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About Us > Help & Support > FAQs > Question 20: Competitor, Competitive & Business Intelligence Definitions

Marketing & Competitive Intelligence FAQ
Competitor, Competitive & Business Intelligence

What is the difference between business intelligence, competitor intelligence and competitive intelligence?

Although this seems a straightforward question, different people use the terms in different ways. Our definition follows:

  • Competitive Intelligence is the process whereby information on the competitive environment guides and informs the company's decisions. Competitive Intelligence looks at the overall external competitive environment (which includes suppliers, customers, and other company stakeholders, as well as the economic, sociocultural, political, legal and technological environment facing the company).
  • Competitor intelligence is a subset of this – looking purely at competitors, rather than the overall competitive environment (which include customers, suppliers, regulators, etc.).
  • Business intelligence is the widest of the three terms, encompassing the internal business systems within the company.

For other people, competitor and competitive intelligence are effectively synonymous. They use terms such as marketing intelligence and business intelligence to cover the wider environmental aspects.

To add to the confusion, business intelligence now frequently defines the data-mining processes companies use to analyse their internal information. You will also frequently encounter other related terms – sales intelligence, technological intelligence, financial intelligence and economic intelligence. Essentially these are further sub-divisions, limiting information to decision processes relating to sales, technology, financial or economic business functions.

They say that the Inuit (Eskimo) have hundreds of words for different types of snow, while Arabic has numerous words for different types of camel. I wonder if this subdivision of types of "intelligence" is a similar example of refining terms to a level where the differences are essentially trivial except to the experts and just confuse everybody else.

Note: This FAQ was originally published in the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professional's membership magazine (Competitive Intelligence Magazine - Mar-Apr 2003)

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Quick Tip: Deadly Sins

The Seven Deadly Business Sins

1) Greed - Are you satisfied with what you've achieved or are you always seeking more, and never consolidating and strengthening what you currently have?
2) Opinion - Do you ever dismiss ideas without analysis? There have been many opportunities that were missed because opinionated management failed to see the wider picture.
3) Routine - Just because something worked in the past does not mean that it will continue to work in the future.
4) Emotion - Is the reason for your decision based on analysis, or emotion? Many managers are driven by their fears and desires without ever stopping to justify the reason for their fear or hatred or love. Often these prove to be unjustified and unjustifiable.
5) Ego - Do you make decisions because you are the cleverest, the biggest, the market leader? Are you obsessed with your own image and abilities? Many leaders in the past also thought that they were invincible. A quick look at history shows that they were not!
6) Success - Over-confidence is dangerous and can blind you to competitors seeking to emulate your success.
7) Hope - Can you justify your reasons why things will improve, or are you just burying your head in the sand, and refusing to see reality?

These seven deadly business sins are based on some work by Ben Gilad, one of the foremost Competitive Intelligence experts. Businesses need to understand their blindspots - what they would rather not see, and work to remove them. Each of these seven sins is a type of blindspot if it dominates the thinking within the company. It's OK to have each to a certain degree, balanced by the others. (All businesses need to believe in themselves, have hope, aim to make money....). The problem is when one aspect starts to govern the way things are done in the company, preventing rational and logical thought.

 

Books - Co-opertition

Recommended Book

Smart Services
Co-opetition : 1. a revolutionary mindset that redefines competition and cooperation; 2. the game theory strategy that's changing the game of business
Adam M Brandenburger & Barry J Nalebuff
Buy UK £ or US$

Read our review of this book

Michael Porter described this book as "the most important single contribution" in taking his original ideas on ways of achieving competitive advantage forward. The book is easy to read, inexpensive and contains numerous ideas to help reshape and challenge thought processes. The writers develop Porter's 5 forces model, and introduce a sixth force. They emphasise the strategic advantages of co-operation and look at game theory as a way of approaching business strategy.

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For more recommendations visit our book selection.

 

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