...automatically load results from the next page… and the next (into infinity.) When using sites like Google you can see 10 to 10,000 results to search for specific items hidden well beyond page one of the results. Fireshot Allows you to take screenshots and has dozens of very useful features.When used for competitive intelligence it allows you to quickly gather visual records and note them. Firebug A development tool that allows you to see the code structure for any web page. Very useful for finding software vendors who provide different platform capabilities to your competitors. Scrapbook Add visual bookmarks into a catalog that can be tagged and categorized. Competitive Intelligence professionals can quickly sort reference sites and create visual archives for team collaboration. List Open URLs https://addons.mozilla.org/En-us/firefox/addon/list-open-urls/ When you have multiple tabs open on your browser this saves all the URLs to a text file. Very useful for opening 5 to 25 tabs on a research project and documenting the list of source sites for later reference. HR ORIENTED TOOLS LinkedIn http://linkedin.com If you don’t use Linkedin for competitive and market intelligence you are really missing something. Linkedin provides all sorts of data about employees, relationships, company data, new hires, people that left, press...
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...Competitive Intelligence Term Paper Dr. Ahmed Nassar Prepared by Ahmed Ibrahim Ahmed El Mizayen 1. What is CI? he process of collecting and analyzing information about competitors’ strengths and weaknesses in a legal and ethical manner to enhance business decision-making. Competitive intelligence activities can be basically grouped into two main types – 1) Tactical, which is shorter-term and seeks to provide input into issues such as capturing market share or increasing revenues; and 2) Strategic, which focuses on longer-term issues such as key risks and opportunities facing the enterprise. Competitive intelligence is different from corporate or industrial espionage, which use illegal and unethical methods to gain an unfair competitive advantage. Competitive intelligence means different things to different people within an organization. For example, to a sales representative, it may mean tactical advice on how best to bid for a lucrative contract. To top management, it may mean unique marketing insights to gain market share against a formidable competitor. The ultimate end goal of competitive intelligence is to help make better decisions and enhance organizational performance. While most companies can find substantial information about their competitors online, competitive intelligence goes way beyond merely trawling the Internet, on the premise that the most valuable information is seldom – if ever – easily accessible online. A typical competitive intelligence...
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...Term Paper Competitive Intelligence (CI) Answer any 6 of the following questions: 1. What Is CI? 2. Why is CI important? 3. Does CI really make a difference to the bottom line? 4. Is it true that CI is only important for big businesses? 5. How is CI different than business espionage? 6. What are the general uses of CI information? 7. Information has numerous sources, which have different degrees of reliability. Describe 5 such sources and rank them in terms of highest to lowest level of reliability for competitive intelligence. 8. For the table shown below, plot the SPACE Matrix of the firm, find the firm’s strategic posture, and determine what strategy the firm ought to pursue. Competitive Strategic Position (CA) | Industry Strategic Position (IS) | Financial Strategic Position (FS) | Environmental Strategic Position (ES) | -2 Product Quality | +3 Barriers to Entry | +4 ROA | -6 Inflation | -3 Market Share | +2 Growth Potential | +3 Leverage | -4 Technology | -1 Brand & Image | +2 Access to Finance | +6 Liquidity | -2 Demand Elasticity | -4 Product Life Cycle | +6 Consolidation | +5 Cash Flow | -3 Taxation | 9. Competitors can foil your CI program. Describe 3 potential sources of intelligence attack against your company. 10. Case study question: Describe a situation in your company in which if CI was used, it could have resulted in a better decision than the one taken. Deadline: Friday, March...
