What exactly is competitive intelligence? We can think of CI or competitive intelligence as the monitoring of your competitors in a coordinated manner. These competitors are those that you consider to be rivals in business and with whom you compete with for the important market share. CI also has to do with making a determination about what your competitors are going to do before they even do it.
To gain knowledge ahead of time SWOT analysis reports on your competitors you need to plan your business strategy to counteract the plans of your competitors. This involves many different methods and integration into your analysis, infrastructure, and how you distribute the information. The calculation of your business decisions and how you analyze the information presented to you are also important in competitive analysis. If you can’t analyze the information then you have no way of acting upon it in a correct way that benefits your organization against your competitors.
Some things a business needs to be successful include marketing research, research, development, customer service, product design, distribution, and advertising. You need to be successful by making these the best they can be. If you want a competitive advantage over other companies you need to know how they will use these assets in their company as well. You need to use these in your organization but at the same time analyze how others can use these against you and how you can overcome the obstacles and get the competitive edge over them.
Why Use Competitive Intelligence?
You need a strategic approach to use competitive intelligence the right way. It should be a part of your overall strategy in business to compete against other companies. You can use the intelligence you gather for a competitive edge. Many Fortune 500 companies use competitive intelligence in their business strategies. These firms are leaders in their fields and they know who their competitors are. A company that’s competitive can prosper because it’s always looking to improve itself against others in the field. By using competitive intelligence a company strives to get ahead of those they are against and make the products and services at the forefront of whatever business they happen to be in.
Companies may have great products or services but because they don’t know what others are doing and they don’t change to meet the demands of today’s high-tech world which is always changing. It’s not enough to have a good product you need to make that product stand above all the same products in the marketplace so people pay attention to your company and not the competitors. It’s not enough just to be a big company you have to be innovative and competitive against those who are doing the same thing you are. If you don’t know what your competitors are doing, you risk following behind and becoming irrelevant in the changing world.