence (just like you can blend your own kitchen concoctions by hand), but with the intelligence, the final result is usually achieved more quickly and, probably, in a better fashion.

In order to maximize effectiveness, Primary Intelligence recommends that you:

1. Choose your competitive intelligence initiatives wisely.




2. Make use of the intelligence and create change. Previous posts provide thoughts on ways to make intelligence most effective. You can find a 4-part series on the topic here: (part 1, part 2, part 3, part 4)

If the second part doesn’t happen and the intelligence is change is never made, the first part doesn’t matter one bit. The first part is only a means and a means without an end has very little value.

If you have ideas on this topic, let’s talk. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)

Upcoming Webinar - The Sad Story of Intelligence that Never Made a Difference

Just wanted to let you know that I will co-host a webinar next week with one of my associates, Mike Brose. A summary of the webinar them follows:

While information provides the fuel for strategic direction, how often does yesterday's "can't miss" competitive intelligence initiative get lost in the shuffle of today's realities?

Overall, too many sales, competitive, and market intelligence initiatives are judged ineffective due to the fact that the intelligence is never used to increase sales, gain a competitive advantage, or capitalize on a new market opportunity.


Primary Intelligence would like to invite you to a presentation that will show:

Why competitive intelligence is often under-utilized

How to generate findings that actually makes a difference

How to start with the end in mind

Different methods to ensure that the intelligence will provide a guiding beacon.

Those that will benefit include:

Marketing leaders

Market research managers

Market and Industry analysts

Sales leaders

Corporate leadership positions (CEO, CMO, CSO)

Reserve your Webinar seat now at:https://www.gotomeeting.com/register/162321711

If you have any questions, let me know (cdalley@primary-intel.com)

Competitive Intelligence Newsletter

In this issue, we attempt to cross the chasm between Sales and Marketing, make Competitive Intelligence part of your current VOC programs and show how a major technology deal was won.

Cover Story
The Bridge Between Sales and Marketing - Sales Intelligence
By Mike Brose, Primary Intelligence Inc.The conflict between sales and marketing is an age-old story that will probably never end. The misunderstanding between the two departments is often based on pride rather than collaboration and results. At its core, Marketing is more effective when its efforts bring qualified prospects to the sales organization. Sales wants nothing more than to close business... (For more, click here)

BlogCentral
Competitive Intelligence from Clients - What Should I Ask?
If you want to win more business, you have to take it from the competition. I know that's obvious, but generating competitive intelligence that actually helps you compete more effectively is a surprising low priority of too many companies (For more, click here)

The A-List Archive
How HP Canada Won a $10 Million Contract with Carleton University
Originally Published in June 2005.
To ensure that it could meet the needs of its students and research programs, Carleton University decided to upgrade its network infrastructure. From a list of 10 initial responses, the short list was narrowed to HP Canada and... (For more, click here)

Making Competitive Intelligence Effective with Cross-functional Teams (Part 4 of 4)

Finally, the last installment in this rather long thought. Some day, I’ll learn that blogs are about short, concise thoughts. Maybe multi-part installments are better offered in newsletters or other forums. Until then, this is what you get.

On the topic of making Competitive Intelligence effective, I have observed a number of companies over time that have produced extraordinary results through innovative use of the information. It is my experience that these successful companies do the following:

1. Have a commitment to making decisions with intelligence


2. Create a cross-functional team, including leaders from Sales, Marketing, Product Development, Finance and the Executive Board


3. Determine the most effective routes to generating effective competitive intelligence


4. Involve a 3rd-party to provide guidance (This is not a shameless plug. I’ll explain later)


5. Provide a strong voice to evangelize the competitive intelligence


6. Demand accountability of leaders based on their willingness to consider and implement changes based on the intelligence initiatives

In the last few posts, (8/1, 8/6, 8/8) I have talked about the first five points in the bullet list above. I’ll finish up with the sixth point today.

Demand accountability
In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins talks about a Culture of Discipline. He says, “A culture of discipline is not just about action. It is about getting the disciplined people who engage in disciplined thought and who then take disciplined action.

This doesn’t directly speak to accountability, but I believe it is implied. A culture of accountability rests on the shoulders of a culture of discipline.

The expectation has to exist in your organization that intelligent actions will be followed through. High-level authorities in the company should expect reports on intelligence driven initiatives. Middle managers should be willing to report on their teams’ progress. The cross-functional team ought to establish metrics for success. Such metrics might include ROI, market share growth, retained accounts, minimum client profitability, etc… Intelligence can be an integral part of increasing any one of these metrics.

