The issue of optimization of efficiency of a business process is one of the most frequently discussed problems in the contemporary business world. A number of researchers and scholars are involved into the analysis of the processes that influence the income, reputation, popularity and effectiveness of a business. In the modern era of information, knowledge and data play a vital role in the development of business advantage.
This is why businesses are determined to collect as much information as possible concerning all of the spheres related to their companies including their customer base, brand reputation, product quality, supply chain, equipment, employees and policies. Besides, in order to develop a successful business, a company is to collect the data related to its market and the processes within it, forecast the future trends and tendencies and also be aware of the development of their competitors.
The process directed at the acquisition and collection of the data concerning the advantages and disadvantages of a business and its competitors is referred to as competitive intelligence. It is important to mention that business intelligence works only within the legal and ethical limitations, which means that the business are to collect the relevant data using lawful methods and strategies without turning to espionage, privacy violations or information theft.
The Use of Competitive Intelligence
The proper use of competitive intelligence will allow the businesses to stay ahead of their competitors because in the contemporary world knowledge is power. The modern all-consuming heavy use of the Internet and total connectedness create a huge field for creativity for the competitive intelligence professionals because now they can track the actions of their competitors online viewing their websites, blogs, and social media accounts and collecting the most recent data instantly.
All kinds of information can be accessed online, but the most successful companies do not just collect every piece of data about their competitors. Instead, they focus on particular issues or aspects and target them in order to beat their competitors in one specific area. This approach has proved to be much more productive than random and purposeless data collection. It goes without saying that the Internet is a powerful and limitless tool for data collection, but it is not the only means competitive intelligence relies on.
The employees are another important source of data collection. The employees provide a strong base of opinions concerning services and products of their company; besides, they directly interact with the clients many of whom are also in communication with the competitors.
This way, if data collection is a part of the company’s organizational culture, the flow of data can be maximized. Finally, the generous body of data needs to be properly analyzed in order to the company to be able to get reliable data concerning the most important changes employed by the competitors. For example, the changes in the staffing practices may signify new focuses of the rival organization, internal re-structuring, different orientation, the pursuit of unconventional goals. Collection of data may bring a number of different pieces of information, but to connect the dots properly a deep analysis is needed. The professionals are to work out several potential hypotheses and them compare them to one another in order to get a clearer general picture.
Summaries
To understand the application of competitive intelligence in the strategic managements I located two scholarly articles exploring this subject and read them.
Article 1
The first article is by Ahmed, Ahmad, Khoso, Arif and Palwishah, it is called “Competitive intelligence and marketing effectiveness of organizations: An investigation from Pakistan”. The main of objective of this article is to examine how the competitive intelligence can increase the effectiveness of marketing. The authors of the article emphasize the competitive intelligence refers to both internal and external sources of information concerning the operation of a particular business (Ahmed, Ahmad, Khoso, Arif and Palwishah 342).
In the article the competitive intelligence is examined from the point of view of the elements that compose it such as technological, technical, market and strategic intelligence, competitor risks and threats, market opportunities (Ahmed, Ahmad, Khoso, Arif and Palwishah 342).
The research tests the significance of each variable and how they are employed by the Pakistan-based businesses in order to improve the efficiency of their marketing. The article begins with the statement about the contemporary business market and its saturation. The authors proceed emphasizing the importance of the competitive intelligence for any business and the explanation of all of its elements and what they stand for. The quantitative research presented in the article relies on the primary data collected by means of questionnaires and interviews (Ahmed, Ahmad, Khoso, Arif and Palwishah 346).
The participants represented such industries as telecom and banking among others. Besides many of them were executive MBAs working in different spheres. The significance of each element of the competitive intelligence was tested individually. The researchers conclude that currently competitive intelligence in Pakistan is not applied formally, but informally is relied upon to shape such marketing elements as advertising, pricing, marketing strategy, distribution, production and customer offers (Ahmed, Ahmad, Khoso, Arif and Palwishah 350).
Article 2
The second article reviewed for this paper is “Investigation of the Impact of Intelligence Dimensions on Customers’ Satisfaction” by Abdolvand, Kheiry and Vaezi. From the title of the article it becomes clear that the research is determined to identify the impact of competitive intelligence on the customer satisfaction, it targets one particular organization – Mellat Bank based in Zanjan city, Iran. This article presents another qualitative research where the data is collected by means of questionnaires distributed across the branches of Mellat Bank; in total, 268 questionnaires served as the basis for the research (Abdolvand, Kheiry and Vaezi 93).
The authors of this article also research the importance of such types of intelligence as market, technological, competitive and social intelligence. They explain which spheres each of the types responds to. During the research the participants were to respond 4 to 6 questions measuring the importance of each type of intelligence. All of the respondents were the employees of Mellat Bank of both sexes and different ages working in different branches. The results of the research showed that all of the evaluated types of intelligence were in direct relationship with the customer satisfaction. As a result, the researchers propose the following improvements in order to enhance customer satisfaction: deep evaluation of the environmental threats and opportunities, focus on more contemporary methods of marketing, more thorough empowerment of the employees, the improvement of the online services and customer database.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the reviewed research articles show the importance of the competitive intelligence and its various types and elements for the successful work of a business and its ability to compete productively in the rapidly developing and highly saturated contemporary business market.
Works Cited
Abdolvand, Mohammad Ali, Bahram Kheiry and Maryam Vaezi. “Investigation of the Impact of Intelligence Dimensions on Customers’ Satisfaction.” Journal of Applied Environmental and Biological Sciences 4. 9 (2014): 93-98. Print.
Ahmed, Rizvan Raheem, Nawaz Ahmad, Imamuddin Khoso, Khawaja A. Arif and Rana I. Palwishah. “Competitive intelligence and marketing effectiveness of organizations: An investigation from Pakistan.” European Scientific Journal 10.13 (2014): 342-353. Print.