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...TABLE OF CONTENTS I. Abstract II. Problem Statement III. Evaluation IV. Hypothesis V. Procedure/Design VI. Introduction VII. Definition and Examples a. Case I b. Case II c. Case III VIII. Origin of Competitive Intelligence IX. Why Collect Intelligence? X. What is Ethical? XI. Methods of Intelligence Collection XII. What Resources Are Used to Collect Information XIII. How Companies Utilized Collected Information XIV. Keeping Companies Secrets Secret a. Buildings b. Communication Systems c. Administrative XV. Conclusion I. ABSTRACT Intelligence gathering is considered commonplace in corporate America. Companies struggle to maintain the high ground within a competitive marketplace. One source for maintaining an elevated position is through information gathering on competitors, better known as Competitive Intelligence (CI). Collection of this information can be accomplished through numerous means. History has shown that the collection of CI is not a new practice, only that the methods used to collect the information have evolved over the past century. Intense pressure for turning profits, winning contracts, and avoiding expensive research and development costs drive the methods used in CI collection. With an increase in CI collection, companies are required to protect themselves from inside and outside intruders. II. PROBLEM STATEMENT Corporate America has become oblivious to the information being divulged concerning company trade secrets. ...
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...WEEK 3 Research Paper The United States has several laws that are intended to further fair, balanced, and competitive business practices. Do you think that such laws are effective? Competition Law I do believe that the competition law is effective because it helps businesses because it can protect the company’s position in the marketplace due to anticompetitive mergers and business practices. This enables markets to work more for the interest of the consumer and in return expand their profits. Businesses that practice unfairly, like offering discounts at a predatory level, abusing a position, unfair trading conditions or involving themselves in an anti-competitive behavior will face a fine based on their annual turnover. What they are doing is exposing themselves to damaging actions. In an open market you have aggressive competition by both the individuals and the businesses. The benefits of lower prices, high quality and greater innovation. So you need to be able to stay up to date with the laws policies. Some of the benefits of the competition law are for starters enables you to identify and new changes and opportunities and you business. Also helps you in return to make sure that you are complying with the latest rules. Some other benefits are trademark policies. One could be looking at infringement by unfair use of the rights the trademark is attached to. Trade defamation is another example as to how this law protects a business. This charge can either be civil or...
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...Proctor & Gamble Competitive Intelligence Case Tristen Leeder RES/351 January 14, 2013 Instructor: Steve Roussas Abstract In this paper I will show the usefulness of corporate intelligence. While this tool is helpful in making solid business decisions effort needs to go into monitoring of the gathering process. Intelligence gathered by unethical means does more harm to an organization then good. The financial repercussions of involvement in corporate spying are steep, and the damage it does to an organizations reputation can take years to repair. Management teams must continually monitor how intelligence is gathered to make corporate intelligence work for their benefit. Proctor & Gamble Competitive Intelligence Case In spring of 2001 John Pepper, then chair of Procter and Gamble was faced with a dilemma (Tuck School). It had been brought to light that P&G’s competitive analysis department had engaged in corporate spying (CNN). An outside firm hired by P&G had engaged in spying on Unilever, P&G’s main competitor in the hair care industry. According to Jordan and Finkelstein “the spying operation gathered about eighty documents detailing Unilever’s plans for its U.S. hair care business over the next three years, including information on its launch-plans, prices, and margins (Tuck School, p. 1).” In April 1999 John Pepper was the keynote speaker at an SCIP CEO Roundtable, held in Montreal. In his address Mr. Pepper...
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...Competitive Landscape When it comes to this type of argument it is very compelling to understand what needs to be done here. It is very important for a company to be able to understand what their competitive landscape market is and how they are going to use it. Within the Jackson Hewitt Company, they have many different competitors that offer similar to the same type of services they do. So the question here really is how Jackson Hewitt markets themselves and the new service of financial services that makes them more appealing to the customer. Marketing is the key, the whole purpose of why a company has marketing teams. Here are some examples of Jackson Hewitt’s competitive landscape. So let’s start out with the most obvious question, what is competitive landscape. “A competitive landscape (also known as “competitive intelligence”) provides cohesive, detailed information on what your competitors are doing including” (Koch, 2009). So when doing the research on Jackson Hewitt, I had come to a conclusion that they do not offer financial advisory to their customer such as some of their competitors do like H and R Block. So when a company wants to start up a new service, they need to research their competitor s to find out exactly what they are offering and the pricing of those services. A company needs to offer more for less in order to be competitive in a field that is already crowded. “In gathering competitive intelligence and creating your competitive landscape, you will...