Final thoughts
Before I started this series of thoughts, a little competitive intelligence project seemed so simple. Don’t worry. It still can be. But don’t expect much out of it.

If you are willing to look at the big picture, you’ll see the necessity of incorporating more structure into your competitive intelligence programs.

Author-Christopher Dalley, Primary Intelligence

Making Competitive Intelligence Effective with Cross-functional Teams (Part 3 of 4)

This is the third in a four-part installment of thoughts on making competitive intelligence effective in your organization. Wasn’t sure I had this much information on tap. Then again, I probably don’t have a shortage of words anywhere else in my life. Why should this be any different?

On the topic of making Competitive Intelligence effective, I have observed a number of companies over time that have produced extraordinary results through innovative use of the information. It is my experience that these successful companies do the following:

1. Have a commitment to making decisions with intelligence


2. Create a cross-functional team, including leaders from Sales, Marketing, Product Development, Finance and the Executive Board


3. Determine the most effective routes to generating effective competitive intelligence


4. Involve a 3rd-party to provide guidance (This is not a shameless plug. I’ll explain later)


5. Provide a strong voice to evangelize the competitive intelligence


6. Demand accountability of leaders based on their willingness to consider and implement changes based on the intelligence initiatives

In the last few posts, (8/1, 8/6) I have talked about the first three points in the bullet list above. I’ll talk a little more about the fourth and fifth points today.

Involve a 3rd-party vendor
Eat our own dog food. Drink our own champagne. Breathe our own exhaust. Doesn’t matter how you say it. You live inside your company. Objectivity is very difficult under the best conditions and hardly anyone works under the best conditions.

It is possible to conduct your own intelligence initiative in-house and some types of intelligence (web scraping, financial reports, other factual information) can be done efficiently by your own employees.

But, don’t underestimate the importance of an unbiased voice. This is not a shameless plug for a company like Primary Intelligence. Rather, successful companies I have observed have acknowledged that they have internal biases, agendas, perceptions, etc… and that an objective viewpoint of the marketplace provides value that simply isn’t possible from internal sources.

You might involve a consultant from the beginning of the process. You might contract with a data collection company to gather the intelligence. But, don’t summarily dismiss the benefits that might be brought to the table by a 3rd-party vendor.

Provide a strong voice
Who will be the leader that will preach the necessary changes in the company? Ideally, that voice will come from the cross-functional group. If it is someone else in the company, invite them to become part of the cross-functional group.

Any number of business publications can provide mountains of information on leadership and change management. I’ll leave it to you to find the right voice.

And, if you want to chat, let’s chat. Post a response, call (801-838-9600 x5050) or send an email (cdalley@primary-intel.com)

Making Competitive Intelligence Effective with Cross-functional Teams (Part 2 of 4)

On the topic of making Competitive Intelligence effective, I have observed a number of companies over time that have produced extraordinary results through innovative use of the information. It is my experience that these successful companies do the following:

1. Have a commitment to making decisions with intelligence


2. Create a cross-functional team, including leaders from Sales, Marketing, Product Development, Finance and the Executive Board


3. Determine the most effective routes to generating effective competitive intelligence


4. Involve a 3rd-party to provide guidance (This is not a shameless plug. I’ll explain later)


5. Provide a strong voice to evangelize the competitive intelligence


6. Demand accountability of leaders based on their willingness to consider and implement changes based on the intelligence initiatives

Create a cross-functional team
All too often, research and intelligence is conceived, developed, gathered, ignored and buried in one small corner of one department of a company. The information never gets to see the light of day in areas of the organization that might make very good use of the findings.

In a whitepaper distributed by the Corporate Executive Board (Which I can’t find a link to online anymore. If you would like a copy of the report, email cdalley@primary-intel.com and request the British Telecom case study), one of the most important drivers of success was the fact that British Telecom, the subject of the study) created a Strategic Action Committee comprised of key stakeholders in the company that could work together to act upon the data. Also, a Marketing Strategy and Insight Group, staffed with representatives from Marketing, Product Management, Sales Customer Service, Pricing, Solutions, etc… was responsible for disseminating intelligence to the key internal stakeholders.

Significant strategic business change requires action on the part of most every department in the company. The business change conversation won’t be effective until the every department provides a senior management member to work on this collaborative team.

Determine the most effective routes
The first item of business for the cross-functional team is to decide what needs to be understood. A wish list of intelligence can be created, but eventually, this needs to be pared down to something that can be accomplished and will provide value.

