Abstract
M.Comm.
It is critical for companies in today's competitive business environment to
understand the impact and influence competitors and the external environment
have on the success of their strategies and competitive advantage. Business
must therefore comprehend how the strategies of competitors and forces of the
external environment may affect the competitive advantage of the business.
Businesses require actionable intelligence to enable them to monitor, analyse
and determine the impact from external environmental forces and actions from
competitors. Businesses have to develop appropriate strategies to achieve
competitive advantage over competitors in their industry.
The question which this study addresses, is whether businesses are able to
monitor the strategies and influences from the external environment effectively.
This is needed to gain a competitive advantage, and is accomplished by
producing actionable intelligence utilising the competitive intelligence cycle. The
purpose of the study is to determine how a business can utilise competitive
intelligence in order to determine the potential strategies of competitors. To
achieve these objectives, a literature study was completed on the subject matter.
This study has established that the competitive intelligence function consists of
tour distinct phases. Phase one determines the intelligence requirements of the
end users of the intelligence. Phase two involves the collection of information.
Phase three involves the analysis of the information in order to produce
intelligence. Phase four disseminates the intelligence to the end users (those
who requested the intelligence).
Each of the four phases of the competitive intelligence cycle have been examined
and discussed. Special reference and attention has been paid to the analytical
techniques and tools - phase three - that id used to produce actionable
intelligence.