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...Competitive Algorithms for VWAP and Limit Order Trading Sham M. Kakade Michael Kearns Computer and Information Science University of Pennsylvania Computer and Information Science University of Pennsylvania kakade@linc.cis.upenn.edu mkearns@cis.upenn.edu Yishay Mansour Luis E. Ortiz Computer Science Tel Aviv University Computer and Information Science University of Pennsylvania mansour@post.tau.ac.il leortiz@linc.cis.upenn.edu ABSTRACT We introduce new online models for two important aspects of modern financial markets: Volume Weighted Average Price trading and limit order books. We provide an extensive study of competitive algorithms in these models and relate them to earlier online algorithms for stock trading. Categories and Subject Descriptors F.2 [Analysis of Algorithms and Problem Complexity]: Miscellaneous; J.4 [Social and Behavioral Sciences]: Economics General Terms Algorithms, Economics Keywords Online Trading, Competitive Analysis, VWAP 1. INTRODUCTION While popular images of Wall Street often depict swashbuckling traders boldly making large gambles on just their market intuitions, the vast majority of trading is actually considerably more technical and constrained. The constraints often derive from a complex combination of business, regulatory and institutional issues, and result in certain kinds of “standard” trading strategies or criteria that invite algorithmic analysis. One of the most common...
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...premiere gourmet grocery store that offers shoppers the finest baked goods, meats, cheese and dairy, produce items and an assortment of domestic and imported wines. Kudler Fine Foods offers all customers a wonderful shopping experience and the finest quality of foods and wines. Leaving room to expand its current services and opening new locations. The company’s growth span is leading to an increased customer base. Kudler Fine Foods is increasing and looking to drive revenue upward while leaving the current prices as set. Kudler Fine Foods is ready to develop changes to increase their revenue . I will discuss in this paper the important elements needed in Kudler Fine Foods goal towards advancement in marketing and the role of using the competitive intelligence tactics. This could include other ways to successfully achieve goals of growth. Marketing Research “Although marketing research isn’t perfect, it seeks to reduce risk and uncertainty to improve decisions made by marketing managers” (Armstrong, , 2011) . Marketing research can help develop new product ideas and offer a fine tuning in slimming down products and services. Businesses use market research t o help determine who will be interested in purchasing their products and services. Marketing research will reach out to a target group of people based on certain feelings, needs, income and age. Mrs. Kudler conducted surveys to reach out to customer and receive feedback in areas of potential improvements. Pointing them...
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...community that meets regularly at Club IT.” The club focuses on all music genres, which includes Hip- Hop, Techno, Electronica, MP3, and live bands. With these genres, the music caters to all people from young adults to older adults and single to married couples. Although the club is striving, Ruben and Lisa want their company analyzed for a more competitive advantage. As their intern, I will take a look at the company’s intranet resources, which is an internal network that only the owner’s and employees’ can access. The current intranet is a good resource of information, but it lack security. The access to the intranet needs to be accessible individually. The owners need to have their own login credentials with access to the information related to all the company’s information and employees’ information. The employees need to have their own login credentials as well, so they can access the necessary information related to their job title and personal information. One way to become more competitive is to take advantage of its information base to help a build a community with the support of IT. Several kinds of competitive information and strategies that Club IT can be gain by providing this service, for...
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...The Sport of Dancing Courtney Packwood ENG-106/Professor Zafonte March 17, 2013 Dancers should be considered athletes as well as artists. Dancers must use their bodies to express emotions, tell a story, commit to years of physical training, develop stamina, work as a team, take care of their bodies, stretch to prevent injuries, and enter into competitions against other dancers. They deserve to be helped at the athletic office. The dance education majors are not even allowed to ask for an ice pack from the athletic trainers. Members of the Grand Canyon University Dance Team are considered athletes, while the Dance Education majors are not. Both programs involve dance training but yet the school team is the only one of the two that reaps the benefits of being an athlete. The label of dancing being an art or sport has been questioned for decades now but no one has given it a definitive answer. When looking up the definition for athlete, several interpretations are given; overall, the main idea of an athlete being, “a person who is trained or skilled in exercises, sports, or games requiring physical strength, agility, or stamina” according to the Webster dictionary. When comparing this definition to dancers, it is clear that they meet each of those standards. So, why are dancers being denied help from the athletic training office when they demonstrate comparable abilities in physical training, competition, teamwork, and dedication; just as much as any of the athletic teams on...
