Competitive Intelligence has successfully transformed business practices across economies. Intelligence developed in order to gain advantage has allowed businesses to provide greater values to consumers. This proved effective in filling gaps unidentified in the market.
Competitive intelligence has been proven to be more comprehensive than just providing direction to decision makers. It has built strong collaboration between departments of businesses. It has influenced strong competition between competitors.
More importantly, competitive intelligence has empowered marketing and product development. Competitive intelligence has managed to bring innovation in rigid and orderly businesses. This has proven to be a real advantage for businesses to adapt to the developments.
Competitive intelligence was first used as a tool for strategic decision making. It was usually a small part of the higher table that provided useful intelligence. This intelligence was used to make objectives and develop strategies to achieve those objectives.
Competitive intelligence has transformed its role in business practices. Competitive intelligence has become an integral part of a company’s activities. This has given birth to tactical intelligence.
Tactical intelligence is more short-term intel used to tackle obstacles appearing in the business. Hence tactical competitive intelligence is used to achieve tasks like pitching customers, increasing revenue, providing intel to the sales department.
Such transformation in the role of intelligence couldn’t just happen overtime. However, it did, which means that the role of competitive intelligence has greater influence. The nature of this influence is branching to multiple aspects of business.
Furthermore, this highlights how well competitive intelligence goes hand in hand with business. From being merely a decision-making tool, to providing aid to multiple functioning departments, competitive intelligence has proven it worth.
Today large companies and firms rely on a rigorous process of competitive intelligence to overcome competition. Competitive intelligence has made its way as a mainstream business practice. But let’s talk about its influences on business as a whole.
Influence of Competitive Intelligence on business practices
Marketing Intelligence
Perhaps one of the biggest influences competitive advantages has is on Marketing. Marketing is the process by which businesses reach their possible customers. Marketing is a rigorous and comprehensive process.
Competitive intelligence often includes in-depth research of the market and its changing trends. Hence it is no wonder that competitive intelligence would have a huge influence on marketing. Competitive Intelligence has upgraded market research to a whole new level.
Competitive Intelligence provides all the insights and changing trends in the market. These are particularly useful to develop strategies to secure a market share. Furthermore, expansion of market share is a common objective of business.
So competitive intelligence also influences strategies to increase market share. Intelligence provides bases for businesses to highlight possible markets for existing or new products. Hence, we call it Market Intelligence.
Market intelligence is also used to understand competitors’ behavior and activities in the market. All in order to surpass them in competition. More importantly, Market intelligence is used to develop strategies to achieve success over competition.
Competitors Intelligence
While the two may seem similar, it is important to identify the difference between competitor intelligence and Competitive Intelligence. Competitor’s intelligence is the process of gathering data and information regarding your competitor.
This may include analysis of their internal environment and their external environment. However competitive intelligence is any information gathered to achieve or develop objectives and goals.
Competitor’s intelligence may be part of competitive intelligence. However not all competitive intelligence is competitors’ intelligence. Competitor intelligence may include information about new products of competitors. Their plans to expand in the market and their strengths and weaknesses.
It is important to understand the meaning of competitors. Competitors may be direct competitors or indirect competitors. Direct Competitors give head-to-head competition to your products. Hence, they are often in the same market dealing with the same customer segment as yours.
Indirect competition comes from a different market yet influences your customer market. These competitions usually have a long-lasting impact on your business. However, this is a major concern because it is usually not day to day competition that drowns businesses but long term competition.
Technological Intelligence
Technology is definitely the highlight of our modern and postmodern era. Technology has influenced every aspect of our society. So it is obvious that technology plays an important role in business activities.
It is one of the determining factors in an external environment. Companies are pushed to track technological changes in order to survive in a competitive environment. Competitive intelligence is used to measure the technological impact on business.
Hence the term technological intelligence. The process of gathering information and data to track technology and conceptualize its impact on business is known as technological intelligence.
Technology is able to change the market and its trends. Technology has integrated itself deeply into our society and its values. Technology often marks cultural change, overcoming traditionalism. Technological intelligence is often used to judge technology’s impact on the market.
Social and Strategic Intelligence
Social impacts on the market are another aspect of the external environment. Change in social values and beliefs simply does not impact the market. But it also impacts businesses directly.
Business is a discipline that is deeply integrated to human values and beliefs. Hence it is no wonder that business activities and social impact are interlinked. Social impact is judged and measured using competitive intelligence.
The idea of providing greater social value through business is fueled by competitive intelligence. Competitive intelligence further allows businesses to develop strategies in order to benefit from the social aspect of the external environment.
Competitive advantage
Competitive intelligence has changed the game for businesses’ efforts to achieve competitive advantage. Competitive intelligence has made it possible for businesses to develop insights into the market. Therefore, provide greater value.
Furthermore, this value is unique to a company and cannot be replicated by the competitor. Hence competitive advantage is often considered an unfair advantage a business possesses over its competitors. Having extensive intelligence regarding the market and one’s own ability is what changed the game of competitive advantage.
