© 2019 All Rights Reserved
© 2019 All Rights Reserved
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About Cookies OKWhat is Competitive Intelligence
This is an extract from a lecture we gave to MBAs, business school students & graduates at the University of Westminster in London. Watch for a taste or click here for the full lecture.
We’ve done many other presentations including Zoom / online presentations and webinars. You can view more on our Videos / Webinars page which includes a 2024 talk on how AI (artificial intelligence) can be used to support competitive intelligence.
Contact us if you would also like us to talk to your employees or students on any aspect of competitive or marketing intelligence.
Businesses (and people) over time develop habits and patterns of working. Sometimes these lead to success. However often they stop management from seeing reality – especially when the business environment changes. Competitive intelligence can identify these business blindspots – both in the company itself, and in its competitors. Taking advantage of competitor blindspots is a major way that a company can beat its competitors, so it is crucial to understand one’s own blindspots so as to protect oneself from possible attack.
Business problems can be shown through humour. Humour allows businesses to take a step back and see a problem applied to a situation that appears different to their own. One can also sometimes see similar behaviour in one’s own organisation – thus highlighting a possible blindspot. Humour is just one technique for showing blindspots. Others include the use of drama workshops and story-telling, or war-gaming where the business environment is modelled and management try and take an external look at themselves and their competitive situation.
The following “stories” and office “theories” are taken from our humour database – with a random selection shown. Refresh the page for further examples.
Accountants and financial analysts use a lot of abbreviations. EBITDA - for example means "Earnings before Interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation" and is key measure for company profits. However some of these can have other definitions - and when you analyse company financials it is always worth keeping at the back of your mind that a company publishes finances to make them look good as well as comply with legal filing obligations. They are supposed to be an honest truthful record of company performance but there are still ways to make the company look good. In some cases the accounts can make a company look better than it actually is. (On the stock exchange, you know this has happened when a few months later there is a profit warning).
|
Abbreviation
|
Revised Definition
|
Traditional Definition
|
|---|---|---|
| EBITDA | Earnings, before I tricked the dumb auditor | Earnings before interest, tax, depreciation & amortisation (A key measure of profitability) |
| EBIT | Earnings, before irregularities and tampering | Earnings before interest & tax (Operating profit) |
| CEO | Chief embezzlement officer | Chief executive officer |
| CFO | Corporate fraud officer | Chief financial officer |
| Profit | Person with a hotline to God who forecasts doom and gloom saying the end of the world / company is nigh. | Profit - i.e. Sales - expenses |
| IFRS | Incredibly fraudulent revenue streams | International Financial Reporting Standards |
| FRS | Fantasy reporting standards | Financial Reporting Standards |
| GAAP | Generally abused accounting principles | Generally Accepted Accounting Principles |
| P/E | Parole entitlement | Price per share / Earnings per share |
| EPS | Eventual prison sentence | Earnings per share |
| P&L | Prison & Life sentence | Profit & Loss Account |
| BS | A description of the company financial report. (Not related in any way to Bull Market which is a term used for purchases for a traditional Spanish blood sport). |
Balance Sheet. A Bull Market is a market where most shares are going up in price, encouraging buyers. It's the opposite of a Bear Market. |
| SWOT | Substantive Waste Of Time | Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities & Threats (A well known business analysis technique) |
| Standard & Poor | What most employees end up being | Standard & Poor (S&P) is a stock market index of the top US companies, and also one of the main credit / debt rating companies. |
Businesses (and people) over time develop habits and patterns of working. Sometimes these lead to success. However often they stop management from seeing reality – especially when the business environment changes. Competitive intelligence can identify these business blindspots – both in the company itself, and in its competitors. Taking advantage of competitor blindspots is a major way that a company can beat its competitors, so it is crucial to understand one’s own blindspots so as to protect oneself from possible attack.
Business problems can be shown through humour. Humour allows businesses to take a step back and see a problem applied to a situation that appears different to their own. One can also sometimes see similar behaviour in one’s own organisation – thus highlighting a possible blindspot. Humour is just one technique for showing blindspots. Others include the use of drama workshops and story-telling, or war-gaming where the business environment is modelled and management try and take an external look at themselves and their competitive situation.
The following “stories” and office “theories” are taken from our humour database – with a random selection shown. Refresh the page for further examples.
Be careful when looking at potential employee resumes / CVs. Candidates often embellish their achievements. For example, instead of just saying "I changed a lightbulb" a clever candidate may put one of these descriptions:
OR
