Targeting intelligence gathering in a dynamic competitive environment

Current management approaches to resource-based strategy and core competenc e thinking require extensive intelligence gathering to ensure that correct assumptions are being made about the environment and competitors' capabilit ies. Without such intelligence any attempts to develop, maintain and in man y cases even identify the key assets and competences are flawed. Often the very people who are best placed to carry out intelligence appraisals are th ose contributing strongly to mainline business activities of technology dev elopment and business winning. Because of this potential conflict the intel ligence process must be efficiently targeted. Existing methods of intellige nce concentrate on the process of intelligence gathering, frequently using military analogies. To the extent that a competitive system model can be cr eated these existing approaches can be made more directed in their applicat ion and therefore more efficient in their use of valuable in-company resour ces. Moreover, the very expression of a competitive system model can improv e the appraisal process itself. The applicability of a general system model ling technique, used extensively in business process modelling and known as qualitative systems dynamics (QSD) is described and its applicability to t he intelligence targeting problem is examined through the use of a case stu dy. It is shown that the method is accessible and relevant to competitive i ntelligence problems. An example from practice, the competitive analysis of a major international defence company, is shown. It is seen that the level of analysis (data points, process understanding, systemic knowledge) relat es closely to the elements of the system model and this concordance aids ta rgeting. (C) 2000 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.