 AWARE Competitive Intelligence Resources
Where to find information
In order to gather and use competitive intelligence, one of the first steps is to search for secondary information sources - i.e. information that has already been published or collected for other purposes, that may be relevant to the key intelligence topic under investigation. Secondary sources may provide the answer to what you need. They may also provide information that will help the primary research stages - by suggesting potential contacts or interview approaches.
Knowing where to look is half the battle!
Over the years, we have built up a database of sources that we use for finding information. Some of these are on the web - and are easily accessible. Our Competitive Intelligence sources on the Internet pages give you a selection of these.
We've also included a separate list of other cool sites we believe show merit even if the content is not directly CI related. These include pages on business management, finding grants, business education, and a selection of reciprocal links. (We try and keep our links up-to-date and current but every now and then good sites disappear or change. If you find any dead links, or links that fail to match the description please tell us).
Although there is an incredible amount of information on the web, often the best place to learn how to do something new, or the theory behind something, is from a book. Our book recommendations list our favourite books on competitive intelligence and analysis, marketing, scenario planning and related subjects. Alternatively, if all you need is a general overview on what competitive intelligence and competitor analysis involves then our brief guide to competitive intelligence / competitor analysis should get you started.
Another resource is a regularly changing section on business humour. A major reason why companies fail is that they miss the obvious: that is they miss what is obvious to everybody else. Such failings are blindspots and humour is one of the best ways of illustrating a blindspot. The selection of stories and anecdotes included all have the aim of showing how easy it is to be blinkered and miss the obvious. You should use these stories and consider whether any of these or similar practices are common in your business - and if they are, how they impact your competitiveness. Part of the role of CI is to help businesses identify and correct their blindspots, and humour, storytelling and similar approaches are one of the more effective ways of quickly making such blindspots visible.
The above resources are all external to AWARE. We include one resource which is not - our Marketing Newsletter. This is published on an occasional basis and will keep you up-to-date with what we are doing, our site and more importantly give tips and ideas for best marketing and competitive intelligence practice. Our newsletter is aimed at helping you stay competitive and aware, not just of us, but all aspects of competitive analysis and marketing intelligence.
If you can't find what you need on our CI Resources pages have a look at our Help pages. These include a free ask the expert section where you can post a question on any competitive analysis, competitive intelligence or marketing related topic and one of our experts will reply with an answer. We also include an archive of typical past questions, so you may find the answer there.
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Quick Tip
Quick Tip: Entrance
A woman walked up to the manager of a department store and asked. Are you hiring any help? The manager answered: No - We already have all the staff we need! The woman responded: Good - then would you mind getting some one to wait on me?
How is your customer service? Are you risking sales and customer dissatisfaction because the staff you have do not focus sufficiently on your customers? We can all recognise the department store or shoe shop with sales agents busy talking to each other about what they were doing the night before, rather than helping us make a purchase. The same applies to non-retail businesses. Rather than hire new staff, make sure that the staff you have focus on the customers you need.
(For more marketing and business humour, visit our humour pages)
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Books - Competitors (Fahey)
Recommended Book
Competitive Intelligence: Gathering, Analysing and Putting it to Work
Christopher Murphy
Buy UK £ or US$
Read our review of this book
| If you are interested in learning about competitive intelligence with a UK / European focus then this book is for you. Most books on CI are written by US authors and take a US perspective. They fail to note the significant differences between what is available in the US and Europe and the UK. For example, in the US the US Freedom of Information Act is key for finding a lot of information. Such legislation has only recently been enacted in the UK and the type of information available is more limited. In contrast, financial information is much easier to obtain in the UK than the US. Murphy's book redresses the balance and fills a gap in guiding the CI newcomer on how to gather CI in Europe.
One of the best sections is a detailed examination of the sources and types of financial CI information that can be obtained within the UK. In fact I think this is unique. Of all the CI books I've read - none give anything like the same depth on this crucial topic.
For a thorough review of this book check out FreePint's book review.
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For more recommendations visit our book selection.
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Public training
Competitive Intelligence Training
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Our services in competitive intelligence research, competitor analysis and CI training will help you integrate and use competitive and marketing intelligence in your business, strategic and marketing planning processes. Whether you need research, advice or training, our mission is to support our clients so that they achieve their growth objectives.
For the best UK & European competitive intelligence and competitor analysis services, contact us today.
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Pages updated: May 2008 |
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