The matrix below may help you categorize your initial intelligence initiatives. Go for the types of intelligence that are easy to generate and that have a high ROI potential, based on the intelligence needs identified by the cross-functional team. (For more thoughts on categorizing ease of gathering intelligence, you may refer to a previous post)




Once you have a group of change agents assembled and an intelligence plan, you are almost ready to move into the field.

In the next posts, I’ll elaborate on the remaining points.

And, if you want to talk, let’s chat. Post a response, call (801-838-9600 x5050) or send an email (cdalley@primary-intel.com)

Making Competitive Intelligence Effective with Cross-functional Teams (Part 1 of 4)

On Wednesday, I was a little sour toward irrelevant Competitive Intelligence efforts. Fortunately, I am associated with dozens of companies that are producing intelligence efforts at different levels of effectiveness. More importantly, each of these companies has a commitment to making the efforts more effective over time. They are searching for best practices and making changes.

In my experience, companies that make the most effective use of intelligence all use the same system at some level. If your company truly wants to make gains based on intelligence it should:

1. Have a commitment to making decisions with intelligence


2. Create a cross-functional team, including leaders from Sales, Marketing, Product Development, Finance and the Executive Board


3. Determine the most effective routes to generating effective competitive intelligence


4. Involve a 3rd-party to provide guidance (This is not a shameless plug. I’ll explain later)


5. Provide a strong voice to evangelize the competitive intelligence


6. Demand accountability of leaders based on their willingness to consider and implement changes based on the intelligence initiatives

Let’s talk about the first point.

A commitment to making decisions with intelligence
This quality starts at the very top. Perhaps you have a corporate board or an executive team. How do your CEO, CSO, CMO make decisions? Have they been around so long that they “know everything?” Do they reach out personally to clients, employees, partners and other significant market drivers?

You may not know the executive personally, but you can infer their receptivity to market intelligence by the conversations they have with employees. If they are the type that make idle talk and discuss the weather or the local sports team, they may tend to be more closed-minded about intelligence-based decisions. On the other hand, if they are committed to LISTENING to real matters that effect real people, they may tend to consume intelligence more willingly.

Of course, if the executives already sponsor intelligence initiatives, you might consider that a dead giveaway.

Why is this commitment to making decisions so important?

Because intelligence is only a means to an end. The end has to be change in the company that produces more revenue. And, change doesn’t happen without a commitment at the highest levels.

All of your competitive intelligence efforts won’t mean much if the change agents in your company don’t use it. You can contract with 3rd-party vendors, scrape websites, monitor press releases, evaluate public financial documents and measure market penetration forever. But intelligence without action is worthless.

Over the next few posts, let’s consider the other bullet points above.

And, if you want to chat, let’s chat. Post a response, call (801-838-9600 x5050) or send an email (cdalley@primary-intel.com)

You Couldn’t Make Competitive Intelligence So Irrelevant if You Tried

If your idea of effective competitive intelligence is gathering a bit of information, consolidating that information into a brief doc (perhaps on an attractive company letterhead) and sending that doc off to a distribution list, please stop reading. Go back to your cube, surf some more web sites and live a happy life.

Pardon me if I’m a little grumpy today, but I have just finished reviewing a company’s CI efforts and have added one more company to the pile of “irrelevant competitive intelligence efforts.”

What do I mean by irrelevant? In this case, the marketing department employs a few “analysts” to gather CI on a few competitors, market conditions and industry developments. These people put a little personal spin on the data and then launch their reports and briefs into different corporate branches through email, an intranet and their SFA tool.

(Yes, there is disdain in my description, but it wouldn’t matter if they increased the quality of their personnel or budget to gather more information.)

The problem here is that the CI program is not making any difference at all in their ability to be more competitive. The data that is collected is better than nothing, but even if it is read, nobody acts on it, provides feedback or seems to value it at any important level of the company.

The intelligence has to make a difference somewhere in the company or the program is simply a money sink that exists because “other companies have a CI department.”

I suppose that there are all kinds of people out there, but I, for one, would be bored out of my skull if I didn’t think my efforts were making a positive difference in the company. If I found myself in that situation, I would do everything I could to change the situation. To be clear, this isn’t a matter of personal ego. Instead, I want to leverage our competitive intelligence efforts to create as much benefit as possible.

Enough of the rant. On Friday, I’ll describe an environment that makes exceptional use of Competitive, Market and Sales intelligence.

And if you want to chat about these thoughts, please leave me a post, call me (801-838-9600 x5050) or email me (cdalley@primary-intel.com)