With threats of cutting budgets to a competitive intelligence function looming, justifying its existent is always a challenge. An obvious way to justify an unit are the deliverables that land on decision makers’ desks. The deliverables can either make or break a competitive intelligence unit within months or weeks.
In order to sell the long-term viability of an unit when there are limited amount of resources, it would be wise to link the unit’s raison d’etre to the defined Key Intelligence Topics. If defined properly, KITs can be used to influence the strategic decisions to reach corporate objectives. As result, keeping an unit as is during an economic downturn just makes good business sense.
To strengthen a case for keeping a competitive intelligence unit considering the KITs, assess the following:
- What are the current KITs?
- Do the KITs meet the needs of decision makers?
- What are the potential KITs for the company?
- What is current return on investment of the unit?
In the next post, I will address the issue of what to do when the money is not there for the tools to make the unit function correctly.
News is one of basic elements that fuels a competitive intelligence unit. News that is gathered from various sources and analysed can flows into an unit via difference vehicles. Portals, alerts, RSS feeds, newsletters, etc. Say what?? Newsletters???
Do people still read newsletters?
Are newsletters still a valuable competitive intelligence asset?
Some may think that the creation of newsletters have become irrelevant thanks to RSS feeds and matching newsletter applications. I do not believe it is not entirely true.
THE important element that is always lost in a debate such as this one is the human element behind the creation of the newsletter. The filtering process is very important when it comes to selecting the right content to be in the newsletter. On the surface, many think that the filtering process only deals with keyword identification and spotting doubles however; it goes deeper.
At the heart of the filter process is keeping in mind the client’s key intelligence topics (KITs). In short, KITs are the questions that you are attempting to answer within the information product. For example, a client who would be interested in the future of consumer products industry should be kept informed on the latest buying trends. Yes, you could set your RSS reader to push to you content with the keywords, “consumer products” and “trends” etc, however; how many articles will be relevant to Person A in marketing, Person B in R&D and Person C in product design?
The underlying point of my example is the only the competitive intelligence professional (a human being) can ensure that relevant strategic and tactical information gets to the right person in a timely fashion taking into account the constant battle of information overload.
In a previous post, I referred to the competitive intelligence term of “KITs” or key intelligence topics. KITs are essential to any internet intelligence researcher who wish to deliver relevant information to clients. In order to do so, selecting KITs should not be taken for granted. As a result, a structured approach to choosing key intelligence topics should be considered.
Based on my 10 + years of experience in field of competitive intelligence, I have utilized the following framework to establish key intelligence topics for many of my research mandates.
- Interview the client
- Assess proactive versus reactive strategies
- Attempt to match resources with KITs
Interview the client. Removing the guess work behind getting to know what relevant information is needed by decision makers will make life easier in the end. To have a structured interview with clients, send an email before the session outlining what will be discussed and how long the exercise should take. The email should prompt the client to brainstorm on their own to evaluate their needs for information. Ideally the interview should be conducted in person; however, travel restrictions may mean thesession has to be done via a conference call. Allow the client to express their needs as they wish.
Assess proactive versus reactive strategies. As proposed KITs are made available, professionals must reflect on the research strategies that have to be put into place based on the needs of the clients, an inventory of the tools and skills to be conducted. The inventory exercise should be based along the lines of the two forms of competitive intelligence: proactive and reactive.
a) Proactive competitive intelligence strategies call for researchers to provide information
quickly and wisely regarding changes in markets and competitors
b) Reactive competitive intelligence strategies call for researchers to track information as it is needed
Attempt to match resources with KITs. This step requires researchers to conduct an evaluation again; however, this particular exercise will tell if the mandate is feasible given the existing information resources. Researchers must now determine if they have access to the right outlets of information that will best respond to the KITs. To do so, all information sources should be examined on the basis of the content they provide. If
the sources do provide a sufficient amount of content that will answer the questions stated in the KITs, researchers can feel quite confident that the mandate can be carried out successfully. In situations where there is not a match, researchers must see if the information can be bought or if such information exists or can be gathered through primary research techniques.
One of the comments that I hear very often when it it comes to internet intelligence searching is, “Ah, anyone could do your job Ian. Just give me access to Google and I can find anything on the web.”
Some people are so wrong.
Yes, tools such as Google and premium content databases do help however there is one key element that every good internet intelligence searchers should have is a critical eye for information. Having a critical eye will allow individuals to identify valid and relevant information in an efficient manner.
But how do you develop a critical eye? Some may already have it already but it can be obtainable. The number one thing that you must do ask yourself, “What is this important for my client to know?” At times, this is easier said that done due to a number of reasons. To perfect this skill, I recommend you taking a competitive intelligence approach with establishing KITs - Key Intelligence Topics
