Ceb Ignition Guide To Conducting A Competitive Intelligence Exercise
Ceb Ignition Guide To Conducting A Competitive Intelligence Exercise
Conducting a
Competitive
Intelligence Exercise
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Essential Steps marked as Essential have been identified as critical for the successful execution of this project.
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© 2018 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 201094084
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Overview
© 2018 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 201094084
Download this Ignition Guide and all featured tools at cebglobal.com/member/strategy/
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.
© 2018 Gartner, Inc. and/or its affiliates. All Rights Reserved. 201094084
Download this Ignition Guide and all featured tools at cebglobal.com/member/strategy/
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STEP 1 STEP 2 STEP 3
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
"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."
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.
"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
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
2.2
Determine the implications of threats and opportunities.
2.3
Determine potential strategic responses.
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.”
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
3.2
Create visually engaging and consumable pages.
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.
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