Competitive intelligence is the process by which you gather and analyze information about your competition to inform business decisions. It can be a very powerful tool for businesses looking to gain an advantage in the business world.
But not all information is created equal. It’s important to collect quality data if you want to get the most from competitive intelligence.
Definition Of CI
Whether it’s the cliche “know your enemy” or Michael Porter’s famous study on competitive strategy, knowing what your competitors are doing is the foundation of successful business. Analyzing competitor data and strategies is crucial to success, whether you’re launching your first Minimally Viable Product or trying to grow a new segment of the market. It can be overwhelming to find information if you don’t understand how to use it.
The first step is to set internal goals on what the data will do and why they are important. This will help you to focus on finding the most accurate information and ensure all your efforts have a purpose.
Next, you need to develop a competitive intelligence model – or multiple models if needed. The model should be based on your objectives, which will be used to categorize insights and organize them in a framework that helps you identify patterns and themes. This will be an important part of your competitor analysis and should include a predictive modeling element (which will allow you to anticipate what your competition may do).
It’s important to keep in mind that competitive intelligence (CI) is not the same thing as market research. Market research is more focused on data that is customer-facing, such as surveys and interviews. CI is a more comprehensive approach that looks at competitors’ products, strategies, and operations. It is a long-term activity that should be integrated into your company’s regular operations.
Once you have created a model of competitive intelligence and have set up a system for continuous monitoring, it’s now time to begin collecting data. Create a list of competitors that you need to closely monitor. This should include your direct competitors, as well as important market players and potential new entrants. You may need adjust this group based on the business environment or your company’s objectives.
It’s important to share your competitive intelligence with your team once you’ve collected it. This can be achieved through regular meetings, or by using collaborative tools such as Slack or a CI platform. You should also set alerts so relevant teams are notified as soon as updates occur. It’s also important to link your findings to company-wide goals. This could include anything from changing marketing strategy to reprioritizing product.
Tactical Intelligence
In the military, tactical intelligence is the output of units in a battlefield support role. At the tactical level, specialized patrols are sent out to identify and observe threats in their area of operations. They should receive the information necessary to assess and respond to these threats in real time. The tactical intelligence is then gathered and communicated up the chain of command, and strategic staff members can make use of this actionable intelligence to shape long-term planning and decision-making.
Tactical Intelligence answers the “what”, “when”, and “how” questions by identifying an opponent’s tactics and techniques. It is important to know the tactics, techniques, and procedures (TTPs) of an adversary so that security teams are able to develop defensive capabilities. Knowing, for example, that an adversary may launch a spear phishing attack at certain times of the day will help defenders better identify attack vectors and mitigate them.
CISOs are often the consumers of tactical information. These leaders are responsible for the digital risk protection strategy and can use tactical intelligence to make real-time decisions. In the context of a cyber incident, this can be a crucial factor in speeding up response times and helping the business get back to normal after a breach.
To generate tactical information, security teams can combine their own indicators of network compromise with publicly-available threat intelligence data and announcements from government agencies like the NSA and online cybersecurity discussion group. It’s also possible to get tactical intelligence from human intelligence operatives, who can monitor the deep and dark web for conversations where hackers share their TTPs.
Tackling the TTPs of sophisticated attackers is a challenging task for frontline defenders. Even so, it pays to have a strong feedback loop between defenders and threat intelligence experts.
CI and Knowledge Management (KM), which were both developed around the same period, share many similarities. CI, however, goes a step further. It can help companies identify knowledge assets in their organization as well as anticipate the behavior and strategy of competitors.
Strategic Intelligence
Strategic intelligence refers to the broad perspective that corporate managers need in order to develop appropriate corporate objectives, goals and strategies for the short and long term. It is a future-oriented concept that includes visioning and a world in constant change. Strategic business intelligence today focuses on integrating core information, knowledge and data with relevant contextual facts to detect and illuminate future problems and promising opportunity. These systems provide insight into a company’s ability to implement its plans and strategies in an optimal manner.
At the very top of a company, decision makers need intelligence that enables them to assess their overall position and determine what future steps to take in response to business jolts. To do so, they must know what questions to use to retrieve the correct information from their database and data storage.
For example, if employment figures or retail sales are expected to rise, decision makers need to know where to find the information in the company’s databases and data warehouses. Then, they need to know what questions to ask to retrieve the information that will help them make decisions that will allow their companies to benefit from the increase.
This is different than tactical intelligence, which focuses more on the current state of affairs and how policies and plans will be implemented. Strategic intelligence at its highest level is also distinct from counterintelligence which is concerned with the capabilities of foreign nations or non-state actors.
Consequently, the collection and analysis of strategic intelligence is much more comprehensive and complex than collecting the information for other types of intelligence. It involves analyzing changes in the economy, the political situation, and the military capabilities of countries or regions as well evaluating the likelihood they will be used against a specific target.
A Strategic Intelligence Platform combines intelligent technology with the right data to provide a holistic view of strategy development, implementation and evaluation. It can also automate tasks and streamline workflows to ensure a smooth transition across the strategy management cycle. It can help your business maintain and cultivate its competitive edge in spite of constant market shocks.