Ignition Guide

Conducting a
Competitive
Intelligence Exercise

This guide will help you:

*This Ignition Guide is tailor-made
■ Identify data sources to gather competitive information, for short-cycle projects that take
■ Translate data into actionable intelligence, and between a few weeks to a month
■ Communicate intelligence to gain timely executive buy-in. to execute and may not require
extensive planning to get started
or monitoring after launch.

1
Essential Steps marked as Essential have been identified as critical for the successful execution of this project.
2
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Overview

1. Gather competitive information.

2. Analyze information to create actionable intelligence.

3. Create and communicate the CI report.

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Before You
Start ■ Establish the timing, roles, and responsibilities of the competitive
intelligence (CI) exercise.
■ Develop a deep understanding of the current growth alternatives.

Common
Pitfalls and
Too Many Custom CI Standardize Reports for
Keys to Success Reports Stakeholder Groups
Despite having limited resources, Segment stakeholders into groups
Strategy creates custom CI reports and create standardized reports for
for each audience, resulting in each group to balance the amount
diminishing returns and increased of information with different
workload. stakeholders’ needs.

CI Information Identify and Resolve

Discrepancies Disagreements Early
Senior leaders hear different Validate intelligence with cross-
information from cross-functional functional partners early, identify
partners, which raises doubts disagreements and the reasons
about data credibility and delays behind them, resolve those
acceptance of the intelligence disagreements, and reduce
presented. information discrepancies.

Senior Leadership Biases Partner with Senior

Leaders to Determine
Gaining senior leader buy-in Implications of the
for ideas that are not their own
Intelligence
is difficult, leading to delayed
responses to the threat or After determining threats and
opportunity. opportunities, collaborate with
senior leaders to determine
the threats’ and opportunities’
implications to easily gain buy-in
later.

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 STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3

Step 1 of 3: Gather Competitive Information

Collect competitive information for the selected topic from appropriate internal and
external sources to understand the threats and opportunities for the organization.

Tasks
1.1
Determine internal and external information sources. Essential

Identify external sources (e.g., suppliers, trade shows, industry

publications) and internal sources (e.g., customer data, sales
representatives) to gather the required CI information. Build relationships
with knowledgeable cross-functional partners to ensure Strategy can
quickly get intelligence when necessary.

Advice From Peers

"It’s very important to identify the purpose of conducting the CI exercise and secure
formal buy-in from senior management around the CI process and output. This
encourages participation from the organization and prevents the CI exercise from
being a blue-sky activity."

Vice President Strategy

Manufacturing Company

1.2
Determine a framework to perform CI analysis. Essential
Competitive
Intelligence Based on the topic, select a framework (e.g., SWOT analysis, competitor
Analysis profiles, scenario planning) that will best help conduct the CI analysis.
Framework Determine what information the team should gather based on the
Selection Tool selected framework.
(.ppt)

1.3
Identify business decisions the competitive intelligence (CI)
Multisource exercise will support.
Information
Gathering Tool Discuss current strategic assumptions and growth alternatives with senior
(.ppt) leadership to derive potential business decisions the CI exercise would
inform, and finalize the CI exercise topic.

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 STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3

Advice From Peers

"We store the information gathered in a central repository and also encourage
all employees to contribute information to it. We recognize employees for their
contributions, and this incentivizes them to participate actively. For example:
contributions and contributors are highlighted in a weekly intelligence newsletter
that’s distributed company-wide. This really helps keep this repository live and
updated."

Head of Strategy
FMCG

Guidelines for Measuring Information Sources’ Credibility

Source: Credibility Co1; CEB analysis.

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 STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3

Step 2 of 3: Analyze Information to Create

Actionable Intelligence

Outline the threats and opportunities from the information gathered, and determine the
implications of and responses for the critical ones.

Tasks
2.1
Create a list of prioritized threats and opportunities. Essential
Threats and
Opportunities Determine the threats and opportunities from the information gathered,
Prioritization Tool and collaborate with cross-functional partners (Market Insights, R&D,
(.xls) etc.) to prioritize them according to their level of importance. Identify and
resolve disagreements to reduce information discrepancies.

Our Advice

Ensure Strategy and cross-functional partners agree on a common set of evaluation

criteria to assess the magnitude of threats and opportunities and prevent multiple
conflicting story lines.

Guidelines for Effective Discussions with Cross-Functional Partners

Source: CEB analysis.

2.2
Determine the implications of threats and opportunities.

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 STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3

Collaborate with senior leaders to determine how the most important

threats and opportunities will affect the company’s business model,
strategic plan, and growth project portfolio.

Discussion Questions to Drive Alignment

Source: SCA Tissue; CEB analysis.

2.3
Determine potential strategic responses.

Have the team brainstorm strategic responses to the threats and

opportunities based on their implications. Highlight each response’s
possible outcomes, feasibility, and competitive advantage.

Our Advice

Think broadly about potential strategic options. Don’t limit yourself to standard
options such as “invest” or “divest”; also consider alternatives such as “harvest” or
“reposition.”

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 STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3

Guidelines to Present Strategic Responses to Senior Leaders

Source: CEB analysis.

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 STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3

Step 3 of 3: Create and Communicate the CI

Report

Create standardized CI reports to address different stakeholder groups’ information

needs and help senior leaders act to prevent the threats or capitalize on opportunities.

Tasks
3.1
Create standardized CI reports for different
audiences. Essential

Design report templates for different audiences that highlight threats’ and
opportunities’ business implications, other functions’ viewpoints on the
topic, and possible strategic responses to enable faster decision making.

Our Advice

Use the information sources’ credibility scores from task 1.3 to proactively highlight
any uncertain information in the report. This will prevent criticism of the information
from bogging down CI discussions. Also admit any information sources’ differences
of opinion.

Standardized CI Reports

Source: CEB analysis.

3.2
Create visually engaging and consumable pages.

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 STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3

Graphics Draft the report using clear and concise sentences and compelling
Selection Guide graphics, and pressure-test it with peers to ensure the language is
(.ppt) business-friendly and jargon-free.

3.3
Present and assist senior leadership in creating an action plan.

Deliver your CI presentation, and ask senior leaders to express their views
on the threats and opportunities presented, reconcile their responses, and
revise the intelligence report based on their feedback.

Action Plan Template

Source: CEB analysis

Review Your
Performance ■ Gather feedback from key stakeholders on the effectiveness of the CI
exercise.
■ Document lessons learned, and make improvements to the process.

Recommended
by the Authors ■ Boosting Timely Response to Competitive Intelligence
■ Competitive Intelligence Benchmarks
■ Competitive Intelligence Decision Postmortem
■ Competitive Intelligence Points of View Synthesis Report
■ Ignition Guide to Improving Strategy Presentations

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