Professional Documents
Culture Documents
3 - Using The Web For CI Gathering
3 - Using The Web For CI Gathering
- Espionage or spying
Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (USA): - Made it illegal to steal or "appropriate" proprietary information with penalties of up to 15 years in prison and fines up to $10 million
Examples of CI
CI is feedback about:
Potential alliances for joint ventures, licensing and partnerships Potential merger and/or acquisition targets
- Corporate strategy
- Market strategy or market research - Pricing and yield management - Business development
Dr. Ahmed Nassar
Benefits of CI
Increase chances of success* - Avoid surprises - Identify threats and opportunities - Gain competitive advantage by decreasing reaction time - Improve planning - Improve understanding of ones own company Financial Return on Investment (ROI) - Robert Flynn, former CEO of NutraSweet, says that CI was "worth up to $50 million per year to his company+
Dr. Ahmed Nassar
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- E-business initiatives allow innovative ways to interact with customers and market new products and services
- Internet levels the competitive playing field; small companies can compete with larger companies by using the Internet to establish market niches As companies use the Internet as a business tool, more information is available on the web for CI purposes websites, news services, search engines, etc. this information is retrieved, filtered and analyzed to perform the CI process.
Dr. Ahmed Nassar
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Company websites
CI Consultants Internet search engines Local, government, and state websites News services
Subscription services
Universities
Dr. Ahmed Nassar
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For-fee Services Advantages: Sources verifiable Specialized information Reduces searching time
Disadvantages: Cost Pay for more than need
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Hoovers Online service (Directory information) - Company profiles and financial information are available from 12 million public and private companies from over 300 industries (http://www.hoovers.com/)
Dr. Ahmed Nassar
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Discussion groups cover the gamut of interests and what people say in these virtual spaces can be relevant to companies
- Employees discussing their work may reveal useful details about their companies and their technologies - Customers may complain about the service they received from a certain company and the quality of the product. These sites can be monitored for relevant information
Dr. Ahmed Nassar
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DOEs Office of Science and Technology Information and Resources (http://www.osti.gov/) NIHs National Library of Medicines MedlinePlus (http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/)
Dr. Ahmed Nassar
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Great place to start Information about companies of any size Tables, charts, graphs, etc. Several sources of quality information for free With a number of shortcomings Marketing tool for companies, offering subjective information Small percentage of information on web is indexed Difficult to search for subsidiaries, affiliates, etc. Questionable accuracy/reliability (anyone can be a web publisher) Validate and supplement with additional sources.
Competitive Intelligence Analyzing Your Competition
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Primary Sources
(human sources) Industry observers Researchers Industry analysts Stock analysts Industry participants Suppliers Customers Consultants
Competitive Intelligence Analyzing Your Competition
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Primary Sources
(human sources) Your sales force Trade shows
go with a plan
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Primary Sources
(human sources)
Competitors Within or outside your industry Former employees Adherence to non-disclosure agreements
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Secondary Sources
Advertisements Annual reports Business credit reports Company profiles Help Wanted Ads Foreign periodicals Newspapers Marketing literature Legislative information Patents and trademarks Press releases Speech transcripts Trade publications Whos Who and other biographical information
Competitive Intelligence Analyzing Your Competition
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Conclusion
CI is available via legal and ethical means not spying
CI is critical factor in companys success strategic planning and return on investment (ROI)
Internet and web-based products can enhance CI data collection
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