Most Australasian B2B organisations businesses remain “decades behind” their counterparts in other more competitive intelligence-conscious markets, says international author and thought leader, Babette Bensoussan.
A well-awarded international CI specialist and indisputedly Australia’s own “queen of competitive intelligence”, Bensoussan – Managing Director of the Mindshifts Group www.mindshifts.com – says CI remains “doggedly misunderstood and undervalued” in Australasia’s B2B and B2G sectors.
In a wide-ranging interview (see the full interview in the ‘Fireside Interviews’ section of Pursuits Academy) she speaks on (a) why the critically important discipline of CI is so undervalued by Australasian businesses, (b) the associated dangers in a commercial environment rife with “disrupters”, and (c) the opportunities being missed, Bensoussan pointed to some key myths.
5 Key CI Myths
In a collection of excerpts from the broader interview, I present a selection of these enduring myths:
MYTH No. 1: ‘Doing Competitive Intelligence’ is easy and reasonably quick.
FACT: It’s not easy and it’s not quick.
The most dangerous of the misconceptions, this one is the root of all evil in competitive intelligence.
“The common thinking is that you do a bit of a Google search, have a quick scan of the results, and then visit your competitors’ websites, have a quick read – and presto, you’re all done.
“CI is a discipline is in its own right. I’ll be in conversation with a senior executive (one who’s not a client, that is), and he or she will typically say something like: ‘Oh yes, we do Competitive Intelligence.’
“But when you ask them exactly what they’ve done, what you find out is that some of their people have looked at the competition’s websites, or they’ve been to a function and heard something about one of the competitors.”
The dangers of this failure to recognise the true nature, depth and requirements of competent and comprehensive competitive intelligence are manifold, she says. Key among them are misinformed strategies based on unchecked and incorrect assumptions (Note from Jordan Kelly: Never a good basis for a big-ticket bid strategy.)
MYTH No. 2: ‘Competitive intelligence’ and ‘competitor intelligence’ are the same thing.
FACT: Competitor research is only one element of competent and comprehensive competitive intelligence.
One of the most widely accepted, formal definitions of “Competitive Intelligence’’ is:
“Competitive Intelligence is the discipline of gathering and analysing information to derive insights about your competitors, your competitive environment, and future trends that will impact the competitiveness of your organisation.”
The problem, says Bensoussan, is that when you say “Competitive Intelligence”, most people tend to unconsciously replace the word “competitive” with “competitor”.
“There’s a critical difference.
“Competitive Intelligence is about your competitiveness within your commercial operating environment. Competitor intelligence is just one aspect of that bigger picture.”
Note to CEO readers, from Jordan Kelly:
The narrow understanding of “competitive intelligence” that is generally applied to bid strategy represents only one strand of the CI tapestry. If you’re a CEO, group executive responsible for Business Development, Sales or Marketing – or you hold any other relevant senior position in your organisation – you’re placing yourself at a severe competitive disadvantage (or at best, missing opportunities) if you don’t expand your understanding past the confines of this too-narrow definition.)
MYTH No. 3: Most information can be derived from a single source, or a few key sources.
FACT: Your information must come from multiple sources.
Relying on single sources leads to misinformed strategies.
It fosters assumption, incorrect or outdated inputs, and a lack of true knowledge about what’s going on in your industry or other industries that could be impacting it, or could in the future impact it.
Cross-referencing is but one reason to expand your CI activities to include multiple information sources. There are many others.
MYTH No. 4: You need only concern yourself with your industry and the players in it.
FACT: Not seeing the broader picture of your competitive field can see you side-swiped and a victim of “disruption”.
Says Bensoussan:
“Kodak’s business was disrupted by the iPhone. Ironically, Kodak developed the actual underlying camera capability technology, but the company was too limited and too slow in its own application of that technology.
“Angus & Robertson, and other bricks-and-mortar bookseller chains, have been victim to the Amazon model.
“And the travel agent industry has been massively impacted by online booking sites.
“Those are examples of companies that didn’t look outside their own industries in the competitive intelligence process. With the pace of disruption, there will be an ever-increasing incidence of this type of carnage in the marketplace, and – while it might take longer to impact the B2B sector than it has the consumer sector – B2B won’t be spared.”
MYTH 5: ‘Information’ and ‘intelligence’ are synonymous.
Bensoussan makes the following critical clarifications:
“Most organisations that think they’ve got a handle on CI are largely collecting secondary information. Very few people collect sufficient primary information – which is critical for numerous reasons, not the least being to challenge assumptions.
“Sometimes, an organisation will have great confidence about what management feels is the volume of information they’re collecting. But it’s just ‘information’.
“For each piece of information, they need to ask themselves, what specific analytical technique are we going to use to derive insight from this information?
“As you, Jordan, in your own books and other writings have copiously pointed out, information does not automatically equate to intelligence.
“The problem in these cases is usually that they collect all this data and then they drown in it. They don’t go the next step and properly analyse it. So they don’t derive any insight from it.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am2FTtMvA80 OR http://mindshifts.com.au/resources/videos/
Caption: International Competitive Intelligence specialist, Bernadette Bensoussan: ‘Australasian B2B and B2G sectors decades behind’.
For the entire interview, go to FIRESIDE INTERVIEW: ‘Competitive Intelligence’: A Discipline Not A Buzzword.
