It is a widely known fact that without healthy competition, a business cannot develop; those entrepreneurs who consider it unnecessary to look closely at competitors and improve their ideas are often left behind.

The word itself " competition“involves struggle (competition) between market entities, both for better operating conditions and for results.

Competitive intelligence represents the legal collection, processing and analysis of data about competitors and the competitive environment. The goals of competitive intelligence are to identify and achieve competitive advantages; the tasks of competitive intelligence are to analyze products with competitive advantages, their pricing, and promote such products to the market.

Competitive intelligence is especially effective when the result is getting ahead of your competitor, rather than simply copying its advantages.

Competitive intelligence uses legal data in an ethical manner (this is different from espionage), and the sources from which the information comes are publicly available. Information can be obtained from the Internet, newspaper articles and other publications, from employees of the organization, clients or customers.

1. Identify the strategic plans of competitors. This is necessary to make changes and improve your business strategy. In view of the mobility of some types of activities, it is worth periodically returning to the mission of your business and clearly understanding whether it is still possible to adhere to previously set strategies.

2. Identify the strengths and weaknesses of competitors. Here we need more information about the advantages of competitors. Understanding that it is useless to compete with a competitor in a given area or direction will give you the opportunity to direct your potential to new ideas.

3. Identify ways to provide competitive advantages. Competitive intelligence reveals ways, to improve your own business, based on the advantages of competitors: these can be technical advantages, organizational or other. For example, by purchasing equipment from a competitor, you were able to produce more goods per day, increased sales and thereby lowered costs. Thus, you have neutralized your competitor.

4. Assess the market capacity in a certain area, based on the number of competitors. To do this, the sales volumes of all market participants in a given industry are added up. Information about the market capacity will let you understand whether you are doing everything right: if the market volume has grown, but the sales volume has remained the same, it means that your competitors have snatched your share; if the market size has increased, but your share has not changed, then your business is in the right direction.

5. Assess the need for cooperation with suppliers, competitors’ buyers, or the lack thereof. It may turn out that the low price of your competitors’ goods is due to the low costs of transportation services or the purchase of cheaper raw materials. You will also need knowledge about such suppliers.

6. Create favorable conditions for this business development. When completed, you need to wisely use the information received and set specific tasks for yourself to achieve advantages.

Competitive intelligence methods.

In competitive intelligence there is the concept of “desk research”. This research is a method of competitive intelligence in which the work is based on the study of information obtained from official published sources:

Analysis of publications, articles received via the Internet and the media about competitors,
- analysis of marketing research in a given industry (purchase of past marketing research of competitors), survey of competitors under the guise of marketing research,
- analysis of received financial documents of competitors,
- analysis of the company structure of competitors,
- analysis of the statutory documents of competitors,
- analysis of affiliation of structures and economic relationships.

There is such competitive intelligence method, as “dead vacancies”: when an employee from a competitor’s company is invited to an interview to work on more favorable terms. At this interview, the employee is asked about the details of his activities. Naturally, after this interview no job offers are received, and competitive intelligence has the necessary information.

Competitive intelligence operates: observing (from a distance) and (or) penetrating the organization (when a competitor’s company introduces its own (or special) employee).

Competitive intelligence methods also include:

Survey of common competitors, suppliers, clients, former employees;
- purchasing goods from a competitor;
- attending conferences, seminars and exhibitions with the participation of competitors.

Tasks of competitive intelligence:

Identify specific shortcomings in the work of competitors,
- identify products with competitive advantages, determine their pricing policy,
- identify ways to promote such products to the market,
- identify the conditions for cooperation with suppliers (in order to create conditions for yourself no worse than those of your competitor),
- determine the competitor’s regular customer base and terms of interaction,
- determine the level of profitability of goods,
- identify competitors’ plans for technical development and expansion of market boundaries.

Competitive intelligence, as the competent application of the information received, will never allow a business to stand still.

UDC 339.137.22

Adashkevich Yu.N., Ph.D. n, JSC "Special Information Service"

COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE (BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE)

Today we can say that competitive intelligence has evolved as a hybrid process of strategic planning and marketing research activities. At one stage of business development, companies began to widely apply strategic planning in their activities. Important components of this entire process were competitor, customer and supplier analysis. However, most companies were not prepared to collect and analyze information on a systematic, routine, everyday basis. Moreover, research activities and planning activities remained separate processes, without any close interaction.

The very concept of competitive intelligence has existed for a long time, but it only came to life and took shape in the mid-90s. Like many innovative and fresh business ideas, the general adoption of competitive intelligence by the business world has been rather slow. And competitive intelligence itself has evolved slowly, but has made a sharp leap in the last few years.

Many foreign companies have organized and effectively concentrated their resources to perform competitive intelligence work. Russia, in order for its economy to be competitive, should not remain aloof from this process.

A market economy built on competition is extremely dynamic and risky. In conditions of risk and uncertainty, the role of complete, timely and reliable information as a basis for making management decisions increases significantly.

First of all, we are talking about a competitive environment. If a company is faced with the task of occupying a market niche or maintaining it, it cannot do without information and analytical data. Any market participant must have a complete understanding of who he will have to compete with, in

than the essence of the threats to its economic well-being. Achieving superiority in competition, and indeed economic survival in general, is impossible without knowledge of the intentions of competitors, the main trends in business and political life, risk analysis and other factors affecting business activity.

Competitive intelligence is the most important tool for minimizing risks and ensuring profits, since in a certain sense it is an “early warning” system about the intentions of competitors, possible turns and changes in the market, and the possible results of the impact of political technologies on business activity.

new trends in business, monitors emerging opportunities and warns of impending dangers.”

Competitive intelligence solves the problem that investors usually set for management: to avoid irrational use of capital and other resources, to avoid mistakes and mistakes leading to bankruptcy. Such mistakes most often occur when top managers make decisions based on misconceptions and assumptions without having reliable information at hand.

Thus, the viability of an enterprise is largely ensured by a well-organized system for collecting business information, its timely analysis and distribution. Such a system is called competitive (business) intelligence, designed to identify threats, reduce business risks, and develop optimal management decisions.

It is not surprising that competitive intelligence is actively strengthening its position in the structure of modern companies around the world, both large and small. Regardless of global market downturns, the business intelligence sector is growing. IBM, Xerox, Motorola, Merck, Intel, Microsoft are just a few of the large number of transnational corporations that have made competitive intelligence one of their core activities. Every year, world-famous companies spend, under one pretext or another, up to $10 billion on competitive intelligence.

You can find the phrases “business intelligence”, “business intelligence”, “economic intelligence” and some others that are equivalent or close to competitive intelligence. The term “competitive intelligence” has taken root in the United States. In Western Europe, “business intelligence” is more common. And yet, the most complete and capacious essence of this process

The term “competitive intelligence” reflects this.

The increasing role of competitive intelligence is determined by the following factors:

Rapid growth in the pace of business life;

Information overload;

Increasing global competition;

Increased aggressiveness of competitors;

Strong influence of political changes, etc.

In Russia, competitive intelligence is sometimes perceived as something like “industrial espionage.” In developed market economies, competitive intelligence acquired legal status two decades ago and has now become a necessary component of market strategy and tactics. The understanding of the need for competitive intelligence is facilitated by the international “Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals” created more than a decade and a half ago, headquartered in the USA (SCIP www.scip.org), which now has several thousand members: executives and managers of companies specializing in this field, independent experts, information management specialists.

Identifying competitive intelligence with corporate, industrial espionage is a big and common misconception. If “industrial espionage” is a close relative of military and political intelligence, since it “gives preference” to illegal methods of collecting information, then competitive intelligence has nothing to do with the knights of “cloak and dagger”.

Competitive intelligence is primarily the use of modern information technologies for the legal collection and analysis of data about the competitive environment and competitors. It is carried out exclusively within the framework of the regulatory framework, and results are achieved thanks to

analytical processing of a huge amount of a wide variety of open information materials.

