Improvements for the Market & Competitive Intelligence System
By learning from success or failure of targeted action, improvements for both the intelligence process as well as any other business activity involved in the respective action, the organization will ensure growth and constant progress. Active feedback of intelligence users and individuals responsible for the business results should be a priority.
A healthy life cycle should take care of constant renewal. As the world is changing constantly so will rules and requirements, thus intelligence requirements of any organization. So, on top of a continuous quality improvement of the data and information that is to be transformed into actionable intelligence, processes and tools have to be reviewed and improved on an ongoing basis as well.
There are several ways to ensure an ongoing influx of productive feedback. Comments or feedback functions in the intelligence dissemination environments are a must as you can catch direct users input where it is freshest: while using intelligence actively.
Also an active network of intelligence professionals (such as market researchers and competition analysts) that is the basis for a smooth and effective intelligence operation, should deliver frequent improvement potential. This could be arranged via online means or during regular meetings.
Management, as a user of top level intelligence abstracts or summaries, might contribute as well to have their needs met.
If an informative market & competitive intelligence area at the corporate Intranet exists, this could be a solid area where improvement wishes are gathered for both intelligence quality and the tools and processes involved.
In order to offer additional improvements the market & competitive intelligence unit is responsible to scour the external market for newer, state-of-the-art intelligence solutions and possibilities. External consultants and partner companies could serve as excellent resources to fetch development that could be offered to the own company without major hassle if prove effective for others. Why invent the wheel twice? Intelligence is not a core discipline, but a tool and way to become more competitive. There is no need to develop systems from scratch, in the end: it’s the conclusions drawn and decisions taken that will win any battle that is based on solid intelligence.
The ability to change and improve is essential to provide sustained value to any organization with the market & competitive intelligence function. Regular intelligence user surveys with results analysis and communicating the subsequent actions could be of help to keep improving and keeping intelligence value in use up.
Looming or applied change within the organization should reflect in the intelligence group’s internal promotion. It would add credibility and signal alertness if major organizational and strategic shifts would impact market & competitive intelligence. When business evolves, intelligence activities must adapt to the new requirements.
If time and circumstances allow, a brief history and story of evolution for the intelligence function could be posted to the corporate Intranet, maybe enriched with a testimonial of a top manager to underline the weight and importance of this development in intelligence professionalism.