Hunting for America’s Most Intelligence-Savvy CEO™
Hunting for America’s Most Intelligence-Savvy CEO™
Intelligence Leadership Award Committee Reviewing Nominees
Cambridge, MA – September 19, 2000 -The hunt for the second annual recipient of the 2000 Intelligence-Savvy CEO™ Award for Leadership in Competitive Intelligence is underway. According to award advisory board chairman Leonard M. Fuld, president of Fuld & Co., the award “validates the critical role that competitive intelligence plays in the boardrooms of Corporate America today.”
Last year Motorola Chairman and CEO Christopher B. Galvin received the award. An Intelligence Savvy CEO™ Award Advisory Board is now completing a comprehensive and in-depth review of award candidates. In addition to Leonard Fuld, the 12-member Board includes other competitive intelligence “gurus” including the Academy of Competitive Intelligence (ACI) founder and president Benjamin Gilad, ACI co-founder Jan Herring as well as representatives from the national business media.
The award is presented each year to a chief executive officer based on his or her open support of competitive intelligence practices within an organization. In addition, the CEO must earmark funds for speeding the flow of critical competitive information and encourage the establishment of “intelligence standards,” such as staff training, ethical and legal guidelines, and introducing intelligence findings at company and staff meetings. This year’s award recipient will be announced in December.
According to Fuld, the interest in competitive intelligence, especially within the ranks of the Fortune 500, is growing. He predicts, “Now considered a hot trend in Corporate America, competitive intelligence is quickly becoming a required component of savvy management, taking its place alongside other key management initiatives. While every corporate executive typically states a need to understand its competition, few act on such statements. Tomorrow’s successful corporations will maintain competitive advantage by taking action based on relevant information that has been strategically analyzed.”
Fuld & Company
Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., with offices in London and Geneva, Fuld & Company is an international leader and pioneer in the field of competitive intelligence. The company specializes in providing research and analysis to the financial services, utility/energy, manufacturing, high technology, telecommunications, healthcare and consumer product sectors. In addition, across all of these industry sectors, Fuld & Company assists corporations in the development of robust strategic intelligence programs and processes. Leonard Fuld, often regarded as the father of competitive intelligence, is a worldwide recognized expert and author in the field of competitive intelligence. Since founding Fuld & Co. in 1979, the firm has completed more than 3,000 competitive intelligence assignments and count more than half the Fortune 500 as its clients.
Additional information can be found at http://www.fuld.com
Symantec CEO Says Customers are His Most Valuable Asset
Symantec CEO Says Customers are His Most Valuable Asset
Competitive Intelligence from Customers and Employees Provide the Best Leg Up on the Competition
Cambridge, MA – September 1, 2000 – The market insight and “competitive intelligence” you can gain from your customers is more valuable than what you gain about a competitor, according to Symantec CEO John Thompson. As a world leader in the hot field of Internet security and privacy, Symantec is more focused on the value of what it delivers to customers than on its value in the marketplace.
In an exclusive interview with competitive intelligence guru Leonard Fuld on the Fuld Competitive Intelligence Center (www.factiva.com) during the month of September, Thompson contends that your company must strike a balance between watching the market and your relevant competitors vs. listening attentively to your customers. One of his customers gave him feedback on a problem that has resulted in the idea for a new software product currently under review.
The Fuld Competitive Intelligence Center provides business professionals, from managers to CEOs, with powerful company, industry and trend analysis tools that help them efficiently compile, evaluate and act on competitive intelligence and make timely, strategic decisions.
Rather than traditional competitors, Thompson has focused on small, early stage, venture-backed companies to bring Symantec into the top ranks of Internet security companies during the past year. He has also created an environment in which employees and managers believe that their insight and intelligence about what is going on within the company will be viewed in a positive way and not pose a threat to their careers. Both his product management organization and sales force are key to gaining insight into the marketplace and competition.
“CEOs who feel most uninformed feel that way because they have not created an environment where their people feel least threatened about bubbling up the trust,” he said.
Since the world is becoming increasingly connected through technology, Symantec will be challenged by the need to accelerate the development of constructive, thought-provoking security solutions, Thompson said.
“More and more people will have to feel confident that they can operate in this connected world and not be threatened by either loss of information or unnecessary prying of their behavior or their attitudes over the Net,” he said.
Factivaä, a leader in delivering and integrating global news and business information on corporate desktops around the world, launched Fuld’s groundbreaking competitive intelligence resource in the award-winning Ask Dow Jones section of Dow Jones Interactive.
Each month, the site features an exclusive interview with a top CEO or other well known executive. The interviews, all conducted by Fuld, uncover each executive’s competitive strategies, challenges and successes. Already featured have been Robert Crandall, the former chairman & CEO of American Airlines, Herb Baum, president of Hasbro Inc., oil magnate T. Boone Pickens, Monster.com CEO Jeff Taylor and Pitney Bowes CEO Michael Critelli.
Besides exclusive CEO interviews, the Fuld Competitive Intelligence Center offers a Competitive Intelligence Primer and an interactive introduction to competitive intelligence basics – covering topics such as information analysis, research techniques, global information interpretation and competitive intelligence program organization. In addition, the site’s Strategic Intelligence Organizer provides a complete checklist of information revealing the best competitive practices used by successful companies.
Fuld & Company
Headquartered in Cambridge, Mass., with offices in London and Geneva, Fuld & Company is an international leader and pioneer in the field of competitive intelligence. The company specializes in providing research and analysis to the financial services, utility/energy, manufacturing, high technology, telecommunications, healthcare and consumer product sectors. In addition, across all of these industry sectors, Fuld & Company assists corporations in the development of robust strategic intelligence programs and processes. Leonard Fuld, often regarded as the father of competitive intelligence, is a worldwide recognized expert and author in the field of competitive intelligence. Since founding Fuld & Co. in 1979, the firm has completed more than 3,000 competitive intelligence assignments and count more than half the Fortune 500 as its clients.
Additional information can be found at http://www.fuld.com