In Russian business, there is a period of transition to precisely this, civilized way of competition. Real competition (civilized) is the main superiority of a market economy over an administrative one. This is the lever that makes the economy efficient.

This is where the information component about the competitor comes to the fore. In order to surpass a rival in the organization of production, the quality of goods and services, productivity, efficiency, first of all you need to know at least the specific indicators of these components, as well as the forms and methods of their implementation in practice.

Studying competitors, identifying the reasons, secrets (yes, secrets) of their effectiveness, strengths and weaknesses, a civilized manufacturer actively uses the acquired knowledge, introduces advanced ideas at home, improves them, and moves on. This is management knowledge, technical, technological, scientific, marketing. By catching up and getting ahead of the opponent, the entrepreneur encourages him to improve in response.

An entrepreneur isolated from such information is a blind kitten. Lack of information about the activities of competitors, refusal to study them, or at least underestimation of the importance of this is a direct road to regression, lag, and, therefore, death.

Thus, we will not sin against the truth if we say that competitive intelligence is the engine of economic and technological progress.

Sometimes you can hear that increased attention to organizing and conducting competitive intelligence places an additional burden on the budget and diverts resources from the main tasks of management. It's a delusion. Competitive time

Vedka does not require huge material costs and certainly does not mean a loss of time. After all, as we have already decided, by and large, this is the correct organization and systematization of the collection and analysis of information. Experience has long convinced us of the multiple return on investment in information and analytical research. This is not a direct profit, but an avoidance of financial and moral losses.

Many of our managers sometimes do not even suspect that they themselves or their employees (security service, commercial department, marketing department) in one way or another, in one form or another, conduct competitive intelligence, even if they have never heard of this term, because such work is necessary and inevitable.

Let's briefly go through the main postulates that characterize the essence of competitive intelligence.

So, competitive intelligence is not just a tool for studying the competitive environment. This is a current business process that arose at the intersection of economics, law and special intelligence disciplines and techniques.

The objects of competitive intelligence research are a legal entity, for example, a non-governmental organization in the form of a private company, a commercial bank, a joint-stock company; an individual, for example the head of a competing company; situation, trend in a particular market segment.

The main area of ​​application of competitive intelligence is the competitive environment.

The purpose of competitive intelligence is information and analytical support for making optimal management decisions that ensure the achievement of competitive superiority over other market participants.

The main tasks of competitive intelligence:

Continuous monitoring and collection of open information about the competitive environment;

Analytical processing of data obtained from all possible information sources;

Presenting results to management for making management decisions;

Storage and distribution of results.

The modern “competitive intelligence concept” as a tool for achieving competitive advantages uses M. Porter’s “five forces” model, which govern competition in the industry and characterize the state of the competitive environment. This model is also used to identify potential threats to the company and plan its own actions taking them into account.

These are the “five forces”:

Threat from existing competitors;

The threat of the emergence of substitute goods or substitute services that are competitive in terms of price;

Threat of new or potential competitors;

Threat from suppliers of raw materials and components;

Threat from consumers of goods and services.

The findings of competitive intelligence are used both for making tactical decisions and for developing strategic directions for the development of the enterprise. In its work, competitive intelligence widely uses techniques and methods of strategic planning, which makes it possible to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the market situation and clarify the positions that a company can claim. Competitive intelligence also draws a lot from the arsenal of tools of marketers, whose efforts are aimed mainly at identifying and analyzing consumer demand in a particular market segment.

Basic information needs of competitive intelligence

Analysis of practice shows that enterprises that understand the value and necessity of competitive intelligence show the greatest interest in the following information about their competitors:

Compromising information;

Information on concluding contracts;

Resale of trade secrets;

Information that facilitates the capture of sales markets and raw materials.

They are also interested in the financial position of competitors and partners, financial reports and forecasts, access to information networks, marketing and pricing strategy, terms of sale of companies and the possibility of their merger, technical specifications of products, prospects for the development of the company, the company’s security system, the organizational structure of the company, leading specialists, financial transactions of competitors and partners, customers and suppliers, reports on product sales and their prices, commissioning of new production facilities, modernization and expansion of existing ones, mergers with other companies, strategy and tactics of doing business by competitors.

This includes legal and financial-economic analysis of the planned commercial operation, analysis of the objective capabilities of partners and participants in the transaction (solvency, legal capacity, etc.), subjective characteristics of partners and participants (probability of fraud, professional literacy, etc.), identification of connections with criminal structures, the degree of control they have over partners and participants in the transaction, determining the forms and methods of protecting the funds and property used (technology for moving funds and goods, the possibility and registration of collateral, etc.), as well as

methods of monitoring individual parties to a transaction at all stages, countering attempts to cause damage from third-party legal entities and individuals.

Main information flows and sources of information

As a rule, information flows about the external environment are structured as follows:

1. Legislation and its planned changes in the areas, regions, countries of the company’s activities.

2. Theory and practice of work of state administrative bodies, including law enforcement and regulatory structures.

3. The current state of the market sectors of the company’s entrepreneurial activity, the forecast for their development.

4. Competitors and partners: status and forecast.

5. State and forecast of the crime situation.

6. Investment climate in the regions and sectors of the proposed capital investment market.

The average set of sources looks like this:

1. Media materials, including press archive databases.

2. Internet (subject to the use of professional search, selection and processing methods).

3. Databases on economic entities in different countries with characteristics of their economic situation (SInS has the ability to work on-line with approximately 10 thousand such databases located in different countries);

4. Databases of analytical reports on the political and economic situation of various regions and market sectors; including professional publications, including specialized publishing

periodicals (books, magazines, newspapers, monographs, reviews, reports, abstracts of speeches).

5. Address reference databases.

6. Detectives and their associations.

7. Experts, practitioners, consultants in various industries, areas, segments (including in the law enforcement environment); active players in certain sectors of the market (in a word - experts).

8. Analytical units, specialized, industry research institutes, etc. generating output information and others.

9. Marketing agencies, marketers.

Considering the problem of information sources through the prism of its extraction technology, we get the following list: people; documentation; open publications; technical and electronic media; technical controls; products; industrial waste.

At first glance, the scheme looks simple. The difficulty lies in creating and setting up a set of reliable and reliable sources and channels, as well as in their professional processing (analysis of raw materials). An isolated channel or even their combination is of no serious value.

A high-quality product is created on the basis of the systematic work of a specialized infrastructure. It is then that a qualitative transition from preliminary, raw information (information) to inferential, actionable analytics (intelligence) is possible.

It is not always economically justifiable to maintain a full range of competitive intelligence, relying only on one’s own resources and resources (especially for small and medium-sized businesses). First of all, this concerns the system of information flows. Often the “emergency” nature of work requires highly qualified and, in a certain area,

re universal (and therefore highly paid) specialists. We need modern equipment. It is not easy to maintain truly up-to-date databases (which is something completely different from primitive disks purchased from gray markets). And even with all this, the likelihood of high-quality and timely completion of the work on your own is still largely an element of luck. To properly navigate the field of business threats, it is necessary to deal with these problems constantly.

Outsourcing is becoming widespread: to build a security system or its individual blocks (especially information, CR), it is often more profitable to turn to specialized companies that produce the product in a completely different way. Let's call this mode “production”. It is characterized by a large regular flow of input and output information.

Large information and consulting agencies, including SINS, work at this rhythm (from 800 to 1,500 information cases are processed monthly). This makes it possible to ensure the specialization of performers (primarily analysts) and departments, to create a single powerful information base, a system of accounting and control of the production process, and to automate processing and storage processes as much as possible

information based on modern technologies, provide telecommunications access to the largest information centers and partner organizations. Such a company is required to enter into a developed information infrastructure and an effective algorithm for attracting specialized external experts.

