© 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.
| What they say
|
What they really mean
|
|---|---|
| A highly visible position. | We can't afford any office partitions, let alone offices. |
| Flexible Hours - 35 hours pw. | Plus whatever your supervisor asks you to. |
| Duties will vary. | Anyone in the office can boss you around. |
| Must have an eye for detail. | We have no quality control to speak of. |
| No phone calls please. | We've filled the job. This ad is just a legal formality. |
| Seeking candidates with a wide variety of experience. | You'll need it to replace three people who just left. |
| Seeking candidates who require little or no supervision. | You're on your own here; sink or swim. |
| Problem-solving skills a must. | This is a company in perpetual chaos and turmoil. |
| Requires team-leadership skills. | You'll have the manager's responsibilities, without the pay. |
| Good communication skills. | Management communicate, you listen and figure out what they want. |
| Ability to handle a heavy workload. | Whine or complain and you're fired! |
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.
Senior management can get away with clean desks. For anybody else it looks as if you are not working hard enough.
Build huge piles of documents around your workspace. To the casual observer, last year's work looks the same as today's work. It's the volume that counts. So pile the papers high and spread them wide. Even better, put lots of books on the floor to make it look like you are working on something major. Thick computer manuals are one possibility.
If you know somebody is going to visit your desk, bury the document you need halfway down an existing stack and rummage through it with purpose when he/she arrives.
Based on ideas from BBC Television's The Office.