Most Australasian B2B organisations businesses remain “decades behind” their counterparts in other more competitive intelligence-conscious markets, says international author and thought leader, Babette Bensoussan.
A well-awarded international CI specialist and indisputedly Australia’s own “queen of competitive intelligence”, Bensoussan – Managing Director of the Mindshifts Group www.mindshifts.com – says CI remains “doggedly misunderstood and undervalued” in Australasia’s B2B and B2G sectors.
In a wide-ranging interview (see the full interview in the ‘Fireside Interviews’ section of Pursuits Academy) she speaks on (a) why the critically important discipline of CI is so undervalued by Australasian businesses, (b) the associated dangers in a commercial environment rife with “disrupters”, and (c) the opportunities being missed, Bensoussan pointed to some key myths.
5 Key CI Myths
In a collection of excerpts from the broader interview, I present a selection of these enduring myths:
MYTH No. 1: ‘Doing Competitive Intelligence’ is easy and reasonably quick.
FACT: It’s not easy and it’s not quick.
The most dangerous of the misconceptions, this one is the root of all evil in competitive intelligence.
“The common thinking is that you do a bit of a Google search, have a quick scan of the results, and then visit your competitors’ websites, have a quick read – and presto, you’re all done.
“CI is a discipline is in its own right. I’ll be in conversation with a senior executive (one who’s not a client, that is), and he or she will typically say something like: ‘Oh yes, we do Competitive Intelligence.’
“But when you ask them exactly what they’ve done, what you find out is that some of their people have looked at the competition’s websites, or they’ve been to a function and heard something about one of the competitors.”
The dangers of this failure to recognise the true nature, depth and requirements of competent and comprehensive competitive intelligence are manifold, she says. Key among them are misinformed strategies based on unchecked and incorrect assumptions (Note from Jordan Kelly: Never a good basis for a big-ticket bid strategy.)
MYTH No. 2: ‘Competitive intelligence’ and ‘competitor intelligence’ are the same thing.
FACT: Competitor research is only one element of competent and comprehensive competitive intelligence.
One of the most widely accepted, formal definitions of “Competitive Intelligence’’ is:
“Competitive Intelligence is the discipline of gathering and analysing information to derive insights about your competitors, your competitive environment, and future trends that will impact the competitiveness of your organisation.”
The problem, says Bensoussan, is that when you say “Competitive Intelligence”, most people tend to unconsciously replace the word “competitive” with “competitor”.
“There’s a critical difference.
“Competitive Intelligence is about your competitiveness within your commercial operating environment. Competitor intelligence is just one aspect of that bigger picture.”
Note to CEO readers, from Jordan Kelly:
The narrow understanding of “competitive intelligence” that is generally applied to bid strategy represents only one strand of the CI tapestry. If you’re a CEO, group executive responsible for Business Development, Sales or Marketing – or you hold any other relevant senior position in your organisation – you’re placing yourself at a severe competitive disadvantage (or at best, missing opportunities) if you don’t expand your understanding past the confines of this too-narrow definition.)
MYTH No. 3: Most information can be derived from a single source, or a few key sources.
FACT: Your information must come from multiple sources.
Relying on single sources leads to misinformed strategies.
It fosters assumption, incorrect or outdated inputs, and a lack of true knowledge about what’s going on in your industry or other industries that could be impacting it, or could in the future impact it.
Cross-referencing is but one reason to expand your CI activities to include multiple information sources. There are many others.
MYTH No. 4: You need only concern yourself with your industry and the players in it.
FACT: Not seeing the broader picture of your competitive field can see you side-swiped and a victim of “disruption”.
Says Bensoussan:
“Kodak’s business was disrupted by the iPhone. Ironically, Kodak developed the actual underlying camera capability technology, but the company was too limited and too slow in its own application of that technology.
“Angus & Robertson, and other bricks-and-mortar bookseller chains, have been victim to the Amazon model.
“And the travel agent industry has been massively impacted by online booking sites.
“Those are examples of companies that didn’t look outside their own industries in the competitive intelligence process. With the pace of disruption, there will be an ever-increasing incidence of this type of carnage in the marketplace, and – while it might take longer to impact the B2B sector than it has the consumer sector – B2B won’t be spared.”
MYTH 5: ‘Information’ and ‘intelligence’ are synonymous.
Bensoussan makes the following critical clarifications:
“Most organisations that think they’ve got a handle on CI are largely collecting secondary information. Very few people collect sufficient primary information – which is critical for numerous reasons, not the least being to challenge assumptions.
“Sometimes, an organisation will have great confidence about what management feels is the volume of information they’re collecting. But it’s just ‘information’.
“For each piece of information, they need to ask themselves, what specific analytical technique are we going to use to derive insight from this information?
“As you, Jordan, in your own books and other writings have copiously pointed out, information does not automatically equate to intelligence.
“The problem in these cases is usually that they collect all this data and then they drown in it. They don’t go the next step and properly analyse it. So they don’t derive any insight from it.”
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=am2FTtMvA80 OR http://mindshifts.com.au/resources/videos/
Caption: International Competitive Intelligence specialist, Bernadette Bensoussan: ‘Australasian B2B and B2G sectors decades behind’.
For the entire interview, go to FIRESIDE INTERVIEW: ‘Competitive Intelligence’: A Discipline Not A Buzzword.