We have taken the path of organizing an information conveyor, where all stages are carried out by various services. The number and specialization of each is determined by the tasks of processing the corresponding information flows.

Literature:

1. Adashkevich Yu. Business in Russia: risks//Business Match. August 2000.

3. John Prescott, Stephen Miller. Competitive Intelligence: Lessons from the Trenches. - M.: Alpina Business Books, 2004.

3. Romachev N. R., Nezhdanov I. Yu. Competitive intelligence. - M.: Publishing House Os-89, 2007.

4. Yarochkin V.I., Buzanova Ya.V. Corporate intelligence. - M.: Publishing house Os-89.

5. Doronin A.I. Business intelligence. - M.: Publishing house Os-89, 2003.

6. Yushchuk E. L. Competitive intelligence: marketing risks and opportunities. - M.: Vershina, 2006.

7. Herring Ya. How much is your competitive

The article was received by the editor on August 22, 2007

Yu. Adashkevich, PhD (Law),

ZAO Spetsialnaya Informatsyonnaya Sluzhba

SURVEILLANCE IN BUSINESS COMPETITION

The concept of business surveillance was invented long ago but the practical implementation process began in the mid-90s only. Like many other innovations and fresh business ideas, the concept was treated with skepticism and much time passed before the idea was widely accepted by the business community. The very surveillance system developed slowly. It has made a breakthrough only recently. In order to become competitive, the Russian economy should become part of the above processes.

There is a saying: “Keep your friends close and your enemies closer.” Much the same can be said about relationships with competitors. Competitive intelligence (in English it sounds like competitive intelligence) is an essential aspect of doing business. You cannot underestimate your opponents, just as you cannot consider yourself superior to them.

Perhaps, for now, your business is going better, and your clients return with gratitude, claiming that only here they found what they were looking for. Over time, the situation may change, so it is necessary to know the tools of competitive intelligence and skillfully use them in order not to lose the gained positions and strengthen them.

What is competitive intelligence?

Competitive intelligence involves monitoring the actions of a competing firm. If necessary, it is possible to control several companies at the same time: analyze their activities, collect data (for example, to whom, how much and at what prices the goods were sold last month). The resulting information should be processed and appropriate conclusions drawn, adjusting your own actions (for example, slightly reducing the price or offering preferential terms to attract more partners).

Decisions made based on competitive intelligence data can be both strategic and tactical in nature. The International Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, when defining the concept of “competitive intelligence,” especially emphasizes that methods of collecting information are legal and never contradict ethical standards. Here, intelligence is not a surveillance tool with the intent to harm, but, first of all, an analysis of the activities of competitors, a search for their vulnerabilities, and an attempt to predict their next move.

Of course, the search for intelligence is carried out secretly, and the information obtained is confidential. The main goal of such reconnaissance is to establish how dangerous the competitor is and how high his potential is. And, having made certain conclusions, draw economic benefits for your company. Unfortunately, it is possible to obtain data hidden from prying eyes (for example, the level of sales for a category of interest) only using special methods. Sometimes the means used may contradict the principles of fair competition.

Competitive intelligence and industrial espionage

These two concepts are often confused, believing that they are identical. In fact, they have a very significant difference - the method of collecting information. In competitive intelligence, exclusively legal methods are used - open and publicly available sources, although not always published. Sources mean not only paper or digital media, but primarily people (employees of a competing company, their clients, suppliers). All of them in the professional environment are called “unpublished sources”.

When working to collect information in competitive intelligence, the law is not violated, nor are moral standards. Professionals argue that the lion's share of the necessary data is in the public domain; you just need to know where to look and correctly interpret the information found. Therefore, the need for eavesdropping and spying disappears as unnecessary.

Good competitive intelligence uses both external and internal sources. The latter may directly include the organization for which the data is being collected.

Internal sources - the company's own employees (for example, analysts). They are easily able to view newspaper publications, scientific articles and studies directly related to the competitor’s field of activity. This will help you get an impression of his work. The people responsible for supply in the company can, in a simple conversation with a supplier who also cooperates with competitors, find out how things are going with them (how much and what they order, etc.). You can actually learn about the same from general sales representatives.

Secondary sources of information - here we are talking about open sources (the Internet, a detailed study of all the company’s services, research of reports at various conferences, exhibitions, etc.).

Conducting competitive intelligence allows an organization to obtain a range of specific benefits, such as:

• predict possible market fluctuations;
• respond quickly to the slightest changes;
• predict competitors' moves;
• sensibly assess the prospects for company expansion;
• keep up with the times: take advantage of modern scientific advances, simplifying your work and making it more effective;
• discover new competitors;
• know everything about your competitors;
• identify traitors from among your own employees;
• study the experience of others so that, taking into account their mistakes, we ourselves do not make the same mistakes;
• study a positive example of work and adopt proven business practices.

Walking along an already beaten path is much easier than making a path yourself. Working with professionals in competitive intelligence allows you to stay ahead of your rivals, saving your own resources (both financial and human). Competitive intelligence makes it possible to fight the enemy not alone, but with the help of a number of assistants.

Expert opinion

Don't underestimate competitive intelligence

Pavel Kovalev,

When business management expects too much from competitive intelligence, believing that the data it receives will help improve business, the company often suffers losses, primarily losing money on fees for analytics and monitoring, which have to be paid to the relevant information search specialists. Although you should not neglect the opportunity to spy on your competitors, learning something important about them (it is possible that they use some kind of know-how in their work). The main thing here is to maintain a golden mean. Everything is good in moderation.

Excessive enthusiasm for collecting intelligence data at the initial stage of business development is especially dangerous. Indeed, during the period of formation, when there is no talk of profitability yet, additional expenses are completely unnecessary. Yes, when a person just opens, say, a microloan company, it is vital for him to consult with microloan specialists who know and understand how similar offices of competitors function. This will allow you to understand what to expect, what to pay more attention to, what difficulties most often arise. In order not to overpay for the services of consultants, you need to work more independently, studying the area in which you want to develop and earn income.

It is logical that in order to successfully issue microloans, you first need to find a good place for an office. A prerequisite is high cross-country ability, large human traffic. It is advisable that there is a large shopping center nearby, then people, wanting to buy the thing they like here and now, will be more willing to take out loans. Next comes the issue of solvency checks. To do this, you will need to install special software. In addition to all of the above, there are a lot of nuances in microloans, as, in fact, in any business. For the success of the enterprise, you cannot skimp on preparation.

Competitive intelligence from a legal perspective

The main law of the Russian Federation, the Constitution, states the following: “Everyone has the right to freely seek, receive, transmit, produce and disseminate information by any lawful means. The list of information constituting a state secret is determined by federal law.” Consequently, competitive intelligence does not engage in anything illegal or unlawful, since it collects only the data that “lies on the surface.”

Moreover, domestic legislation clearly defines the concept of mass information as a publicly accessible source of audio and video files, messages and materials, as well as printed materials. The mass media does not have a clear addressee, since according to the law it is intended for an indefinite circle of people. Separately, the term “information” is understood as all kinds of messages and materials. At the same time, in the Federal Law of December 27, 1991 No. 2124-1 “On the Mass Media” (as amended on July 3, 2016), the concepts of “messages” and “materials” are identified. Consequently, information here is perceived as something that must necessarily be on a certain material medium (for example, in a newspaper).

Thus, we see two essentially different approaches to defining the concept of “information”. For some, this may seem insignificant or too abstract from real life. But when it comes to, for example, suspicion of disclosing confidential information, every little detail takes on enormous significance.

Federal Law No. 98 “On Trade Secrets”, adopted in July 2004, interprets the concept of “transfer of information” in two ways. In one case, this is the physical transfer of data using a tangible medium, and in the other, it is the dissemination of information in any form, including oral.

