TABLE OF CONTENTS

Inside Competitive Intelligence Advantage

If you’re in the market to make better business decisions, you need Seena Sharp’s book. It’s like having a competitive intelligence coach on the payroll.

Introduction: Required Reading (Yes, Really)

Chapter 1: The Emergence of the Hapless Executive
Knowing more and more about less and less; blind spots; the curse of success; taking control.

Chapter 2: Defining and Refining Competitive Intelligence
What it is and what it’s not, types of intelligence, change is the new normal, CI versus market research, scenario planning.

Chapter 3: Competitive Intelligence: What You Don't Know Will Hurt You
Starting with customers, not competitors; the supplier aspect; direct, indirect and substitute competitors; culture and economy.

Chapter 4: Why Fixating on Competitors is Misguided
The case against competitor intelligence; detect opportunities from change; differences worth noting; evaluating strengths and weaknesses.

Chapter 5: Three Critical Distinctions
The intelligence pyramid; components of data, information and intelligence; strategy and intelligence; data rich/information poor; intuition, gut and experience.

Chapter 6: All Information is Not Equal
Evaluate what you know against current reality, relevance, value; asking the right questions; defending obsolete “knowledge”; customer loyalty versus company disloyalty

Chapter 7: Knowing When and Why to Power Up the CI Engine.
Seeking growth opportunities; line extension; market entry, strategic planning, validating assumptions, leveraging current capabilities, and when making a substantial purchase.

Chapter 8: Next Steps For You and Your Company
Get up to speed quickly; value dissenting voices; feed the company mind-set; watch for anomalies; tap the blogosphere; create a CI culture.

Chapter 9: Understanding and Evaluating Information Sources
Traditional sources and overlooked/new sources; CI software; the invisible Web; blogs, social media, crowd sourcing and groupthink; researching online and offline; conventional wisdom.

Chapter 10: Performing Like a CI Pro
Know the questions; best practices for generating CI; qualities of CI content; characteristics of a CI practitioner; knowing when you have enough information.

Chapter 11: Demystifying Competitive Intelligence, One Myth at a Time
Thirteen fallacies deconstructed and disproved.

Chapter 12: What's In It For Me?
Sixteen specific ROI benefits to making competitive intelligence a management priority.

Chapter 13: Playing by the Rules, SCIP, Resources
Ethics; professional associations; reading, courses and programs; typical titles for corporate CI departments.