Competitive Intelligence Advantage: How to Minimize Risk, Avoid Surprises, and Grow Your Business in a Changing World

Introduction: Required Reading (Yes, Really) vii

1 The Emergence of the Hapless Executive 1

2 Defining and Refining Competitive Intelligence 13

3 Competitive Intelligence: What You Don’t Know Will Hurt You 35

4 Why Fixating on Competitors Is Misguided 57

5 Three Critical Distinctions 77

6 All Information is Not Equal 103

7 Knowing When and Why to Power Up the CI Engine 119

8 Next Steps for You and Your Company 145

9 Understanding and Evaluating Information Sources 165

10 Performing Like a CI Pro 199

11 Demystifying Competitive Intelligence, One Myth at a Time 223

12 What’s in It for Me? 245

13 Playing by the Rules, SCIP, Resources 263

Acknowledgments 277

About the Author 279

Index 281