Legal regulation in the information sphere relies on the following positions:

1. free search, receipt, transmission, production and dissemination of information in a manner that does not contradict the laws;
2. Only federal laws can limit access to information in any way;
3. the activities of government bodies at all levels (federal and regional) must be open to the public. Exceptions are made in special cases specified in legislative acts.

As can be seen from all of the above, all information is divided into open, or publicly available, and with limited access. The second, due to certain specifics, is divided into two subcategories:

• secret (confidential);
• state secret.

If the information does not fit into any of the given subcategories, it is automatically considered open. The term “confidential information” is designated in Federal Law No. 149 of July 27, 2006 “On Information, Information Technologies and Information Protection” as documented information with legally limited access.

What information can be considered confidential is stated in Decree of the President of the Russian Federation dated March 6, 1997 No. 188: “On approval of the list of confidential information.” Based on the requirements of this document, the following are considered confidential:

• information about the private life of a citizen of the Russian Federation, as well as his personal data (passport number and series, registration address, etc.). The exception is cases when the dissemination of such information in the media is provided for by law;
• materials of legal proceedings, as well as procedural and criminal cases;
• data to which a limited number of persons have access (official secret);
• materials related to professional activities. This is medical and attorney-client privilege, telephone conversations, all correspondence and similar information, the disclosure of which is prohibited by the Constitution of the Russian Federation and a number of federal laws;
• information about the new invention, the principles of its operation, and drawings are considered confidential until published.

Purpose of competitive intelligence

Goals The formation of our own competitive intelligence department is as follows.

1. Find out the directions for further development of competitors. With this information, you, as a business owner, will be able to adjust your own work.
2. Determine what your opponent is strong at. In business, it is important to know the advantages of competitors. Then you will never have to be surprised at the success of others without understanding why this happens. Sometimes the desire to keep up with an opponent takes too much energy, and perhaps it would be more advisable to direct your potential to the development of other aspects.
3. A correctly conducted competitive intelligence analysis will provide an opportunity to increase competitiveness. For example, by equipping your own enterprise with the same equipment that your competitors have, you can begin to produce a larger number of units of products per day, then turnover will increase and, therefore, there will be an opportunity for dumping. At the same time, competitors will not be able to afford this, but your sales will increase and, accordingly, your profits will rise. By luring customers away from your client by lowering prices, you will get a real chance to remove your rival from the market, since he will not be able to reduce the cost to your level, and hardly anyone will agree to buy his product at an inflated price.
4. Before entering the market, it is always necessary to correctly assess how full it is. Competitive intelligence will give you an idea of ​​the number of competitors, their size and how long they have been in business. You can also assess the size of the market during your work so that you have an idea of ​​where to go.
5. Determine why your competitors are selling the same products as you but at a lower price. It may turn out that they work with special suppliers whose components are cheaper. Or their logistics are built more competently, which allows them to save on costs. Such data will certainly not become useless.
6. It is not enough to have information; you need to understand how to use it with maximum benefit for yourself. Therefore, the data obtained as a result of competitive intelligence must be taken seriously, otherwise all efforts will be in vain.

Tasks, which competitive intelligence solves:

• the presence of rare properties in competitors’ products that determine their popularity among customers;
• finding out prices from competitors in order to understand how profitable their activities are (what is the ratio of income and expenses);
• understanding what methods competitors use to market their products;
• finding those who finance competitors (perhaps their investors will be more interested in your proposal);
• finding out under what conditions competitors work with suppliers (it is possible that they provide them with materials at lower prices, it is necessary to understand the reason for this);
• identifying mistakes in the work of competitors;
• understanding in which direction rivals plan to move.

What principles should competitive intelligence be based on?

1. The principle of target orientation. It is necessary to formulate the goals and objectives of collecting information specifically, and it is also important to clearly analyze the information received.
2. The principle of completeness. You cannot neglect any sources; any information is important and will definitely be useful in your work.
3. The principle of reliability. Not all sources will be frank; perhaps someone will want to lie a little. It may be that the information is out of date.
4. The principle of predictability. No one can know everything in advance, but it is still necessary to determine development vectors.
5. Principle of constancy. Competitive intelligence cannot be conducted on a case-by-case basis. The work of the department to collect data about competitors in the market should be regular, then changes in the activities of competitors will be noticeable immediately, and you will always be able to track everything over time.
6. The principle of changeability. Professionals in collecting and processing intelligence will always see in time when something in the work of competitors changes.
7. Principle of reasonable sufficiency: You should not exceed the amount of collected information required for work, as the data may turn from useful into non-targeted. This means that the specialists’ work was in vain.
8. Generality principle: It is better to prepare reports based on competitive intelligence analysis in clear and simple language, without much complexity or specific terms.
9. Accessibility principle: the use of any available sources: both to obtain information and to process it.
10. The principle of knowability: identifying cause-and-effect relationships.
11. The principle of taking into account features: It is inappropriate to approach the study of completely different enterprises from one point of view. It is important to take into account the specifics, both industrial and national, religious and others.
12. The principle of offensiveness: we should try not so much to catch up with our competitors, but to immediately surpass them.
13. The principle of timeliness: specialists must provide the information obtained as a result of competitive intelligence to management promptly, otherwise the information will cease to be relevant, and the work of the intelligence itself will become useless.
14. Principle of diminishing value): the collected information must be correlated with reality in terms of its relevance, that is, previously obtained data must be constantly updated.

What competitive intelligence methods exist?

Direct- these are methods in which particularly important data directly related to current activities are revealed (say, profitability indicators for the quarter of a competing company, which it published in the media).

Indirect - when the information of interest is found in sources that at first glance are useless. In competitive intelligence, indirect methods are used most often, since they are more accessible than others, but they must be used correctly.

Working indirectly, you can learn a lot about your competitors:

• studying their products and comparing them with yours;
• participating in professional exhibitions or simply visiting them;
• carefully examining all reports that the company makes available to the public;
• conducting conversations with both current and former employees and partners of competitors;
• analyzing all advertising campaigns (issue of booklets, newspapers, posters);
• analyzing what is written and said about a competing company in a professional environment.

Obtaining information from open sources:

• viewing advertisements;
• trips to exhibitions, conferences, seminars;
• a thorough analysis of all financial activity reports.

Establishing classified information:

• conversations with common suppliers and clients, former employees, those who, for various reasons, were not hired by competitors. Even information from other market participants will be useful;
• a false attempt to buy something from competitors (for example, start placing an order, but at the very last moment refuse);
• directly offer cooperation;
• start collaborating by introducing yourself as a supplier willing to conclude a contract;
• You can also collect information as an applicant for a vacant vacancy;
• Try to establish friendly connections with competitors’ employees via the Internet (social networks are suitable here). Of course, the profile must be fictitious.

Methods industrial espionage differ radically: opening an electronic mailbox, installing bugs in phones, keeping hidden audio and video recordings of meetings, negotiations and other important events. There are practically no prohibited technologies in it at all. Absolutely all methods are used, even the lowest ones, for example, blackmail.

In domestic espionage, the so-called administrative resource is often used, when dishonest civil servants at all levels act as sources of information. Naturally, we are no longer talking about observing moral standards, because the law is being violated. A striking example of industrial espionage is the case of TagAZ: the plant paid a nine million dollar fine after it turned out that in the production of the C100 sedan model, technologies illegally obtained from the South Korean company Daewoo were used.

The main criterion for methods used in espionage is their effectiveness. Few people here think about how ethical these methods are. A typical case is when a person calls a competitive company and introduces himself as a new employee of the company that handles their legal and accounting affairs. For credibility, all details and other information are named. Naturally, the interlocutor has no reason to mistrust, so he easily sends official documents containing trade secrets to the email address dictated by the deceiver.

Expert opinion

When studying the market, pay attention to the disadvantages

Pavel Kovalev,

restaurant business expert

In fact, competitive intelligence is just an auxiliary tool, nothing more. You can’t place too much hope on it, just as you can’t just take someone else’s business idea and implement it. Success in this case is not guaranteed. Even when buying a franchise, there are always both successful and unsuccessful projects, although the initial conditions were the same for everyone. Therefore, it is always necessary to bring something of your own, some kind of zest.

