Say you’re an intelligence director, and you get a call from the chief marketing officer: “Get me profiles on 6 private companies in 5 different countries … Identify their sales, operating costs, prices, margins, strategic initiatives, product development plans, IT platforms … I need this by the end of the week, and the budget is…

Collaboration is critical to the success of competitive intelligence (CI) functions. Organizations that gather and interpret market or competitor data must be able to convert it to actionable intelligence that clients can use. To do this, teams must share information and insights – that is, they must collaborate effectively. Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates explained it…

Provider: “When do need that?” Manager: “Yesterday!” Provider: “When did you first know you were going to need it?” Manager: “Two months ago.” Provider: “What kind of budget do you have?” Manager: “Practically none.” Provider: “Are you looking for a thumbnail overview or a detailed examination?” Manager: “Everything I can get, of course. I want…

Retailers Must Be Prepared for the Augmented/Mixed Reality Revolution Already under siege by online-only retailers like Amazon, traditional retail is about to get hit by another technological shift comparable to the Internet itself: Augmented/Mixed Reality (AR/MR). Soon, in addition to just browsing products online, consumers will be able to examine and interact with products wherever…

The telematics industry has evolved from a largely military and navigational system to a commercialized business tool which will continue to become one of the most important and sophisticated industrial communication components of the next century. From basic GPS systems like Google Maps, to the not-so futuristic remote maintenance systems and operation systems, to self-driving…

For companies starting out with intelligence functions, terms like primary research and secondary research may have surfaced, but lacked context. So if you’ve had questions like: “When is research needed?” or, “What is secondary research?” Allow us clear up a few things. The good news about secondary research is that most of the work has…

Defensive Strategies Enhance and Protect Your Firm’s Competitive Strategies Two questions that commonly silenced the room during strategic and scenario business planning presentations: 1. How are our competitors going to react to these strategies? 2. What are we doing about retaining certain customer segments at risk because we know they’re considering the competition? If your…

Every traditional retail store has felt the pain of online competition. But the truth is, things are going to change even more drastically for consumer product goods as Amazon enters into the Private Label sphere, launching its own product lines such as Happy Belly (food products), Wickedly Prime (snack foods) and Mama Bear (baby products).…

Emerging Threats: Customer Switching Strategies – Channel Partners as Competitors Problem Many companies are being caught by surprise by a recent trend: threats to their revenue and margins as a result of customer (buyer) consolidation and substitution strategies. These strategies are helping channel partners (buyers/distributors/dealers) significantly increase their bargaining power in a number of market…