Synopsis
As the major powers move away from the traditional weapons of warfare, they are turning instead to economic weapons like competitive intelligence - the gathering and analysis of information about competitors and the marketplace - to ensure their national sovereignty and survival. Using technology and skills adapted from the Cold War era, they turn raw information into powerful intelligence, enabling them to build market share, launch new products, increase profits, and destroy competitors. Yet, in America, the subject of business intelligence remains shrouded in secrecy - because some companies regard it as unethical, and because certain successful companies don't want to lose their advantage.
But the secret is out. With detailed examples from home and abroad, Kahaner reveals the methods, case studies, and systems that businesses use today to establish their own intelligence operations. You'll discover how competitive intelligence can unmask hidden competitors, and how it can help your company to enter new businesses, understand your own marketplace, and increase the range and quality of acquisition targets.
An indispensable guide to the new competitive world, Competitive Intelligence will help companies transform themselves from mere collectors of information to informed users of intelligence. Innovative and practical, it will forever change the way companies make decisions about themselves and the global marketplace.
Reviews
An estimated 7% of large U.S. companies, and many smaller firms, have established competitive intelligence (CI) divisions to spy on the competition, legally and ethically. By accessing government reports, scanning newspapers and the Internet, filing Freedom of Information requests and mining critical information from patents, corporate mission statements and aerial photographs, CI divisions anticipate competitors' actions, learn from their mistakes, find out what equipment they've purchased, identify acquisition targets and keep abreast of regulatory, political and market changes that could affect business. In a conversational, highly accessible style, Kahaner, a private investigator based in Virginia, explains how to set up a CI unit. He profiles intelligence-gathering operations at Motorola, Nutrasweet, AT&T, Corning, Procter & Gamble and Marion-Merrell Dow, as well as sophisticated CI operations in Japan, Sweden and other countries. The smart snooper's bible.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Drawing from his broad experiences as a journalist, author, licensed private investigator, and consultant on intelligence matters for corporate clients, Kahaner gives us a practical guidebook about how many Japanese firms have competitive intelligence divisions as compared with the barely three percent of U.S. companies that practice competitive intelligence. Through illustrative case studies and examples, Kahaner shows Western companies how to establish competitive intelligence units and use them for advantage in the international environment. Kahaner explains what business competitive intelligence is and what it can do for a company; the methods and processes of executing intelligence and comparative facts about the role of competitive business intelligence in other countries, and dicusses pertinent issues such as cost and ethics, opportunities, and the future. A practical book recommended for upper-level business executives and professionals involved in business competitive intelligence; law-enforcement and government officials can also benefit.?Joseph W. Leonard, Miami Univ., Oxford, Ohio
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
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