When launching a startup, it is not necessary to pay too much attention to studying competitors. For example, you want to open your own store selling video games, consoles and everything related to the gaming industry. To understand which product is best to start with, you just need to visit just a couple of similar retail outlets. Their assortment will tell you everything no worse than the reports of the most experienced analysts.

Moreover, when visiting stores, it is best to focus on shortcomings, such as sluggishness of staff, poor display of goods, incorrect location, overly inflated prices, etc. If you wish, you can talk to customers and find out their opinion. Skillful use of the information received will allow you to avoid many mistakes.

Unfortunately, the same approach is unacceptable when studying benefits. Using the same marketing techniques will only cause laughter among customers, since they have already seen all this in another store. Be sure to come up with something truly your own, inimitable and unique.

How is competitive intelligence carried out on the Internet?

Progress does not stand still. If just twenty years ago, to obtain the necessary information, you had to manually revise and reread mountains of papers, today, thanks to the World Wide Web, the process has become noticeably simplified. The Internet is now as common a part of our lives as a cup of coffee in the morning.

Therefore, the task of competitive intelligence, in addition to those that we have already listed above, is also to establish competent surveillance on the Internet. Specialists in the field of obtaining intelligence must be able to use social networks, search engines and other Internet resources.

Modern means of searching for information on the Internet are divided into the following.

• Catalogs

Catalogs classify information according to a given principle. And people, specialists in IT technologies, are directly involved in filling the catalogue. Directories are compiled not by index, but by site description. For example, management sets a task: to analyze all real estate websites that are focused on secondary housing (say, to monitor price levels).

• Information retrieval systems

The name is abbreviated as IPS. These systems, unlike directories, search for information based on an index. IRS usually helps well in searching for highly specialized topics or for finding additional information (to give a complete picture).

• Metasearch engines

Such systems include both information retrieval systems and electronic catalogues. They allow you to significantly narrow your search, as they provide already filtered information. Most often, metasearch engines are used at the initial stages of Internet intelligence.

• Monitoring and content analysis systems

Here the work is structured as follows: a person sets a topic for search and determines the range of sites, and the system independently monitors and provides information in the form of analyzed data. In addition, the system downloads the necessary data. Unlike standard search engines, here you can detail your request without fear that the search will be carried out using individual words. Such systems allow you to store documents, which you can later work with and edit.

• Knowledge management systems (datamining, textmining)

In essence, these systems do not so much monitor documents and people as analyze their connections with each other within the company. A striking example of the work of knowledge management systems is the case when the program automatically establishes that people have known each other for a long time, before they started working in the same company. A similar conclusion is made based on an analysis of their personal data: the place of study (one school) and the year of graduation are the same. Naturally, the information obtained goes towards increasing competitiveness.

• Specialized competitive intelligence systems

These are completely professional products. They work with specific search methods that are focused specifically on solving competitive intelligence problems.

Specialized systems are looking for:

• news in the media: electronic, Internet versions of printed publications and TV programs;
• files:
• of people;
• data in archives (including music);
• Pictures;
• goods by type of store (clothing, shoes, books);
• on local resources of regional significance.

The following groups of competitive intelligence tools on the Internet are distinguished:

• advertising statistics;
• by keywords;
• social media;
• lists of sites by popularity;
• liquid building;
• tools for finding references;
• universal tools.

Tools for searching the Internet must be carefully selected, since the most universal and modern system will not produce results when queries are formulated unclearly and the information received is interpreted incorrectly.

Competitive intelligence systems are designed to ensure that decisions are not made on a whim, so that forecasts are made not on the principle of “maybe it will be like this,” but taking into account real and reliable data.

Expert opinion

Know your competitor in all respects

Boris Vorontsov,

owner and director of Informant, Nizhny Novgorod

There is an unspoken rule in business that obliges you to know as much as possible about your competitor: what and at what prices he sells, to whom he sells, how the relationship with suppliers is, what they say about him in other companies, what is the situation in the team, the level of wages and much more. other. It is believed that most of the official information can be gleaned from the corporate website. But this only works if the site is promptly updated and is generally functioning.

To make your commercial offer look more attractive compared to others, you must have a good understanding of your competitors, know their capabilities and shortcomings. For this purpose, monitoring of the competitive environment is carried out. Competitive intelligence is perhaps one of the few truly working ways to achieve a leading position in the market. It's better to learn from other people's mistakes.

With the help of which tools will online competitive intelligence bear fruit?

Tool 1: Google Alerts - Mention Tracking Tool

Google Alerts sends all the information about the company you are interested in to your email address. Letters arrive at any mention with links to specific Internet resources. Moreover, this kind of surveillance is carried out according to specified parameters. You can also adjust how often notifications will arrive (say, once a week). Accordingly, every Monday in your inbox there will be a list of all mentions for the billing period.

Tool 2. SocialMention - tracking mentions in the blogosphere, social networks and video services

SocialMention searches by keywords (brands, names, etc.). The information is provided in the form of an RSS feed to which the user can subscribe.

Tool 3. Advse - search advertising statistics in Yandex & Google

Tool 4. Whois - service for checking domains

There are many websites on the Internet; millions of people have registered their domains. In order not to sit and come up with some too original domain name, it is easier to check it through Whois. The service searches all over the world, including national domain zones.

If desired, the user can find out more about the domain: the owner’s name, country and his contact information for feedback. Whois indicates whether the domain is available for sale.

Tool 5. Topsy - Social Media Tool

Topsy is focused on the short message service Twitter, and for a given user, Topsy views all his messages starting from 2006.

Tool 6. Wordstat.yandex - word selection service

Wordstat.yandex is a word selection service, that is, a person, using this service, can find out the most popular queries and adjust his company’s website for them, so that during a search, a potential client finds it.

Through Marketing Grader, specialists monitor competitors’ posts on all social networks, blogs, SEO, and so on: how active competitors are, how often they write, and what they write about.

Tool 8. SpyWords - competitor keyword analysis

SpyWords is a Russian service. Searches in SEO and PPC structures. With SpyWords you can get an idea of ​​the amount of money your competitors are spending on marketing (advertising, research, etc.). SpyWords also allows you to monitor the development of competitors' websites.

Tool 9. Competitive Research & Keyword Research Gadget - competitor and keyword analysis

This is more of a widget than a separate search tool. It collects data from your resource, creating a special button, when used you can see an analysis of the site.

How does an automated competitive intelligence system work?

The above services perform a number of functions.

• Data collection- forward direction. So-called search robots collect data from the Internet based on specified criteria.
• Data accumulation and storage- information obtained from a search may remain in archives for a long time. Separate storage facilities have been developed for large amounts of information: Hummingbird, Documentum, Lotus Notes, and so on.
• Categories- both independent entry of categories and automatic distribution are possible.
• Search data.
• Construction reports based on data from a query search and analysis of the information received on a given topic.
• Building cause-and-effect chains- occurs according to mathematical models of neural networks.
• Data Modeling. Here we are talking about a forecast for the future, which the program creates based on the analysis of the information received.

1. Voronov Yu.P. "Competitive intelligence"

Voronov’s book says that in business it is necessary to clearly understand that the market situation does not change on its own, there are always machinations of competitors. Therefore, you need to keep your finger on the pulse. This is exactly what competitive intelligence helps you do. In competitive intelligence, information is always targeted, designed to solve specific problems.

1. Yushchuk E.L.. "Competitive intelligence: marketing risks and opportunities"

Evgeniy Yushchuk “Competitive Intelligence” is a textbook, but the information in it is presented with ease and simplicity. The book is ideal for beginners in the profession, as here the story begins with the basics. The publication is also suitable for those who have already managed to understand a little of the intricacies and want to further improve themselves by learning something new.

