Varsha Chitale's Blog Posts Tagged 'decision' (6)

Recently my friend was looking to move his office. He finally zeroed in on two places and was simply not able to choose between them. Place A was closer to home, but B was larger and had better ambience. But then A was also cheaper and quieter. But B was a longer commute for the other employees. But…. The pros and cons went on. He was tying himself in knots trying to figure out what he should do.

Finally we decided to apply a little…

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)…

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.....

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All of us have received gifts at some time or the other – on birthdays perhaps? All gifts are fun to open, but once in a while we have received something that was exactly what we wanted – the perfect gift. And that gift stood above all others – how could the giver possibly have known exactly want we wanted?

Competitive intelligence is that perfect gift!

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