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...to in regards to weaknesses and strengths to determine if it is moving in the right direction (Internal Organizational Analysis, n.d.). When internal analyses are not completed honestly and accurately it will affect various portions of the business. Generally, the finances are affected. Finances determine the sustainability of many organizations because of the overhead. When credit is maxed out and there are no funds available to pay employees, vendors, or produce then the company could potentially go out of business. Upon researching, surveying, and reviewing cost I would ensure that the information received is valid. I think that S.W.O.T. (Strength, weakness, opportunities, and threats) internal analysis could increase a level of competitive advantage. Many organizations tend to...
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...STUDY ON THE EFFECTS OF ECONOMIC WAR ON ORGANIZATIONS FROM A LEADERSHIP AND ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOUR PERSPECTIVE. Individual Term Paper Table of Contents I. A. 1. 2. B. 1. 2. II. A. 1. 2. B. 1. 2. C. 1. 2. III. A. B. Background of the topic ............................................................................................................... 3 What is Economic War and what are its practices? .............................................................. 3 Pre-technological Era ........................................................................................................... 3 Technological Era ................................................................................................................. 3 How Competitive Intelligence translates into companies’ life? ............................................ 6 As a tool of Corporate Strategy ........................................................................................... 6 As a part of the Corporate Culture ..................................................................................... 6 Economic War and Corporate Culture .................................................................................. 7 Organizational Leadership....................................................................................................... 7 Where Economic War becomes a problem: advocating ethical behaviour ..................... 7 Where Economic War benefits: crisis leadership ................
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...business STRATEGIC AND COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS: Methods and Techniques for Analyzing Business Competition 1 © The MindShifts Group Pty Ltd Page 1 of 5 www.mindshifts.com.au STRATEGIC AND COMPETITIVE ANALYSIS: Methods and Techniques for Analyzing Business Competition By Craig Fleisher and Babette Bensoussan (Prentice Hall, 2002) Book Description Given the priority of competitiveness in modern companies, practitioners of competitive or strategic corporate intelligence (CI) need to come to terms with what business and competitive analysis is and how it works. More importantly, they need to be able to convert the wealth of available data and information into a valuable form for decision-making and action. Collected data must be converted into intelligence. This is accomplished through analysis. Strategic and Competitive Analysis comprehensively examines the wide spectrum of techniques involved in analyzing business and competitive data and information including environmental analysis, industry analysis, competitor analysis, and temporal analysis models. It helps business analysts and decision-makers to draw effective conclusions from limited data and to put together information that does not often fit together at first glance. The Analysis Iceberg Strategic management involves all aspects of a business and requires a knowledge and understanding of the environmental impacts on an organization to ensure that correct decisions are made and taken. It is not just about looking at best fit...
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...Analyzing Your Competition Overview Almost everyone in business understands the principle of trying to offer something better than what their competitors are offering. Gaining an advantage is the key to success and even survival. But many of the so-called advantages that businesses rely on are not sustainable. They can be easily copied, stolen or negated. Real competitive advantages — things like brand name recognition, patented manufacturing processes or exclusive rights to a scarce resource — cannot be easily copied. Every company has a unique set of strengths, and it's critical that you determine yours, as well as your competitors'. Hold a brainstorming session with your staff and advisors to perform a formal SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) analysis. This analysis helps you to see how your strengths stack up against your competitors' weaknesses and suggests ways to take advantage of marketplace opportunities. After you have performed the analysis, there are four basic competitive strategies to consider. 1. Become the low-cost supplier. By under-pricing the competition, you can achieve greater volume, which can drive your costs down even further by realizing economies of scale. Of course, it's important to still maintain a healthy profit margin so the key here is to lower costs, not just prices. 2. Achieve product or service quality differentiation. Think about the hundreds of companies that have achieved such differentiation for themselves...
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