What is Competitive Intelligence (C.I) ?

I. INTRODUCTION

Definition: The process of gathering actionable information on your business's competitive environment.
In other words, Competitive Intelligence (C.I) is knowledge and foreknowledge about the entire business environment that results in action.
In business we have a lot of forms of Intelligence:
Business intelligence – refers primarily to data mining – extracting insight from huge volumes of data.

Market intelligence – looks purely at the market (i.e. what customers and other stakeholders want).

Open source intelligence – refers to information that is publicly available

A more focused definition of CI regards it as the organizational function responsible for the early identification of risks and opportunities in the market before they become obvious. Experts also call this process the early signal analysis. This definition focuses attention on the difference between dissemination of widely available factual information.
Competitive intelligence essentially means understanding and learning what's happening in the world outside your business so you can be as competitive as possible. It means learning as much as possible--as soon as possible--about your industry in general, your competitors, or even your county's particular zoning rules. In short, it empowers you to anticipate and face challenges head on.
First of all, (1)Who is doing it? (2)And Isn’t it ‘industrial espionage’?

§ We have a lot of questions for which we need to answer.
(1) Of course, most large corporations doing it exactly:

A. Unilever has a Competitive Intelligence team

B. Competitive Intelligence is big in the banking sector

In my opinion “Industrial espionage” and “Competitive Intelligence “ is not the same things. What the difference between “Industrial espionage” and and “Competitive Intelligence “?


ESPIONAGE
Industrial espionage and corporate espionage are phrases used to describe espionage conducted for commercial purposes instead of national security purposes. Espionage is sometimes called the dark sister of competitive
intelligence.

Espionage is more than the legal and ordinary methods of examining corporate publications, web sites, patent filings, and the like to determine the activities of a corporation. In business language the term covers more the illegal methods such as bribery, blackmail, technological surveillance and even occasional violence. In addition to spying on commercial organizations, governments can also be targets of commercial espionage—for example, to determine the terms of a tender for a government contract so that another tenderer can underbid.

2. The main purposes of competitive intelligence (competitive intelligence against other aspects of business life, including strategy development, market research.)

The main purposes of Competitive Intelligence (C.I) is strategy development and market research. Because it is very important for Competitive Intelligence. When you are researching your market you must know all things about your market and strategy development of competitors you need to know the information about almost of all competitors in your market. And all these things are linked.

COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE
Has it is own body: Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP)

§ 3. Why it is so important for B& S Group?
B& S Group provide a one-stop-shop for customers requiring bespoke design and manufacture of electrical and metal fabrication goods. They are based in Chester. It is important for this company because they would like to apply Competitive Intelligence to grow this area of their business further.
No organization can sit still and expect things to be the same month after month, year after year. At some point, something will happen to change your assumptions. And almost every decision (especially a strategic decision) is based on certain assumptions. Over time, these assumptions fall apart and if you fail to adjust with a continuous flow of new intelligence, then you will be forced to react in a way that makes it difficult to compete. [1]

II. Main body:
1. Sourcing Information.
The main purpose for Competitive Intelligence is Information.
Sometimes it is very difficult to find necessary information. Usually 80-95% of the information available to the public. There are a lot of sources of information for example social media, internet based.

The basis of competitive intelligence is knowing the difference between information and intelligence. When executives say that they have too many reports to read, too much information to go through before making a decision, they're making the mistake of confusing information with intelligence. What they really mean is that they have too much information and not enough intelligence. Understanding the difference between these two items will help them get on the road to more efficient decision making. Here's the difference: Information is factual. It's numbers, statistics, scattered bits of data about people and companies and what they've been doing that seems to be of interest. Information often appears to be telling you something but in reality it's not. You can't make good decisions based on information no matter how accurate the information is or no matter how comprehensive it is. Intelligence, on the other hand, is a collection of information pieces which have been filtered, distilled and analyzed. It has been turned into something that can be acted upon. Intelligence is what managers need to make decisions, not information. Another term for intelligence is knowledge.

Intelligence collected by and from human sources is often the determining factor behind your intelligence capabilities. Those organizations with extensive human sources as opposed to over-reliance on published sources will have superior competitive intelligence capabilities. This will lead to increased effectiveness in strategic decision-making, giving the company a fundamental competitive advantage.[1]

Why information is hard to find?