1. R. V. Romachev, F. G. Merkulov "Encyclopedia of Business Intelligence and Counterintelligence"

This book doesn't teach you how to look for information so much as it teaches you how to protect yourself from competitors and prevent them from finding out too much about you.

1. Larry Kahaner "Competitive Intelligence: How to Gather, Analyze, and Use Information to Move Your Business to the Next Level"

1. Leonard M. "The New Competitor Intelligence: The Complete Resource for Finding, Analyzing, and Using Information." About Your Competitors (New Direction Business)»

White or black?

I was inspired to write this text by the article “Competitive Intelligence and Recruitment” from our portal, where the author described the possibilities of using recruitment for what he called competitive intelligence. Competitive intelligence is serious business. Therefore, in order to understand its essence, it is better to use the works of recognized and authoritative professionals in this field of business.

Competitive intelligence is defined as the use of government intelligence methods tailored to business needs. Their essence was most succinctly stated by the last head of Soviet foreign intelligence, Leonid Shabarshin: “Among the countless circumstances and reasons influencing the fate of the individual and the social organism, knowledge plays a decisive role as the basis of activity. The formula “Knowledge is power” by the English philosopher F. Bacon should become the motto of intelligence, the art of acquiring and increasing knowledge of what is deliberately hidden. A more expansive interpretation of intelligence is also possible - clarifying the circumstances that favor or hinder the implementation of a particular action associated with a risk for the plotter.” There is no negative connotation in the term “scheming.” It means someone who makes some kind of plan.

Since the time when Leonid Shabarshin wrote these words, in addition to the hidden knowledge that was mined by state intelligence, and the unknown knowledge that science is looking for, knowledge has appeared that is open, but accessible only through the use of information and analytical technologies. This happened because every year the volume of information grows in hyperbole. As a result, everything is there in plain sight, but impossible to find. This is what competitive intelligence does. According to E. Yushchuk, it is “much closer to marketing and information and analytical work than to the security service.”

I. Nezhdanov, based on the worldwide practice of using business intelligence, gave the following definition of it: “Competitive intelligence is the collection of information and research carried out on an ongoing basis, both the market and the entire business environment, in order to identify real and potential factors that influence or can affect a firm's ability to compete successfully in the market." It is quite obvious that an organization’s personnel are the most important factor in its competitiveness, a source of opportunities and potential risks. Moreover, we must always remember that, as V.I. Yakunin wrote: “Exaggeration of threats itself becomes a destructive factor and a source of danger.”

Competitive intelligence must be distinguished from industrial espionage. In accordance with SKIP (International Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals) standards, competitive intelligence always operates, unlike industrial espionage, in strict accordance with the law and compliance with business ethics. Accordingly, many of the proposals of the author of the article that prompted me to write this text relate to the use of recruitment as a tool of industrial espionage. Of course, not in terms of breaking the law, but in terms of freedom with business ethics.

Competitive intelligence also differs from counterintelligence. Counterintelligence is primarily the prerogative of the security services. A competitive intelligence officer strives to find friends among strangers, and a counterintelligence officer tries to find enemies among his own.

Another distinctive feature of competitive intelligence is its focus on a specific business result. It works under the motto of Soviet foreign intelligence: “We act in order to find out, and we learn in order to act.”

What does HR have to do with it?

In the proposed text, I would like to express my opinion on the use of competitive intelligence capabilities to solve pressing HR problems.

One of the well-known specialists in the field of competitive intelligence, American Helen Burwell, classifies competitive intelligence as one of the most important competencies of HR and the area of ​​their professional functions.

Let's look at practical examples of why HR should either learn competitive intelligence techniques or seek the services of professionals in this field.

The most important task of HR is to find the top managers, key employees, and leading specialists that the company needs to ensure its competitive advantage in today’s difficult conditions. It is very, very difficult to solve this problem by simply publishing vacancies and searching through the candidates who responded at a qualitative level. First of all, with this approach the company finds itself in a passive position. She chooses only from those who responded themselves. And it’s far from a fact that these are the ones the company needs. Both Russian and global experience show that many valuable employees are not inclined to publish their resumes and publicly search for work. At the same time, under favorable circumstances, they are ready to discuss and, if there are points of contact, move to another company.

One might say, this has something to do with competitive intelligence. After all, executivesearch and headhunting are well known to everyone. But they emphasize the presence of unique, already established connections in the business community. Accordingly, they suggest not so much the use of information technologies, search and analytical systems, but rather focus on personal connections, relationships, and thorough knowledge of a specific area of ​​the business environment. Although there are common features that make competitive intelligence similar to executivesearch and headhunting.

Competitive intelligence uses the Internet much more actively than traditional executivesearch. Nothing disappears in it, everything is preserved. Even those pages that have disappeared from the servers. This applies to texts, discussions, photos, videos, and even messages on Facebook and Twitter. As Barack Obama recently said in connection with the Internet: “Everything you do will sooner or later be remembered to you in your life’s journey.” Almost every person today leaves an information trail. Accordingly, competitive intelligence technologies make it possible to use these traces to search for those workers who are needed for a specific position in a specific company. And not just look, but correctly build friendly, mutually beneficial relationships with them regarding the transition to a new place of work.

At the same time, I would especially emphasize that the search and analysis of information must strictly take into account the Law “On Personal Data” and other legislative acts. This, in particular, means that information about the applicant “must be obtained from him himself,” i.e. from the information he posted on the Internet. You can and should analyze social networks, electronic media materials, conference reports, press releases and many other sources. Also, for these purposes, you can use certified databases and services, for example, “Integrum”, “Moscow Center for Economic Security”, etc.

By the way, the use of competitive intelligence technologies makes it possible to counter industrial espionage through recruiting. His techniques are described with varying degrees of frankness in the article about which this text appeared. The apparent effectiveness of recruitment as an espionage tool is based on the fact that often security services deal mainly with people already included in the staff, and also check candidates according to certain procedures related to crime, violations, etc. Thus, a person with a clean biography according to the questionnaire during lengthy preliminary interviews with personnel officers, correctly asking questions about the future place of work, can extract a lot of information from the company - a potential employer. At the same time, it is assumed in advance that he should not reach the final interviews, when the security service can seriously get involved. Therefore, if such a candidate first goes through a recruitment agency that works with competitive intelligence technologies and psychotechnologies, then he simply does not reach a potential employer, being cut off at the interview stage at the agency.

Business intelligence with its information and psychotechnologies, as an analysis of risks and opportunities, is directly related to the work of HR with existing personnel. It can be called a kind of HR intelligence. Competitive intelligence is focused primarily outside the organization, on the competitive environment, and on finding friends among strangers. Counterintelligence and, accordingly, security identify enemies among their own, those who are about to, or in the worst case, are already causing this or that harm to the company. But in life there is not only black and white. But also gray. In the gray zone, normal, loyal employees may nevertheless pose risks to the organization. For example, they may be overly frank on social networks, on forums and blogs and, without any malicious intent, create additional risks for the company. I repeat once again, we are not talking about attackers, those who cause or even intend to cause harm. Therefore, HR specialists must conduct an HR analysis of risks and opportunities associated with personnel using information and humanitarian technologies. Here, the company’s IT departments can undoubtedly help them. In cases where risks are fraught with possible threats, HR services should delegate the work to security services. This will bring nothing but increasing the authority and efficiency of the organization’s HR service. Of course, all this work, as an element of competitive intelligence, must be carried out in strict accordance with the law and ethical standards.

