Competitive Intelligence

• Sharing of risk and ability to combine the local in-depth knowledge with a foreign partner with know-how in technology or process

The three generic strategies were identified by Porter (1985), who argues that in order to sustain

This is of use when a company owns the whole foreign company; they can start treating the world as one market. For example Unilever with CIF and JIF, at the beginning you had in the Netherlands the product JIF (kitchen cleaner) when that worked really well. Unilever started to introduce it in other

The essence of strategy lies in creating tomorrow's competitive advantages faster than competitors mimic the ones you possess today. (Gary Hamel & C. K.

The acquiring of knowledge is an important factor in evaluating the usefulness of the theories in analysis. If looking at the high-technology industry, products have very short life cycle and must be internationalize in a very short time if they want to be successful in the international market. Companies working in this type of industry achieve a faster internationalization process by relying on the expertise and knowledge of network partners (Hollensen, 2006).

But if they enter the international market things would probably change. They will face many companies which are offering quality product, and who are installed on the market for a long time. Customers might recognize those brands first before Fruits First. Price could be lower or higher, so the company should adapt to the market and make a name. Because customers may not be in need of this product, they might not have a gap in the market as there was in the Irish one.

Let us look at an example of how one organization used competitive intelligence to detect potential threats. The acquisition of the PC division of IBM by Lenovo, a company based in People's Republic of China (PRC), involved a research by CFIUS, the US institute of Control of Foreign Investments to understand the consequences of potential Lenovo acquisition. One of the key intelligence topics was what would happen to IBM’s Research Triangle Park in North Carolina. The US Government was concerned that the centre might also be used to start espionage activities. What were the possibilities that the Lenovo staff may

With increasing globalization, patent laws also need to be globalized. Companies have always been trying to patent some inventions from other parts of the world. But in this information age, the old habits cannot be allowed. Although an Indian formula, Colgate-Palmolive filed the patent in the European Patent Office. There needs to be an international forum, where patents from all over the world are filed and scrutinized together, rather than some companies trying to patent knowledge in one part of the world, and making profits in another

New Global Competitors – a shift in competitors from traditional country-based competitors to emerging global

Global chances to expand by increasing innovations and joint ventures crossing over into another industry (6)

In the 1960s and 1970s, firms across the world faced little foreign competition from each

One might summarize that CATC differentiates itself from the classical view by the following four qualifiers: innovative, bountiful, high quality and rich diversity. Table 1 illustrates the differences between the two theories according to ten major variables. The only similarities between CATC and NTPC are that they both accept the firms as input combiners and humans as motivated by self-interest. (Deligönül and Çavuþgil, 1997)

Investigating competitors and commercial espionage is certainly now not the same thing. This is how the stigma associated with CI practices came about, as people would perceive CI professionals as people that spy on other companies to obtain an advantage over them. CI is the accumulating of information on rivals via legal and valid ways, such as ‘text mining, internet mining, published data, and

Therefore, the company will have to study the markets that they would be interested in exporting to, which are, Portugal, Denmark and Switzerland. The firm will have to decide which country will provide a better return on investment and meet their needs and create intelligent strategies in order for the investment to be worth it. Hence, if the firm doesn’t become more active in the international business, they will miscue the opportunity of growing as a company overall and won’t become more profitable (Cuccioli et al., 2007). The firm will be considering having a subsidiary, joint venture, indirectly or directly exporting and will be focusing on the European market since they have a mature market (Cuccioli et al., 2007).

This case study analyses NZ Sock, a company that has a history from 1887 to current date in the clothing industry. Over the years NZ Sock has introduced different types of products in the industry such as rugby and high school socks. Recently the company decided to venture into the well-being industry with the new production of Merino/Seaweed socks. This strategy has placed the company as a contender to become a leader in the well-being industry.