Written by Luis Madureira
Edited by Jonathan Dunnett

What is Competitive Intelligence (CI)?

Competitive intelligence is often mistaken and misunderstood. As we are the Council of Competitive Intelligence Fellows, we want to ensure there is clarity as to what CI truly is (and what it isn’t).

So, what is it, exactly? In the early 2020s, CI Fellow Luis Madureira and colleagues undertook the most comprehensive study of the field to date. They collected over 800 definitions from all existing literature to date, developed a unified and modular definition, and validated it next to over 60 experts globally - the first and only time this has been done). The effort resulted in the following:

“CI is the process and forward-looking practices used to produce knowledge on the competitive environment to improve the performance of organizations” (Madureira et al., 2021, 2023a). CI exists only if at the intersection of five core dimensions, the 5Ps: Purpose, Purview, Practices, Process, and Product. (Madureira et al., 2023a).

What is the Purpose of CI? (Know-why)

The aim of CI is to create value by addressing stakeholder needs and wants. Meeting these needs and wants in a unique way, better than competitors and substitute products, results in superior organizational performance. Examples of performance are customer satisfaction, higher brand equity, market share, profitability, social impact, sales growth, or international business development.

(Madureira et al., 2023b Fig. 4)

What is the Purview of CI? (Know-What)

The scope is the entire competitive environment, both external and internal. CI strives to understand the macro forces (politic, economic, social, technological, environment, and legal) of the macro-environment, the market forces (physical or digital locations, sales & marketing channels, and market actors) of the meso-environment, the industry forces (change drivers) of the microenvironment (Porter, 2008), and the organization’s internal environment (value chain).

(Madureira et al., 2023b Fig. 5)

What are the Practices of CI? (Know-Who)

The practices depend on hard and soft factors: the place within the organisational structure, the policies guiding intelligence development, the mindsets defining CI’s approach, and the intelligence culture. In a nutshell, the practices of CI is the way CI is performed. Examples of practices are Consumer Research, Market Intelligence, Foresight, Win-Loss, Data Science, or Artificial Intelligence.

(Madureira et al., 2023b Fig. 6)

What is the Process of CI? (Know-how)

The activities that an organization perform to develop the understanding of its competitive environment guided by the internal hard and soft factors that guardrail its practice. The overall process is similar to a non-linear “vortex” of CI activities. The linear view of the Intelligence Cycle is outdated. Examples of CI activities are: intelligence needs; planning, direction and research; data and information access; data & information processing; information analysis; intelligence communication and storage; usage and decision-making; and feedback, measurement and knowledge protection.

What is the Product of CI? (Knowledge & Wisdom)

The output is a set of artefacts (CI deliverables, systems, or projects) produced with a given purpose, within a specific scope, through a systematic and structured process, and informed by practice guidelines. A CI deliverable is based on actionable insights that will verify true and thus become knowledge. CI systems materialize mainly as Knowledge Management or Anticipatory/Early Warning. CI Projects are specific endeavours to product such insights usually with the help of the systems that are set-up. The aim of CI Professionals is to derive learnings from the usage of the intelligence produced and converting it into Wisdom. Wisdom is the best usage of the existing Intelligence and Knowledge. The knowledge and wisdom of today are the data points of tomorrow, allowing CI practitioners to develop new higher-order intelligence. The ultimate aim of CI is to support the development of learning organisations resulting in superior performance.

(Madureira et al., 2023b Fig. 7)

Hopefully this will help you in your understanding of what is CI. As you look to develop your skills, we encourage you to learn more through our resources and events.

If you want to go deeper, you can also jump into the history of the field here.

REFERENCES

Madureira, L., Popovic, A., & Castelli, M. (2021). Competitive intelligence: A unified view and modular definition. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 173(December 121086), 1–17. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.techfore.2021.121086

Madureira, L., Popovic, A., & Castelli, M. (2023a). Competitive intelligence empirical validation and application: Foundations for knowledge advancement and relevance to practice. Journal of Information Science, 0, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.1177/01655515231191221

Madureira, L., Popovic, A., & Castelli, M. (2023b). Competitive Intelligence Maturity Models: Systematic Review, Unified Model, and Implementation Frameworks. Journal of Intelligence Studies in Business, 13(1), 6–29. https://doi.org/10.37380/jisib.v13i1.988

Porter, M. E. (2008). The Five Competitive Forces That Shape Strategy. Harvard Business Review, 86(1), 25–40.

What is Competitive Intelligence?