Introduction

Competitive Intelligence consists of researching the business environment in which a (usually private) firm operates, in order to influence its emerging strategy for business development.

In business one needs to forecast change before it is obvious to everyone; therefore, gathering intelligence on competitors and the business environment is an essential part of business planning. Competitive intelligence (CI) should feed into all aspects of business strategy and planning.

CI is the information that has been analysed to the point where you can make a decision. CI does give corporations good approximations of reality, near- and long-term. It does not predict the future but offers approximations and best views of the market and the competition. It is not spying to look at the rival's confidential financial statements. But good CI analysts are experts at making decisions by examining the data and applying their common sense, experience, analytical tools, and intuition.

Our services are aimed at supporting you in this process - helping you maximise your profits and make your business the best in your industry. We only undertake ethical and 100% legal CI assignments.

Our CI services focus on competitor and industry research using both secondary and primary source information. Research can involve ad-hoc studies, to answer a specific question or on-going monitoring, tracking and profiling of key competitors.

A successful CI project will help achieve the following for your company:

• Anticipate changes in the marketplace
  • understand what drives your competitors
  • learn how they will be influencing your customer base
    
    
• Enhance your competitive advantage
  
  
• Widen/broaden the ability to create a strategically unique, valuable and differentiated position
  
  
• Minimise uncertainty by protecting against potential threats with timely pre-emptive action
  
  
• Learn about new technologies that could affect the long term future of the business