Outcomes for Day 1 - Techniques
Using frameworks, case studies and examples, by the end of the day you will understand:

• Why competitive intelligence is an essential element in managing external affairs.
• Why 'intelligence' is a misunderstood term.
• The steps in the competitive intelligence process.
• How to determine intelligence needs.
• How to discover information legally and ethically when it would appear the information does not exist in the public domain.
• How to apply a range of tools for analysing information.
• How to present your findings for most impact.

Outcomes for Day 2 - Management
By the end of the day you will understand:

• What senior management want from the CI function.
• How a competitive intelligence function can be set-up and operated.
• What software systems can be utilised.
• How performance can be measured.
• How to market your CI products and services within your organisation.

Who Should Attend?

This course is designed for:
• Experienced or novice analysts/ researchers wishing to identify and develop the skills required to become proficient in applying CI methodologies, and
• Managers wishing to understand the benefits of having an effective, formalised Competitive Intelligence (CI) program and how to establish or enhance their organisation's CI capability.

Benefits from Attending

• The competitive intelligence component of this course gives you superior skills in the management of external affairs.
• The Delta Control Loop® framework is a simple, yet powerful model for timely decision making in managing external affairs.
• The same framework can be used as a business development tool to show your prospects and customers how your product or service improves their Delta Control Loop® performance for increased agility and competitive advantage.
• The local availability of this unique program means big savings as such training is normally only available in Europe or North America.

Click here for more about CI skills and how they are applied.

It's not easy to see opportunities when you're swamped with information. This is why the information management techniques developed by government intelligence agencies are so valuable for the business community. In particular, the Key Intelligence Topics (KITs) approach to identifying intelligence needs is an extremely useful tool for a CI analyst.

In the future, everyone will be expected to contribute to identifying opportunities for improved business processes, new product innovations or new business initiatives. However, only those people - the so-called high value-add knowledge workers - who are skilled at harvesting and making sense of information - will be sought after for this key knowledge work.

Information availability is not enough -- it needs to be efficiently gathered, analysed and acted upon to be of any use. This process is called Competitive Intelligence, the fastest growing corporate discipline in America today and the most critical management tool of cutting-edge business and a model for implementing an effective knowledge management system.

Competitive Intelligence Techniques & Management enables the successful analyst and manager to thrive in the world war of economics and fierce global competition, to further your organisation's goals and to increase your market share, competitiveness and profits.

Enroll now for the next course.

The need is vast. It is estimated that more than forty percent of workers are information workers who manipulate information as a frequent, primary activity. Regardless of their function, such workers spend a good proportion of their time acquiring, using, and sharing structured information. The problem is that most of these workers are simply not efficient at doing so and this leads to worker stress and lost business opportunities. Organisations are therefore grossly under-utilising their human capital. A recent survey published by Reuters Business Information clearly shows that the worldwide burden of keeping up with the information explosion has led to soaring executive stress, loss of job satisfaction and physical ill health. The reports concludes that finding ways of dealing with the information tidal wave is now one of the most urgent worldwide challenges facing business.

Competitive Intelligence is efficient Information Management

Since the end of the Second World War, an enormous investment has been put into developing methodologies and tools to render government intelligence services effective at gathering, analysing, and disseminating information. When the Cold War finished in the early 1990s, many of the government intelligence personnel moved across to the commercial world and introduced intelligence techniques to commercial organisations in order to improve their competitiveness. This activity is called Competitive Intelligence (CI).

Competitive Intelligence is a disciplined and efficient approach to seeking out information from the environment and turning it into actionable intelligence. Through the use of filtering and a variety of analysis techniques, a CI practitioner brings meaning to this information, which is then communicated to others in an organisation. These techniques result in a quality approach to any information-seeking requirements.

Competitive Intelligence allows you to:

• Anticipate changes in the marketplace
• Anticipate the actions of competitors
• Discover new or potential competitors
• Identify competitor blindspots
• Conduct research for mergers and acquisitions
• Investigate potential alliance partners
• Benchmark for best practice in CI or other areas
• Cut the information glut, and much more.

According to a USA study by Coopers & Lybrand, growth companies that place highest value on competitor information are the most successful.

Everyone who handles information should attend

This workshop is designed for knowledge workers who need to understand what's happening in their organisation's environment. This includes decision makers, strategic planners, sales and marketing personnel, business development managers, business analysts, product managers, IT strategists, training and human resources managers and economic development managers in the public sector.

This program applies especially to organisations that are operating in dynamic competitive environments where the need to innovate is critical for achieving competitive advantage. These include organisations in agri-business, bio-technology, computer, financial services, R&D commercialisation, and telecommunications industries, as well as federal, state and local government units involved in economic development.

Information management is the sense organ of the Intelligent Organisation

There are three critical and interrelated drivers that we need to take into account if we are to be successful in the 21^st Century:

• knowledge as the new form of capital
• increased competition
• technological developments.

In this environment, all organisations will need to develop into intelligent organisations - organisations that manage the information processes for sense-making, knowledge-building, and decision making. Knowledge workers are meant to carry out these tasks but, even though the term knowledge worker was introduced about thirty years ago, there is still confusion as to what skills a knowledge work actually requires beyond their technical specialty or discipline.

This workshop has evolved from three main streams:

• Information science and knowledge management research to provide frameworks
• Established military and business intelligence methods to provide techniques, and
• Information technology to provide enabling tools.

Workshop Content

Scope:
• The theory and practical application in the use of competitive intelligence in developing an agile corporation.
• Case studies from Hewlett-Packard, Dell Computer, Palm Division of 3-Com, and Shell Services International.