Information of strategic importance has long and widely been valued as such. While this certainly is still the case, two significant changes have taken place in recent years.
First, the quest for strategically important information is no longer limited principally to governments, armed forces and businesses eager to bolster their position vis-à-vis real or imaginary rivals. Indeed, all countries, institutions, organisations and individuals, who compete in some way or another with others, are in constant pursuit of this indispensable operational tool. It has become a lifeline to all.
Second, the availability of information that could qualify as strategically important has changed dramatically over the last three decades. In the past, the sources of such information were few and far between and mostly limited to individuals, public reports, libraries and proprietary databases. However, these times are long gone and what used to be a very scarce commodity is now available in boundless abundance.
The offshoots of these developments are two-fold: The challenge for institutions and individuals alike is no longer merely to obtain information, but, amidst the plethora of information, to trace appropriate and reliable information, to collect, assess, contextualise and analyse it, and then to utilise it. Moreover, the ever-increasing value attached to strategic information actually compel all those who wish to survive and prosper in a highly competitive world to take part in the quest for strategic information and, in so doing, to master the art of focused pursuit, accurate assessment, considered contextualisation, efficient analysis, and sensible utilisation.
The information tsunami has given birth to a multitude of new approaches, techniques and formulas aimed at meeting its concomitant challenges. Endless articles, papers and books on the subject followed in its wake. Some were useful tools; others nonsensical drivel.
In time three new disciplines, namely Knowledge Management, Business Intelligence and Competitive Intelligence, were born and became subjects of learning at institutions for tertiary education, each with a unique role and purpose.
This work – Competitive Intelligence: The Key to Intelligent Business – is aimed at concisely clarifying all the essential components of Competitive Intelligence. As such, it provides the reader with an enlightening background to the topic. It serves as a step-by-step guide in respect of each phase in the Competitive Intelligence process. And it serves as an audit checklist for those who already have a Competitive Intelligence capability.