Competitive intelligence technologies can also significantly help when dismissing an employee. Any employee, especially one who is significant for the company, is a carrier of insider information. Therefore, monitoring the Internet for employee activity is very important. Thanks to this, in many cases it is possible to predict in advance with varying degrees of probability the employee’s intention to change jobs. He doesn't violate anything. And therefore, often, in medium-sized and, especially, small companies, this kind of monitoring is not the prerogative of the security service. However, it is important for HR managers to know this intention. Based on the knowledge gained, the employer can already draw a conclusion - either it is necessary to try to retain the employee, or resort to outplacement, or take care in advance to find a replacement so that the departure does not affect the competitiveness of the company.

What does ethics have to do with it?

Competitive intelligence standards, as stated above, require strict compliance with laws and adherence to the requirements of business ethics. A skeptical specialist may argue what kind of business ethics can we talk about in conditions of almost endemic corruption and the legacy of “wild capitalism”. Nevertheless, it is beneficial to adhere to this approach. And, of course, it is necessary to be fully armed to fight industrial espionage.

Why is violating business ethics irrational? For starters, because, as one smart person wrote: “You shouldn’t commit burglary if you can get through the door.” And most importantly, the use of unethical methods is highly likely to provoke retaliatory actions. A war begins, and this requires resources. And in many cases, the result obtained turns out to be, at best, incomparable with the costs, and at worst, the process generally gets out of control.

Let's see how HR can prevent completely legal industrial espionage. Let me give you an example.

It is known that the more precisely you formulate a problem, the better and faster you will get its solution. But we must remember that in today’s fickle and highly competitive world, any personnel information about a company is fraught with risks. Let’s assume that on one of the job search sites, an organization simultaneously posted vacancies for a financial director, deputy chief accountant and personal assistant to the manager. For competitors of the company that posted the vacancies, this is simply invaluable data. It becomes clear that something happened in the organization and, probably, in the financial unit. From here, competitors can develop a specific plan for their activities. In addition, it is quite logical for them to try to monitor job sites, look at recently posted resumes and look among them for those workers whose departure led to the publication of the vacancies with which we started. And then, they will meet them with clear goals.

Does this mean that vacancies should not be published openly? Of course not. It’s just that HR, familiar with competitive intelligence methods, will do it in such a way as to minimize risks. For example, it will divide publications over time, post them on different sites, and provide a minimum of information. In addition, understanding in advance the possibility of leaving, as mentioned above, he will be able to report to the manager about a possible problem and propose personnel methods for a solution beneficial to the organization.

Books are published about competitive intelligence and materials are posted on the Internet. The term has come into wide circulation. When engaging in competitive intelligence, you need to delve deeply into its essence, master the technology and be fully aware of the responsibility of your work. Otherwise, the outcome may be disastrous. I’ll give an example from one popular article that gives advice to a recruitment agency on how to use HR technologies. According to the author of the article: “They can become a source of further funding. It is important for the agency to understand that a candidate from the core market is of interest to the company, regardless of whether he is hired or not. That is, for agencies working without prepayment, it makes a lot of sense to stipulate a separate fee for the fact of presenting “specialized candidates”. Moreover, this can be a separate service - without working for a company for a separate vacancy, send candidates from competing companies there for “intelligence conversations.” Thus, the agency expands the range of services provided, and the employer receives an additional channel of information at its disposal.”

Now let's see what happens if the recruitment agency decides that the proposed recipe is competitive intelligence in its execution. Professional communities today communicate closely with each other, constantly exchanging useful and interesting information. Obviously, after just two or three months of such intelligence work, it will become clear to the specialists and top officials passing through the agency that none of them were hired. And, since the employer is interested in not just any employees as a source of information, but the most knowledgeable and knowledgeable ones, it is logical to assume that these employees themselves have certain capabilities. One must think that the owners of those companies from which employees are invited for an interview with the agency will also quickly calculate everything and will not remain indifferent. Such an agency will inevitably find itself under the double threat of both the applicants it exploited and the companies it targeted. As a result, instead of an “additional service”, at best there will be big problems and troubles.

Who does competitive intelligence?

The answer to this question is very simple. Professionals. Most of them in Russia are united in the Russian Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals and the Community of Competitive Intelligence Practitioners. In companies, as a rule, competitive intelligence specialists are structurally part of various departments. At the same time, according to one of the most authoritative people in the world of competitive intelligence, I. Nezhdanov, it is very effective to create a small but independent unit subordinate to the first manager.

It is important that HR people also master competitive intelligence methods. Moreover, this is fully consistent with the philosophy and practice of competitive intelligence in Russia and in the world. A significant part of the people professionally involved in competitive intelligence are not only people from the intelligence services, but also business analysts, marketers, i.e. subject teachers who have completed special training courses in competitive intelligence methods. Well-known experts in this field B. Gallad and J. Herring, summarizing the experience of the most competitive companies, noted that many of them offer specialized competitive intelligence courses for top managers and specialists in business analysis, marketing, HR, etc. departments.

This article is devoted to the practical application of competitive intelligence technologies and tools on the Internet. The study examined in detail the classification of information search tools on the Internet that can be used to increase the competitiveness of various organizations. As a result of a detailed analysis, the main tools of competitive intelligence on the Internet are identified and their distribution into groups is given. The correct selection of such tools contributes to the formation of a universal system that allows not only to assess the competitiveness of an organization at the moment, but also to obtain an adequate assessment of the position of competing organizations in the market. In addition, such a system allows you to respond in a timely manner to rapidly changing operating conditions. Thus, a competitive intelligence system using the Internet must be customized to the specifics of the company’s activities, and must also include flexible search mechanisms, prompt delivery of data and high-quality information assessment.

information

Internet

business intelligence

competitive intelligence

competition

competitiveness

1. Averchenkov V.I. Monitoring and system analysis of information on the Internet: monograph [electronic resource] / V.I. Averchenkov, S.M. Roshchin. – 2nd ed., stereotype. – M.: FLINTA, 2011. – 160 p.

2. Bogomolova I.P. Analysis of the formation of the category of competitiveness as a factor of market superiority of economic objects // Marketing in Russia and abroad. – 2013. – No. 1. – P. 25.

3. Vasyukova S.A. Economic intelligence and counterintelligence - elements of a modern market economy // Scientific session of MEPhI. – 2010. – T.3. – pp. 177–178.

4. Martic A. Through knowledge - to the stars // Company management. – 2001. – No. 5. – http://management.web-standart.net/ article0$id!13211.htm.

5. LotusSoftware from IBM offers a new solution for knowledge management systems. – http://www.ibm.com/ru/news/nfolder/ 31_10_01_02.html (request date 04/20/2015).

6. Divnenko Z.A., Maslov D.G. Analysis of the categories “competition” and “competitive intelligence” as enhancing factors of enterprises’ competitiveness / Z.A. Divnenko, D.G. Maslov // Models, systems, networks in economics, technology, nature and society. – 2015. – No. 1 (13). – pp. 8–12.

Modern needs for business intelligence and counterintelligence, ensuring specific aspects of business security, have led to the development of an entire industry. New economic relations in Russia force participants in this turbulent process to form effective development strategies.

Basically, useful intelligence information is obtained from secret sources, but in practice this is far from the case. Sometimes up to 95% of information can be gleaned from open sources, you just need to properly organize their study.

As in any other activity, the effectiveness of economic (competitive) intelligence is determined according to the cost-effect scheme. For intelligence activities, three types of effect can be named:

1) profit;

2) cost savings;

3) prevention of material and moral damage.

Sometimes, with low costs and high efficiency, you can achieve significant results, preventing financial and moral losses of the enterprise. One can give an example of how, by paying about $500 and spending only three weeks, the security staff of one American enterprise prevented losses in the amount of $450 thousand. In the certificate prepared by the employees after the reconnaissance, a recommendation was given to refuse to cooperate with the company that offered a seemingly profitable deal, for the following reasons:

The company has only existed for six months;

Registered at a “purchased” legal address, at which many other companies are registered;

The company's management was previously engaged in a completely different type of activity and suffered significant losses;

The company has never carried out the proposed transactions before;

The staff consists of only two people and occupies a rather modest office in a small town, etc. .

