Comments on: Competitive intelligence and street lighting http://blog.valuenotes.biz/competitive-intelligence-and-street-lighting?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=competitive-intelligence-and-street-lighting ValueNotes Blog Tue, 07 Feb 2012 09:10:00 -0600 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.6 hourly 1 By: Venkata http://blog.valuenotes.biz/competitive-intelligence-and-street-lighting/comment-page-1#comment-6797 Venkata Tue, 01 Feb 2011 06:41:56 +0000 http://blog.valuenotes.biz/?p=308#comment-6797 Interesting article indeed! CI needs Org support and commitment from organization as a whole, to make it effective. As an approach, it has to be multipronged pronged - the information flow has to be (at the minimum) three dimensional - (i) Intelligence gathered from the field (Internal Sources), (ii) Focussed Secondary / Primary Research to understand the market (I would include External Syndicated Data Sources here). (iii) The third component being the most important link - flow information from the CI Group to the organization. (i) and (iii) will have to thrive to make the CI process and the CI group effective. This is where the Leadership Patronage becomes important. Leadership Patronage also will (can?) help CI play a more strategic role in shaping the organization. If left to individual entities / siloes, the information will still be collected, analysed, and interpreted for actionable insights. Without the a centralized CI support, they may remain in siloes (option not to fix a light at my gate) - thus the organization may miss out on an opportunity or a critical information that could have made it take a timely decision. Interesting article indeed!

CI needs Org support and commitment from organization as a whole, to make it effective.

As an approach, it has to be multipronged pronged – the information flow has to be (at the minimum) three dimensional – (i) Intelligence gathered from the field (Internal Sources), (ii) Focussed Secondary / Primary Research to understand the market (I would include External Syndicated Data Sources here). (iii) The third component being the most important link – flow information from the CI Group to the organization.

(i) and (iii) will have to thrive to make the CI process and the CI group effective. This is where the Leadership Patronage becomes important. Leadership Patronage also will (can?) help CI play a more strategic role in shaping the organization.

If left to individual entities / siloes, the information will still be collected, analysed, and interpreted for actionable insights. Without the a centralized CI support, they may remain in siloes (option not to fix a light at my gate) – thus the organization may miss out on an opportunity or a critical information that could have made it take a timely decision.

]]> By: Akshay http://blog.valuenotes.biz/competitive-intelligence-and-street-lighting/comment-page-1#comment-1987 Akshay Thu, 12 Aug 2010 06:47:47 +0000 http://blog.valuenotes.biz/?p=308#comment-1987 Hi, Just to bring in some more perspective, CI and Street lighting is a great comparison, but the problem arises when the CEO need to take a call on whether to start a CI function or not. When the government puts up the street lights they do it for the greater good of the society, provide for the people, prevent theft. But a CEO of a company has his task cut out because by employing a CI function he will just be helping his company and not the industry or the sector as a whole. This is where i think the CEO's job is tougher than that of government legislators, he needs to confront his employees, the directors, shareholders to convince them the effectiveness of a CI function in the company. This could be a reason for CI not being a priority in many companies( i want to make a distinction between CI and MI),as it takes time to show results and there is a possibility that the end receivers of the information might say " ohh we already new that", which might defeat the future of CI in that company. SO it becomes imperative that the CEO, gives in his time, confidence for the CI team to perform and become a important part of strategy formulation Hi,
Just to bring in some more perspective, CI and Street lighting is a great comparison, but the problem arises when the CEO need to take a call on whether to start a CI function or not. When the government puts up the street lights they do it for the greater good of the society, provide for the people, prevent theft. But a CEO of a company has his task cut out because by employing a CI function he will just be helping his company and not the industry or the sector as a whole. This is where i think the CEO’s job is tougher than that of government legislators, he needs to confront his employees, the directors, shareholders to convince them the effectiveness of a CI function in the company. This could be a reason for CI not being a priority in many companies( i want to make a distinction between CI and MI),as it takes time to show results and there is a possibility that the end receivers of the information might say ” ohh we already new that”, which might defeat the future of CI in that company. SO it becomes imperative that the CEO, gives in his time, confidence for the CI team to perform and become a important part of strategy formulation

]]> By: Varsha http://blog.valuenotes.biz/competitive-intelligence-and-street-lighting/comment-page-1#comment-1735 Varsha Wed, 28 Jul 2010 09:03:02 +0000 http://blog.valuenotes.biz/?p=308#comment-1735 You have a point. If you don't get the intelligence you need through internal flows, it makes sense to go out and use external professional researchers. Even if the internal intelligence flows are smooth, you may want to get the intelligence validated by an independent researcher - as slants and biases could creep into the internal intelligence due to vested interests of the internal sources. You have a point.
If you don’t get the intelligence you need through internal flows, it makes sense to go out and use external professional researchers.
Even if the internal intelligence flows are smooth, you may want to get the intelligence validated by an independent researcher – as slants and biases could creep into the internal intelligence due to vested interests of the internal sources.

]]> By: Cath http://blog.valuenotes.biz/competitive-intelligence-and-street-lighting/comment-page-1#comment-1719 Cath Tue, 27 Jul 2010 15:21:30 +0000 http://blog.valuenotes.biz/?p=308#comment-1719 In my opinion, if I want light outside my house that I can depend on, I need to put it there and maintain it. I will not rely on others to provide it for me. If I cannot do the wiring myself, I will hire a qualified professional to do it for me. The same applies to my view on CI. If my company wants to be competitive I need to know the playing field. I will not rely on information from other people, I will do the primary research myself or pay a quality researcher to do it for me. Sure, it is very valid to use the research gathered from internal sources but it needs to be triangulated and then assessed by a seasoned CI analyst. In my opinion, if I want light outside my house that I can depend on, I need to put it there and maintain it. I will not rely on others to provide it for me. If I cannot do the wiring myself, I will hire a qualified professional to do it for me. The same applies to my view on CI. If my company wants to be competitive I need to know the playing field. I will not rely on information from other people, I will do the primary research myself or pay a quality researcher to do it for me. Sure, it is very valid to use the research gathered from internal sources but it needs to be triangulated and then assessed by a seasoned CI analyst.

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