p.1 competitive intelligence (market signals regarding change)
p.54-55 The essence of the word manage is control.
There are basically two ways one can keep a measure of control over the competition in one's industry: Reshape it or keep
moving with it.
p.67 The essence of competitive strategy, or any strategy, is to position one's company in such
a way as to take advantage of its unique strengths (the so-called capabilities, competencies, or any other hot term)
against the competitors' weaknesses... First, discover the weak points on the opponents'
side, and then develop your competencies in exactly those areas!
p.71 If you know your competitor is committed to a certain way
of thinking about himself and his market, you have in your possession a lethally potent competitive weapon.
p.73 How do you keep your company in touch
with reality [in the market-place]? The answer is, you need a powerful, systematic,
company-wide process that is devoted to the identification and deciphering of weak, ambiguous market signals
early enough to make a difference.
p.77 We are blind to our blindspots, which is why they
are blindspots. The first real challenge is to diagnose them.
p.78 My methodology of diagnosing blindspots is indirect and is based on
three tests of competitiveness... Ask yourself the following three questions:
- The visceral test: Does your company viscerally [deeply,
profoundly] know its markets?
- The reaction test: Can it predict reactions to its
initiatives?
- The mute, blind, deaf (MBD) test: Does it suffer from a learning
disorder [no willingness to learn]?
p.87 The reaction test is a simple tool for diagnosing blindspots. In
essence, it asks a simple question: When your company (or you) plans
a strategic move, do you take into account the reaction of other players in your industry? Are you capable of predicting their
response?
p.93 The visceral knowledge, the reaction analysis, and the willingness
to learn are three indicators of the company's susceptibility to blindspots. While not pointing out specific
blinders, the tests indicate how well prepared the company is to identify competitive developments in its environment.
p.109 A successful executive who keeps on learning
will stay successful.
p.111 Learning seems to be the only defense against the onset
of blindspots.
p.113 Competitive Intelligence is deciphered signals from the
market that tell the CEO (at the corporate level) and the president (at the business unit level) if his or her organization
is still competitive, or how to make it more competitive.
By this definition, competitive intelligence is any information that has a bearing
on the company's blindspots.
p.114 What it [Sears] did not have was competitive intelligence - strategic information with a view
of the entire competitive arena that tells the CEO and president if their organization is still competitive.
p.115 competitive intelligence. It is never raw data. It is the recognition and deciphering
of raw, often weak, never equivocal [ambiguous], signals. Intelligence is the outcome of putting together bits and pieces
of data, evaluating them for reliability and strategic relevance, and analyzing their fit with the total
strategic puzzle - a picture of the company's competitive arena and its position in it.
p.118 in addition to information on competitors, competitive intelligence sweeps in data about all other
competitive forces in one's industry
p.122 Competitive learning takes place anytime executives apply knowledge acquired from the competitive
arena, rather than follow long-held traditions and assumptions.
p.122 Competitive learning requires systematic identification and deciphering
of ambiguous signals from the competitive arena.
p.122 Without such an effective process of competitive intelligence/competitive
learning, a company is setting itself up for eventual and inevitable sclerosis and decline.
p.123-124 Recall what competitive intelligence is all about: Deciphering of early and ambiguous market
signals that tell the CEO at the corporate level, and the president at the business unit level, if their organization is still
competitive. Competitive intelligence is any market information that has a bearing on the company's blindspots.
p.167 The competitive intelligence process is a tool to achieve the only
empowerment possible in a corporate environment.
p.186 The war game sounds simple; it is simple, yet it
requires meticulous preparation for its success... the war game is an old, underused organizational invention
with enormous, if subtle, long-term effects. Try it.
p.197 "The worst peril is to think about things only one way." [Richard
Bodman quoted]
p.225 The fastest and most effective way to turn whole units toward the subject of competitive awareness,
Red Team/Blue Team-type war games, are superb competitive tools. These are not the academic, computer-based simulation
of decisions, these are the real thing. Get some help mediating them.
p.226 The trick for survival is early detection.
p.227 Conclusion... Identifying and deciphering weak, ambiguous signals from the competitive arena
early on can save a company from decline. A company that does not have a powerful process to do just that may find
itself unprepared for a changing reality, and defenseless against the onset of Business Blindspots.
