It's a classic good news / bad news report: more US corporations are using competitive intelligence to drive critical strategic and tactical decisions than ever before, but an alarming number of companies still do not have structured way to deliver intelligence to decision-makers in their organizations. Is the chasm between companies that value CI and those that don’t growing?
Outward Insights conducted its second “Ostriches and Eagles” CI best practices survey, which gauges the effectiveness and use of CI among US companies across industries. The first survey was conducted in 2005. The biggest finding this time around? More and more companies are “getting” the value of competitive intelligence. Most reassuring was the growth among respondents who said that CI was “an integral part of operational or tactical decisions” over the 2005 survey.
Another positive finding was the 72% of respondents that claimed to use CI to “anticipate and thwart competitor strategies” compared with 64% in 2005. This uptick reflects the increasing value executives place in the early warning applications of competitive intelligence.
Among other key findings:
- More respondents (28%) integrate likely competitor reactions into their plans for launching new products than in 2005 (21%)
- The use of scenario planning nearly doubled from 30% in 2005 to 59% this year
- The percentage of respondents who believe CI is “an integral part of the strategic planning process” was at 85%, the same as in 2005.
There were some notable differences in the responses from the seven industry groups surveyed: consumer products, energy, financial services, insurance, high-tech, manufacturing, and pharmaceuticals. For example, consumer products companies were least likely to have an organized intelligence function (62% vs. 76% of all respondents), while energy companies were least likely to make CI an integral part of their strategic planning process (71% vs 85% of all respondents).
We conducted the survey in June and July 2008. The survey consisted of telephone interviews with 100 senior executives at US corporations. More than two-thirds of the companies participating had revenues of $1 billion or greater. To request a complete survey report, contact us at info@outwardinsights.com.