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Introduction
Competitive intelligence (CI) is regarded as a system of environmental scanning which integrates the knowledge of everyone in the company. As will be discussed in this article, the term encompasses marketing, structural, strategic and other organisational elements.
This special issue of the European Journal of Marketing demonstrates the breadth of the CI concept, and is the first non-intelligence journal to invite contributions for a special issue entitled “The impact of competitive intelligence on marketing activity”.
In reviewing the keywords, it can be seen that the field encompass many concepts covering the wider spectrum of business activity, and especially those usually attributed to the marketing function. They include: analysis, Bayes’ theorem, business intelligence, business strategy, CI information, CI typology, competitive intelligence, conditional uncertainties, cost of uncertainty, cross-functional teams, customer relationship management, data mining, entrepreneurial attitude, firm classification, forecasting, foresight, information systems, integration, innovation performance, market intelligence, marketing intelligence, market orientation, market research, new processes, new products, new services, open source, OSINT, peripheral vision, partnership, service process, service taxonomy, strategic intelligence, resilience, scanning and strategic marketing.
The long history of competitive intelligence
The concept of CI has a rich heritage (Juhari and Stephens, 2006) and can be traced back over 5,000 years of Chinese history (Qingjiu and Prescott, 2000). These and other authors point to examples in various religions and historical contexts which address intelligence concepts. Many CI texts and articles refer to the work of Sun Tzu who, some 2,400 years ago, wrote The Art of War, a seminal text which provides a detailed description of how to develop intelligence for military applications (Sun, 1988). Similarly, many intelligence authors cite Frederick the Great (1740-1786), who was once quoted as saying “It is pardonable to be defeated, but never to be surprised” (Fuld, 1995).
Wright et al. (2004) remind us that CI is not a new concept. This is evidenced by Nathan Rothschild’s timely intelligence to make a fortune on the London Stock Exchange following the Battle of Waterloo in 1815. Among Rothschild’s intelligence network was an agent who watched Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo and subsequently sent carrier pigeons to Rothschild, who the following morning sold large volumes of shares. Observers wrongly concluded that the French had won the battle, and shares slumped. Rothschild then bought back and awaited the news, which arrived conventionally, that Wellington had won. The market correction helped Rothschild to his fortune (Ferguson, 1998).
Historical records point towards commercial collection activities happening even earlier. The Byzantine emperor Justinian I (483-565) in the sixth century used monks to steal silk worms from the Chinese in an attempt to understand how to make silk (Fraumann, 1997). Although this is more an example of what would now be termed “industrial espionage” than CI, it does demonstrate how long there have been efforts to scan the environment for information that will provide organisations or countries with a competitive advantage.
The British tea industry has it roots in CI, going as far back as 1615. Mr R.L.Wickham, who worked as an agent for the English East India Company, was sent to China to gather intelligence and he relayed the importance of tea and its potential to contribute to the British economy. Wickham learned about the Chinese production of tea over ten years and then, thanks to various inventions such as tea boxes and chests, he was able to successfully start a tea industry in Britain (Breed, 1999).
As can be seen from the examples given above, whilst today it is reported that 87 per cent of all large companies, regardless of locations, have an intelligence capability (Global Intelligence Alliance, 2005), it can be seen that the commercial application of CI, as we know it, has been around for at least 5,000 years if not longer. |
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