15www.scip.orgVolume 22 • Number 4 • Fall 2018

by Christophe Bissonand Avner Barnea

Competitive Intelligence: From Being the “Eyes and the Ears” to Becoming “the Brain” of Companies

17www.scip.orgVolume 22 • Number 4 • Fall 2018Competitive Intelligence16

of what is going on to be open to information, knowledge outside, and also inside.

Thereby, it would help to innovate, allocate by the best way its resources and adapt its strategic direction to changes. CI is the only transdisciplinary field that can glue all the parts that are necessary for decisions in such an external environment.

Furthermore, by understanding the competitive game, the internal information and knowledge network vital for decisions, CI professionals are the ones that can lead the use of computational power, AI, and machine learning for tactical and strategic purpose to anticipate and get competitive advantages (see Bisson & Gurpinar, 2017).

Indeed, if the use of non-parametric machine learning algorithm is gaining ground for face recognition, for tactical and strategic purposes, the supervised ones can still provide the most interesting results. Hence, we see an opportunity for CI professionals to augment their skills with AI to get stronger recognition and be part of the board as a vital element for sustainability.

One of the major challenges for AI in intelligence, not necessarily in national intelligence but in business, is to develop the capability of using AI to help in analyzing information and also anticipate further moves by competitors. However, we have to remember that at the end of this process, we need to use the human brain to make sure that we are making sense of information and knowledge. Moreover, Stephanie Hughes emphasized during the SCIP Europe 2016 conference that, at best, we can analyze 0.5% of Big Data. Thus, a pure computational approach would lead to wrong strategic decisions. There are already a few significant progressions in Israel for instance that integrates AI capabilities within intelligence analysis and predictions to support decision making.

By creating an open organization, optimizing the flow of information, knowledge from its external and internal stakeholders, augmented by Machine Learning and AI mainly for strategic purpose but also for tactical, CI would position itself as the brain of the company!

That’s what we should aspire to if we do not want to see CI perish as Machines rise!

Competitive Intelligence: From Being the “Eyes and the Ears” to Becoming “the Brain” of Companies

1. CompetitiveIntelligence Today

It is commonly accepted that Competitive Intelligence (CI) as a science and an art rose in the 80s (Prescott, 1999). For instance, one of the first CI units was established in Motorola in the mid-1980s. The first professionals who practiced CI were librarians and marketers, but gradually some CI specialists, CI units or departments appeared. CI can be construed as a multidisciplinary field encompassing strategy, management & organization, computer science, and marketing.

Competitive Intelligence focused mainly on environmental scanning of information about activities that happen around firms and have an impact on their performance (Aguilar,1967). Thereby, it can be defined as the process involving the gathering, analyzing, and communicating of environmental information to assist strategic decision- making (Dishman & Calof, 2007). As a product, CI delivers actionable intelligence (Pellissier & Nenzhelele, 2013).

In army or defense, those in command of intelligence are considered the “brain,” and thus intelligence is closely involved in the decision-making process. However, in companies it is more often the eyes and ears of decision makers, but they are not (or very rarely) involved directly in the strategic process. Hence, the main efforts are too often on gathering information and less on analysis. Indeed, CI is regularly assimilated as information/knowledge on competitors and at the best market (e.g. see Tsai et al., 2011). Furthermore, CI specialists are rarely at the board of companies, often are sub part of the marketing department (Bisson, 2013), or diluted in different jobs in the company. In such conditions, CI delivers the basic material for decisions, and CI fellows appear to be disconnected from the strategic; however, most frequently, decisions are based on silo views of companies’ environment and can lead to redundant work among departments. In fast moving and highly uncertain competitive environments, blind spots end more and more frequently by a business failure (e.g. Kodak, Nokia, Alcatel). Therein, a “business as usual” mentality can no longer cope with hyper competition, faster innovation cycle, and the huge increase of data/information which will dramatically soar with the Internet of Things.

Figure 1. The Intelligence Society

Furthermore, what one defines as intelligence should be new knowledge allowing new understanding as underlined by Liam Fahey (Fahey, 2009). Thus, when nothing is new about markets and competition, it is about knowledge and not intelligence (see Figure 1). Intelligence is what can provide a competitive advantage, not only through strong knowledge, but mainly due to new acumen and new knowledge that enlightens decisions.

It has often been said that CI allows actions. But isn’t it a science as well? Hence, science is a seamless questioning cycle. The leitmotiv, “I doubt then I am” can help companies to test the status-quo, detect blind spots, and anticipate. To consider CI only through actions is a tropism, and time has come to also consider it as a science.