The enterprise's competitive intelligence system gives a kind of multiplier effect, combining the interests of ensuring the economic security of the enterprise with solving marketing issues, since on its basis an effective economic policy of the enterprise is developed.

Information is the most expensive commodity in the world. States are creating official structures to ensure timely receipt and storage of information, enterprises feel the need for modern technologies for information analysis, constant updating of security software and maximum integration of the entire system of analysis, processing and application of constantly updated information of various kinds.

The level of competitiveness of an enterprise is largely ensured by a well-organized system for collecting business information, which forms the basis for making management decisions, strategic planning, conducting marketing research and PR companies.

Competitive intelligence is the most important tool for minimizing risks and ensuring profits, since in a certain sense it is an “early warning” system about the intentions of competitors, possible turns and changes in the market, and the possible results of the impact of political technologies on business activity.

A great help for an effective system for increasing the competitiveness of an organization is the creation of a single integrated data bank using modern computer technologies, where all information coming from open and confidential sources is accumulated.

Due to the rapid development of the global Internet and the strengthening of its influence on the activities of enterprises and organizations, the increase in the number of information resources, it is competitive intelligence on the Internet that has become the most important function of modern management and the main condition for the dynamic development of business.

Knowledge of the principles of competitive intelligence on the Internet and the practical use of special search engines are necessary in the work of any enterprise.

Existing tools for searching information on the Internet can be divided into several groups:

Catalogs;

Information retrieval systems;

Metasearch engines;

Monitoring and content analysis systems;

Extractors of objects, events and facts;

Knowledge management systems (DataMining, TextMining);

Specialized competitive intelligence systems.

A catalog is a hierarchical system that provides classification of information. Catalogs do not work with indexes, but with descriptions of Internet resources. They are filled by Webmasters or special editors who view information resources on the Web. A typical example of using a directory is the need to find on the Internet a group of information resources on a certain insufficiently narrow topic, for example, sites that provide contact information for organizations. The most developed directories today are Yahoo!, OpenDirectory, Yandex.

An information retrieval system (IRS) is a system that provides selection, indexing and retrieval of information based on an index. Search engines should be used when you need to find information on specific issues or to ensure complete coverage of resources. An example of an application when searching for information retrieval systems may be requirements to find the website of a specific organization or provide an answer to a question. The leading information retrieval systems are Google, Yandex, MSN and others.

Metasearch engines are add-ons over search engines and electronic catalogs that do not have their own database (index) and, when searching according to the user's search instructions, independently generate queries for several external search tools, and then analyze the results and produce a list of links in the order determined by the ratio response ratings for several search tools at once.

The most significant metasearch engines are MetaCrawler and MetaBot.ru. Their main advantage lies in the ability to send queries entered into them to other systems, and then summarize the results. This guarantees the “objectivity” and “completeness” of the results obtained, however, given the differences in approaches to processing terms by different systems, the result may not always be relevant to the query. Metasearch engines are most effective in the initial stages of information search. They help localize search tools that contain information about the information the user is looking for.

Monitoring and content analysis systems provide regular search and “downloading” of information on given topics and from given sites, as well as analysis of the content of received documents. Such systems generally have a developed query language, which makes it possible to significantly detail and specify queries in comparison with conventional search engines. Also, such systems store the full texts of source documents in their databases, which ensures the safety of these documents over time and the possibility of their processing and content analysis both in the current time and in the future. A significant advantage of such systems is that complex queries consisting of tens or hundreds of search words and expressions, once compiled by a domain expert analyst, can be saved as a cataloged query or category and subsequently recalled automatically or manually from the saved list for searching. search or content analysis.

If monitoring systems can isolate known objects that are being monitored from the information flow, then extractors of objects, events and facts are able to select previously unknown objects, events or facts that correspond to a certain predetermined type from the information flow.

Knowledge management systems are designed to automatically analyze and find relationships between documents, people and information throughout an organization.

Knowledge management refers to the set of strategies and processes for identifying, acquiring, disseminating, using, controlling and sharing knowledge necessary to ensure the competitiveness of an organization.

These systems are able to identify new knowledge and patterns. For example, the system can independently, without human participation, draw a conclusion about the fact of acquaintance between people, based on the data available in the system about their graduation from the same school and the same class in the same locality. Examples of knowledge management systems are KnowledgeDiscoverySystem and SharePointPortalServer.

Specialized systems for competitive intelligence may include one or more of the search tools listed above, specifically tailored for these specific tasks. In addition, the needs of competitive intelligence require, as sources of information, in addition to full-text documents from the Internet, also databases available on the Internet, proprietary documents, tables and databases belonging to the structure, as well as formalized and informal documents and databases obtained from other sources. .

Specialized systems include systems that perform searches:

Files (for example, FileSearch.ru, Files.ru;

News in electronic media (for example, Yandex News, Moreover);

Products in certain types of stores (bookstores or computer stores) (for example, Yandex Products, Torg.ru);

People (for example, People on the Net, White Pages of Russia, Yahoo! PeopleSearch;

Information in music archives (for example, MP3Search);

Pictures (for example, Yandex Pictures, Google Image Search);

In directories of regional resources (for example, Yandex Regions, Bryansk Weblist Emelya, etc.).

Having analyzed the main competitive intelligence tools on the Internet, we can distinguish the following groups:

1. Tools for tracking mentions (Google Alerts, SocialMention, Marketing Grader).

3. Analysis and monitoring of keywords (Competitive Research & Keyword Research Gadget, Google Keyword Planner, Monitor Backlinks, SEMRush, SpyFu, The Search Monitor, iSpionage).

6. Checking link mass, backlinks and liquidation (Majestic SEO, Ontolo, LinkProspector, OpenSiteExplorer).

7. Universal tools (SimplyMeasured).

Properly selected competitive intelligence tools on the Internet form a universal system that will allow company management to quickly respond to changes in the market situation, assess risks and opportunities, predict them and, as a result, make the right management decisions.

The main goal of competitive intelligence systems is information support for the transition from traditional intuitive decision-making based on insufficient information to management based on reliable forecasts and knowledge.

According to the information processing cycle in the classical scheme of the information intelligence cycle, the system we are considering must, independently or with the participation of the operator, provide:

Selection of topics and areas of intelligence interest (target designation);

Selecting information sources (websites, blogs, forums, etc.);

Automatic search and downloading of information on specified monitoring areas and specified sources according to a planned schedule (planning and data collection);

Processing collected data and turning it into information;

Content analysis and synthesis of information - turning it into knowledge;

Timely delivery of information to end consumers.

Of course, a competitive intelligence system that uses the Internet as one of the sources of information must be customized to the specifics of the company’s activities, and must also include appropriate classification, flexible search mechanisms, prompt delivery of data and high-quality assessment of information.

Recently, the arsenal of competitive intelligence methods has been significantly enriched, which allows, if necessary, to conduct a comprehensive comparative analysis of performance indicators and business processes with a selected competitor in order to improve the work of the management company. Information about the results of other people's applied and fundamental research allows you to save your own effort and money and focus all your attention on production and marketing. The further development of the scientific and technological process, the increase in the flow of patents and the tightening of competition as a “war of all against all” makes the development of a competitive intelligence system increasingly relevant.

Modern approaches to studying the essence and methods of competition are embodied in new concepts of strategic management, when various ways to achieve leadership of enterprises in the market are developed and put into practice. These aspects of competition theory may be of interest to Russian companies that are at the stage of strengthening their positions in the global and regional markets.

Reviewers:

Vinnichek L.B., Doctor of Economics, Professor, Head. Department of "Organization and Informatization of Production", Penza State Agricultural Academy, Penza;

Khrustalev B.B., Doctor of Economics, Professor, Head. Department of Economics, Organization and Production Management, Penza State University of Architecture and Construction, Penza.

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