Why World Class Corporate Intelligence Doesn’t Mean Spying
World class, legitimate corporate intelligence does indeed exist and is thriving. A new global benchmark report (From Stick Fetchers to World Class) we just issued testifies to that. You will see how widespread good, solid, professional competitive intelligence programs truly are.
Contrast this with the much louder and pervasive voice of the business press, which has filled pages with espionage-grabbing headlines.Toyota Engineers Convicted of Stealing Secrets from Ferrari, goes one eye catching title. Oracle Sues SAP Over Spying Charges, goes another. The cases go on and on, year after year. The impression these articles leave is that corporations can only uncover competitive initiatives, particularly important ones, by looting their competitors’ safes or stealing employees away to learn trade secrets.
The answer is no, no, no. Companies worldwide spend hundreds of millions of dollars on solid competitive due diligence on efforts far removed from the headlines (and probably devoid of shock value).
The determined efforts of a relatively small but influential group of individuals to embed legitimate intelligence efforts within their corporations do not grab headlines. These are programs governed by law and often overlaid with even stricter guidelines that rule everything from what you can ask employees hired from competitors to how to ask for information on the telephone, even to behavior on the trade show floor, where great competitive information is available like low hanging fruit in an orchard.
More than rules, these professional competitive intelligence analysts know how to gain competitive advantage with less information by applying sophisticated analysis techniques.
The global survey I mentioned at the outset certainly uncovered a number of curious findings, including: European companies seem to have more patience than their U.S. counterparts in allowing corporate intelligence programs to grow and mature. We also learned that pharmaceutical companies have more world class intelligence programs than do other industries surveyed.We certainly found lots of great tidbits, but the underlying theme is about the very real, very honest and hard-working efforts of major corporations to use intelligence to anticipate competitive threats and effectively execute their strategies.
I urge you to view with skepticism the spying headlines, and focus on the reality for a moment. That reality is that thousands of people are working hard to help their companies see past market disruptions and through competitive smokescreens.