It has been redundantly said that CI must help companies to anticipate since to react is a long process to be implemented in big companies. It can take several years to implement change in a big company. But the capability of anticipation can allow also one to get a competitive advantage, avoid a threat and that’s true for any type of company and any sector (see Bisson & Dou, 2017). Moreover, in such tough competition, the first mover can be the winner and most of the time it gets a big market share that extends toward monopoly or oligopoly as a paradox of the market economy.

As underlined by Derek Sugalski during his talk at the SCIP Europe 2016 conference, Competitive Intelligence (CI) triggers less research online. If one performs research with Google trend (trend.google.com), one would find similar results. On the reverse, machine learning searches, trends are quickly rising.

If Israel is often shown as an example for its intelligence practices, surprisingly, Barnea in a longitudinal study enhanced that CI is at the same level with years and rarely at high level of companies (Barnea, 2016). If the trend is obviously not positive, we detect opportunities that should make the CI future brighter.

2. A Necessary Change to Win

Companies and public organizations are facing, for the first time, high levels of Volatile, Uncertain, Complex and Ambiguous (VUCA) strategic environments. Therefore, to keep having strong decision system and avoid blind spots, organizations need to have a 360 degree vision

Competitive Intelligence: From Being the “Eyes and the Ears” to Becoming “the Brain” of Companies

Source: Denieul F., translated from French

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References

1. Barnea, A. (2016). ‘Study on competitive intelligence in Israel: 2016 update’. Journal of Intelligence Studies in Business, Vol. 6, No. 2, pp. 5-16

2. Bisson, C. (2013). Guide de Gestion Stratégique de l’information pour les PME. Les 2 encres, France, 278 p.

3. Bisson, C. and Dou, H. (2017). ‘Une Intelligence Economique et Stratégique pour les PME, PMI et ETI en France’. Vie & Sciences de l’Entreprise. No.204.

4. Bisson, C. and Gurpinar, F. (2017). ‘A Bayesian approach to developing a strategic early warning system for the French milk market’. Journal of Intelligence Studies in Business, Vol.7, No.3, pp. 25-34.

5. Dishman, P. L., Calof, J. L. (2007). ‘Competitive intelligence: a multiphasic precedent to marketing strategy’. European Journal of Marketing, Vol. 42, No. 7/8, pp. 766-785.

6. Fahey, L. (2009). ‘The future direction of Competitive Intelligence: Some reflections’. Competitive Intelligence Magazine, Vol. 12. Number 1, January/ February 2009, pp 17-22.

7. Pellissier, R. and Nenzhelele, T. (2013). ‘Towards a universal definition of competitive intelligence’. SA Journal of Information Management, Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. Art.#559, 7 pages.

8. Prescott, John E. (1999). ‘The evolution of Competitive Intelligence: Designing a process for action’. Proposal management, spring 1999, pp. 37-52.

9. Tsai, W., Su, K.H., Chen, M.J (2011). ‘Seeing through the eyes of a rival: Competitor acumen Based on rival-centric perceptions’. Academy of Management Journal, Vol.54, No. 4, 761-778.

In fast moving and highly uncertain competitive environments, blind spots end more and more frequently by a business failure (e.g. Kodak, Nokia, Alcatel). Therein, a “business as usual” mentality can no longer cope with hyper competition, faster innovation cycle, and the huge increase of data/information which will dramatically soar with the Internet of Things.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS:Christophe Bisson, Ph.D is Associate Researcher at DICEN Paris and Part-Time Professor at ESSEC Business School, christophe.bisson@essec.edu. He created the software Stratbrain (see www.stratbrain.tech) that he uses for his

lectures, trainings and consultancy.

Avner Barnea, Ph.D. is a senior competitive intelligence strategic consultant and also teaches strategic CI in various MBA programs in academia, in Israel. He is the head of a special program on competitive intelligence, corporate security, cyber security and crisis

management in the MBA program at Netanya Academic College, in Netanya, Israel. Dr. Barnea is teaching the course “Strategic Intelligence in the Competitive Landscape” in several MBA programs, including the Academic College of Tel Aviv-Yaffa, and the MA program of the Department of Information Science, Bar Ilan University. He is currently Chairman of the Israel CI Forum (FIMAT); he is also member of SCIP (Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals) Board of Directors and distinguished member – academia, of SCIP. Dr. Barnea is a former senior officer with the Israeli Intelligence Community and is a research fellow in the National Security Studies Center, University of Haifa, Israel. avnerpro@netvision.net.il

Competitive Intelligence: From Being the “Eyes and the Ears” to Becoming “the Brain” of Companies