Advantage Of Competitive Intelligence

Information – business intelligence – is no longer the exclusive domain of IT or research departments. From marketing and finance to management and operations, intelligence is applied strategically throughout the enterprise. And professionals who know how to gather and leverage it are the ones who will lead organizations, control decisions, and be relied upon to steer their companies.

Thus, intelligence cycle process as an integral part of the Intelligence System has intrinsic weaknesses within the “process” itself due to the interplay of different pathologies within the system. It may emanate in every phase of the process from Planning and Direction, Collection, Processing, Analysis and Production, and Dissemination. Julian Richards in his book “The art and science of intelligence analysis” discussed the problems associated with intelligence cycle. The sources of failures in the intelligence arena: Cognitive and analytical processes undertaken by the analyst when they assess the material available to them, and the organisational structure and flow process of the intelligence machinery itself (Richards, 2010). In which

From a young age I have always had an interest in strategy and tactics. I also admired how the U.S. Army was able to work efficiently to achieve any objective, and defend American interests both at home and globally. Out of my fondness for strategy and tactics I began to become more interested in the intelligence aspect of warfare/the military. The notion of fighting smarter as opposed to

Competitive intelligence and analysis is an important part of a business. Competitive intelligence is the art of defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing intelligence about products, customers, competitors, individuals, concepts, information, ideas or data needed to support executives and managers in making strategic decisions for a business. This includes a broad array from government intelligence to market intelligence to business intelligence (Competitive Intelligence, n.d.).

This paper gives a justification of the importance for Kudler Fine Food’s development of its marketing tactics and strategy, and identifies other areas where additional research is needed. An analysis is done to understand the importance of competitive intelligence in regard to the development of Kudler Fine Foods marketing strategy and tactics.

national information power, that is to say today’s strategic intelligence is the foundation for strategic

Learning Outcome 6.8: Identify the advantages of using business intelligence to support managerial decision making.

To stay tuned to the recent situation in order not to miss perspective opportunities, an organization should go on with continuous scanning of its environment. According to Jobber, environmental scanning is “the process of monitoring and analyzing the marketing environment of a company” (Jobber, 2010, p.93). Aguilar states (Aguilar, 1967, cited in Costa, 1995, pp.4-5) that environmental scanning serves the purpose of gathering information about the facts and events happening around the company in order to let the management lead the organization in the right direction. Most of the authors agree on the same main function of environmental scanning.

Ans: In my opinion competitor intelligence used by the Greens & Co. to identify the advantages and disadvantages of their US based competitor or potential rival, McLarens before entering the US market Because, McLarens was already so

James Baron and David Kreps had given the Five-Factor model, which is based on Michael Porter’s Five Forces model of business analysis (Porter, 1980). These factors will influence the Competitive Intelligence system in any organization. These factors are External Environment, Workforce, Organizational Culture and Structure, Organizational Strategy, and Technology of Production and Organization of Work (Baron & Kreps, 1999). Lack of correspondence between any one of these factors can lead the firm’s CI practices to the failure.

Intelligence analysis?is the process of taking known information about situations and bodies of strategic, operational, or tactical importance, characterizing the known, and, with appropriate statements of probability, the future actions in those situations and by those entities (Richards, 2010).?The descriptions are drawn from what may only be available in the form of deliberately deceptive information; the?analyst?must correlate the similarities among deceptions and extract a common truth. Although its practice is found in its purest form inside national?intelligence agencies, its methods are also applicable in fields such as business intelligence?or?competitive intelligence.

We recommend that Woolworths use the competitive intelligence cycle to constantly scan their external environment. They will first plan, identify key intelligence topics, then actually collet, evaluate and analyse the data for their benefit. They need to analyse from all sources such as competitors and customers and may also be indirect like observing what the community needs.

“Competitive strategy involves positioning a business to maximize the value of the capabilities that distinguish it from its competitor’s” (Porter 1980:47). A successful business plan requires first and foremost the formation of an appropriate strategy. Through the implementation of a suitable strategy, the company is able to obtain its own industry niche and gain an understanding of its customers (Porter 1985). Whichever strategy is adopted it must be adequately integrated within the firms goals and missions to achieve a competitive advantage (Parker and Helms 1992).

To assure the success of a business over a long period of time the business must be able to conduct regular analysis of their success. They must be able to determine where they are today and have a goal of where they would like to see themselves 5-10 years down the road. In order to conduct a true analysis of the company, one must complete an environmental scan of their organization. Thus scanning for events, trends, issues and expectations that they may be faced with in the future. Furthermore, examining all internal and external environment challenges. Internal environmental challenges may be with employees, shareholders or board of directors or the overall culture of the organization. External environmental

This paper illustrates the concept of Business Intelligence as a stored knowledge of the company that can be developed and organized for better and effective decision making process. It synthesizes the concept of business intelligence and introduces the BI information system software that can harness all the needed information and data for decision makers. This process is placed in the context of mid size companies in Saudi Arabia for them to gain competitive advantage.