The ‘hidden’ web

Most useful business information is not available electronically

There is little strategic information within business websites [2]

2. Problem with competitor intelligence (C.I).
There are also other problems-Problems with Competitor Intelligence .
When customers become disillusioned. When technology or processes move on so the market changes and they get left behind.

What's happening?

They become blind-sided by competitor D that nobody else saw coming. D paid no attention to (A, B, C) and instead asked the market. [2]

Products lose their relevance.

Customers become turn-off.

Of course surveillance of all competitors at the same time is quite difficult.
CI is often viewed as synonymous with competitor analysis, but competitive intelligence is more than analyzing competitors—it is about making the organization more competitive relative to its entire environment and stakeholders: customers, competitors, distributors, technologies, and macroeconomic data.
B& S Group can try to follow a large number of competitors (including new competitors who appears nearly every day).

From these facts, one may conclude that created Rivalry between competitors.

Rivalry(***)

In addition, free markets will only form when consumers are forced to compete with obtain the benefit of the the good or service. For example, to be guaranteed a good seat at a restaurant, or at a music venue, consumers need to book in advance, or get there early - there is clearly a need to be competitive to secure the benefit of the good. This is called the principle of rivalry, and is clearly closely related to the principle of diminishability. Indeed, many consider it to be just another way to explain the need for consumers to compete when stocks diminish.


The profit motive

Free markets form when the possibility of profits provides an incentive for firms to enter the market. Basic economic theory states that profits are earned when firms gain a revenue which exceeds the costs of production. However, more advanced micro-economic theory offers two definitions of profit - normal and super-normal. When revenue exceeds costs supernormal profit is earned, and when revenue equals costs the firm makes normal profits.

Excludability
For markets to form it is essential that consumers can be excluded from gaining the benefit that comes from consumption. A storekeeper can stop consumers gaining the benefit of a product if they are unable or unwilling to pay. If consumers cannot be excluded they may become free-riders and, as will be seen later, the possibility of free riders can prevent the formation of fully fledged market.

Rejectability

§ It is also necessary that consumers can reject goods if they do not want or need them. For example, a supermarket employee could not place an unwanted product into a shopper’s basket and expect the shopper to pay for it at the checkout. This is called the principle of rejectability.

3. Main segments and most relevant segments to the project

Demographics
Quantifiable characteristics of a given population.

Can be broken down into groups and traditionally covers areas such as:

In CI we need to be considering future changes to demographic structures.

Suppliers
The supply chain can extend two or three steps down from the company.

What changes are taking place in the supply chain of related industries, i.e. packaging.

Government
Taxes

Culture
Aimed at customers that want personalised and meaningful gifts.

Attempts to be sophisticated but at modest prices.

Appealing to people who are sentimental and romantic – but also want an easy solution

I believe that the most relevant segments for this project are customers, economy, future trends, technology (and design).

Customers:
what is interesting for any consumer?
high quality
low prices
design (not for all people)
innovation
environmental goods

Economy:
lowest price (maximum)
low manufacturing costs
cooperation
attraction of investors
B& S GROUP in other countries
Focus on high tariff products when competitors merchandise easy-to-sell products.
Own shops whilst competitors sell through department stores. (including other countries)

Supply of goods in BRICS/SCO Countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa).

Future Trends: (*)
absolutely new products
new materials for new products (for example natural and ecological materials)
wireless electricity (smart electricity for smart home)
“Home of Future” - elements within the home are connected via wi-fi
electricity directly from sunlight
new resources and new opportunities(for example cooperation and supply of goods to other countries)

Technology (and design):
Orders for individuals
new website
convenient delivery
new technology and strategy
introduction of new ideas (*)

Recommendations for B& S Group:
Marketing is about communicating the value of a product, service or brand to customers or consumers for the purpose of promoting or selling that product, service, or brand.
And I think it is very important for any companies.

Marketing includes: advertising, website, Development of a marketing strategy to increase sales of the product.
For example you can create a new marketing strategy:

From creating a business plan, to a network strategy, lots of small and medium enterprises continue to fail and close their doors. Often times, this happens because of bad management or not having an audience targeted marketing plan to actually bring revenue to the company.