Establishing a World-Class Competitive Intelligence Function

This workbook is the essences of a multistage research project and provides the foundation for building

your World-Class Competitive Intelligence function.

Competitive Intelligence represents a “formalized, yet continuously evolving process by which the management team assesses the evolution of its industry and the capabilities and behaviour of its current and potential competitors to assist in maintaining or developing a competitive advantage” (Prescott and Gibbons, 1993) .

The CI function can be divided into two main activities: (a) the operation, which includes working on intelligence products and project involving the gathering, analyzing and dissemination of intelligence based on intelligence requests from managers and (b) the administration, which focuses on the activities, actions and resources needed to manage the operational activity. These two activities interact; both are necessary for an effective world-class CI function.

Most of the literature has focused on various aspects of CI operations such as collection techniques and analytical methods. Designing the administration structure of a CI function has been primarily examined in an ad hoc manner. Our project, based on systematic research, reveals how to design a CI administration to achieve a world-class standard.