{"id":2323,"date":"2017-04-20T14:19:32","date_gmt":"2017-04-20T08:49:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.intelligencenode.com\/blog\/?p=2323"},"modified":"2026-04-27T14:17:32","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T08:47:32","slug":"fear-not-use-competitive-intelligence-right-way","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.intelligencenode.com\/blog\/fear-not-use-competitive-intelligence-right-way\/","title":{"rendered":"Fear? Not If You Use Competitive Intelligence The Right Way!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Holding your ground in today\u2019s business environment can be scary. The competition is huge, the technology is advancing and consumers are becoming more savvy and demanding. This all forms a highly competitive market whereas competitive advantage can be as easily lost as it was gained. Businesses \u201clive\u201d in a world where information is widely available than ever before. Each day, there are massive amounts of data generated that just waits for it to be gathered, analyzed and used for best purposes. However, it often just floats around, which brings us to the word of the day (actually, two words): competitive intelligence.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

In essence, competitive intelligence (CI) is understanding and learning about your products, customers, and competition, as well as every other facet of business in order to make strategic decisions based on knowledgeable insights. It a learning curve about everything that affects one business, from the tiniest details to global-like situations so it stands to reason there may be instances where CI is not used to the best of its abilities.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Theoretically, that\u2019s all fine and dandy, but as we favor a direct and practical approach, here\u2019s what competitive intelligence can do for your business.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Focus on what you want to know<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Finding out everything about every competitor in the marketplace is a good idea, but not particularly effective if you want quick results in today\u2019s fast-paced business environment. A better choice is to focus on a few specific business segments or problems whose understanding and addressing is key to company’s success. That way, the aim of your intelligence operation will be to collect information to help resolve the matter that matters to you the most. If that requires monitoring large companies for openings in the market, so be it, but try not to dilute your efforts too much. Collecting information for key strategic decisions and identifying new competitive threats is usually an ongoing, day-to-day operation in which you always need to have your goal in sight.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

2. It\u2019s not solely about your competition<\/b><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We know what you are going to say – it\u2019s precisely called competitive intelligence, not business intelligence or market intelligence or whatever adjective you want, therefore, it must be all about competition. Still, CI is a multi-layered business discipline that branches out like a tree from the earth. The focus of competitive intelligence in not on your rivals alone, it\u2019s on the market as a whole and everything that makes it a highly competitive battleground.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Source: B2B International<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Failing to recognize the full value of competitive intelligence leads away from greater strategic flexibility. Using CI, a business can quickly adapt to market fluctuations and, if necessary, change its business strategy. For an example, we\u2019ll use Pratt and Whitney, an aerospace manufacturer whose commercial engine division utilized CI by looking at all market aspects in an effort to stay competitive against its rivals, especially GE and Rolls Royce. As a result, the company deployed a highly successful<\/span> breakthrough agenda<\/span> for their new Geared Turbofan (GTF) engine, which wouldn\u2019t be possible it P&W looked at each competitor separately.<\/span><\/p>\n\n\n\n\"Pricing<\/a><\/span>