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