The Importance of Competitive Intelligence

Your important strategic decisions within your organisation are dependent on many factors; such as changes to your industry, your organisations competences, the global economy, the shrinking talent pool and new entrants to your competitive environment.

The last thing you should do is base your important decisions on guess work!

You can not afford you make strategic business decisions in a vacuum. You must be able to anticipate and react to changes that occur within your company and your industry.

Most importantly it is likely that your rivals are conducting some sort of Competitive Intelligence against you.

Perhaps the desired result is growing market share, but Competitive Intelligence can also benefit your business by:

·         Improving your organisations knowledge of the markets you operate in 

·         Enhance confidence in strategic planning 

·         Improving the quality of your products and service levels compared to your rivals 

·         Improved communication across your organisation in terms of competitive environment and activities

Studies involving FT100 and Fortune 500 Companies show that those who place Competitive Intelligence at an important strategic level tend to outperform their rivals in terms of revenue and profit margin.

Competitive Intelligence is not only a major tool for the large FT100 companies. Smaller businesses face the same issues as bigger companies in terms of competing for market share. It is just as important for decision makers in comparatively smaller companies to understand the competitive landscape to develop robust long term strategies.