Politics affects business in very real ways, and this is becoming increasingly apparent in India. In recent weeks, corporations have been screaming hoarse about the impact of poor governance on business. In India governance is related inextricably to politics...

It is the job of competitive intelligence professionals to scrutinize all aspects of the business environment. If politics is a significant part of the environment, then that needs to feature in the analysis too. While CI has…

Competitive intelligence analysts must frequently remind themselves of their final objective. Time and again, I have seen analysts get so involved in the “activity” they do, that they forget why they do it. They optimise the process, perfect the mechanics, plan the logistics and polish the presentation templates. But they forget to stand back and look at the big picture. When they lose the strategy perspective, they miss the opportunity to make that critical value addition which converts…

CI teams cannot be efficient, effective and successful without a buy-in from their co-workers at all levels – senior, middle and junior. CI teams face a dual challenge in terms of getting an internal buy-in within an organization.

First, they need to show a good ROI to the senior management in order to justify their very existence. Unless senior management perceives their value in helping the company meet its business objectives, they will a) not be consulted b) not be respected c)…

http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/asi.21712/abstract

Pino-Díaz, J., Jiménez-Contreras, E., Ruíz-Baños, R. and Bailón-Moreno, R. (2012), Strategic knowledge maps of the techno-scientific network (SK maps). J. Am. Soc. Inf. Sci., 63: 796–804. doi: 10.1002/asi.21712

Keywords: competitive intelligence;maps (graphic representation);decision making

Abstract: knowledge engineering and information…

Examples of competitive intelligence failures and blind spots are cited to emphasize the importance and value of CI to an organization. A recent one is the failure of Blockbuster to see opportunity to take its business online – a blunder that cost it its very existence. In India one of the oft quoted example is that of  HLL and Nirma in the 1980s. There are, of course,  many others…

These companies did not have incompetent senior management. They were large companies with deep…

I understand that competitive intelligence is important. But why are competitive intelligence needs always urgent?  Most companies that approach us for intelligence want it in a tearing hurry.

That some kinds of tactical intelligence is often required immediately is understandable. Strategic intelligence, on the other hand is associated with long term decisions.....

Read more...…

Mercyhurst University, Department of Intelligence Studies, is conducting a survey related to the hiring of entry-level intelligence analysts in the competitive intelligence sector. This is part 3 of a 3 part report; the first and second parts of the report target the same information from the national security and law enforcement intelligence sectors, respectively. The purpose of the survey is to gather data on the expected hiring of entry-level intelligence analysts within the law…

When you need research to answer a particular problem, how do you decide whether you will use secondary or primary research? Or, what the mix of the two will be? Do you decide  on the basis of the budget you have available? Do you decide based on what your team is good at? Do you decide on the basis of the time available to you?

To ensure you get value for money (VFM) on your research, you want high quality research, with a fast turnaround time (because time is money) and at…

Products Research Center site updates Viktor Voksanaeva for March - April 2012

Dear Colleagues, I suggest read the informational materials that are available March 3, 2012 on the  site  of the Research Center Viktor Voksanaeva  . I hope that the material will be useful to all analysts. Sincerely, B. Voksanaev

Under the heading: Analytical materials on OSINT (English):

Bulletin of the Military…

Dear all

The i-intelligence team has pulled together a Taxonomy of OSINT Sources for you.

What constitutes an open source of intelligence? How many of these sources do you consult in the course of your work? And what format do they take?

These questions are not without merit. They inevitably pop up in the course of a seminar or consulting assignment. To help answer them, the i-intelligence team has pulled together a “Taxonomy of OSINT Sources”.

The taxonomy is…

As intelligence professionals we are great in doing research, collecting data and doing all sorts of analysis. From basic statistics all the way up to sophisticated multivariate analysis. Great! We are even capable to disseminate the findings in a decent format.

And then? Most of the time it stops.

Stakeholders see your findings, they may study it, but the question is: what will they do with it? Do they understand the implications and impact of the findings.

Sometimes…

Disposable income is a key growth driver for several industries in India such as consumer durables, automobiles, tourism, education, real estate, telecom, entertainment, BFSI and so on.

These industries are interested to know where the disposable income resides by geography, occupation, age, income group and so on, so that they are better able to target their products, sales efforts and marketing campaigns.…

“Can you do research and tell me what my key intelligence topic should be?” was a request from a market intelligence analyst to us recently. What he was actually saying, is that he needs pointers on what trends or developments will be relevant to his company going forward, so that he can focus on them and prepare for them now. He wants to identify relevant “weak signals”.

All new trends/ patterns/ macro changes in  technologies, society, economy, etc. start with small shifts in…

The CI “taxi driver syndrome”.

How often does the market and competitive intelligence team get requests without any further background information why the stakeholder needs that particular information?

For instance you get the question: How many PC’s are there in Austria?

If you than reply by asking: “why do you want to know this?” the response might very well be: “Just give me the data. I need it. Rather today than tomorrow”.…

This is the season for forecasting – looking at what the new year might bring… Not to be left behind, here are my two bits on what 2012 will bring for competitive intelligence practitioners in India.

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Treating a patient for the wrong ailment will not make the patient better, but may actually harm him. This is as true for an organization as for the human body.

Strategy formulation (and planning) is undertaken at least one a year in most organizations; and more often than that in some organizations.  Strategies are devised for navigating obstacles and challenges to reach the desired business objectives/ goals. However, if the key obstacles and challenges are wrongly identified, how…

Dear Colleagues,

I suggest read the informational materials that are available December 29, 2011 on the site of the Research Center Viktor Voksanaeva  site of the Research Center of Viktor Voksanaeva. I hope that the material will be useful to all analysts.

Sincerely, V. Voksanaev



Under the heading: Analytical materials on OSINT (English):

Russia: Security Concerns About Iran's Space…