Competitive Intelligence: Bridging Organizational Boundaries

Information Management Journal, Mar/Apr 2004 by Myburgh, Sue

* what issues of competition must be looked at

* intellectual capital

* market share

* growth capabilities

* quality of product

* innovation

* price

6. Dissemination and communication

Finally, the intelligence - the value-added information - must be communicated to the key decision-makers. Because they may be scattered throughout the organization, the first step is ensuring that the correct intelligence makes its way to the correct destination. Delivery of information should be done through vehicles and in formats that match the work habits and preferences of these key people.

The intelligence also must meet certain requirements of presentation: its content, format, orientation, and other attributes must address the situational requirements that affect the resolution of the problem or class of problems that is handled by the decision-maker. For optimal value and use, the information should be coordinated, checked, cross-referenced, compared, critiqued, categorized, customized, and condensed.

There are various types of intelligence that will be communicated in myriad ways. Different types of intelligence include current, basic, technical, early warning, estimated, work group, targeted, crisis, foreign, and counter-intelligence. The delivery service should be sensitive to constraints and cover a range of time horizons and provide different levels of focus or detail. These levels include urgent news and detailed reports; some prognosticate the future and are speculative.

Ideally, there should be no gap between the individuals making decisions and the CI that they need in order to make such decisions according to their importance, timing, quantity, or quality.

7. Outcomes

Business is a series of decisions. Businesses have an increasing need for intelligence on which to base decisions concerning the conduct and development of each of their strategic objectives, as well as the protection of their business against competitive threats. The final result of the information gathering, interpretation, analysis, and recommendation processes of CI is the action that is taken by a decision-maker.

This constitutes information use, which is a dynamic, interactive social process of inquiry that may result in the making of meaning or decisions. The constant movement in making sense and meaning of the information that one is given, moving from the general to the particular, to the whole and back to each part, requires active participation by the user. In addition, the user must challenge assumptions made, identify the origins of the information, question how it was obtained, and determine many other qualities of information. Determining such qualities of information assists in its use and application.

Making decisions is one of the toughest things that people need to do - both professionally and personally. In the current business environment, making decisions on the fly with inadequate information or time to reflect is common - but making the right decisions is crucial to the success of every organization. The RIM professional must understand how decisions are made and ensure that the organization learns from past experiences, something that can be achieved through CI processes.