Defensive
Competitive Intelligence
June 2008
www.intelegia.com
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Introduction
•What is Defensive Competitive Intelligence?
•The Importance of Defensive Competitive Intelligence
•Plan of Action
•Things To Remember
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What is Defensive Competitive Intelligence?
A) The process of ensuring that a limited amount of
information regarding your firm is available in the public
domain
B) The process of placing competitor information within
private databases
C) The process of gathering competitor information once
competitors has collected information on your firm
D) The process of protecting your legal right to gather
competitive intelligence
ANSWER: A)
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The Importance of Defensive Competitive
Intelligence
• Protecting your past, present, future strategic initiatives
from competitors who have the ability to search and
analyse information
• Ensuring that vital information is in the hands of
individuals that can be trusted
• Limiting the flow of information from the company to
others that can benefit from it
• Ensuring that information do not appear online thanks to
human error, inside information or malicious behaviour
by former employers
• Ensuring that the right ‘things’ are told to the right
‘people’
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Plan of Action
Consider:
• Looking in the mirror
• Examine what is already in the public domain online and offline
• Taking control
• Attempt to limit what is in the public domain (i.e., press releases on
corporate website, speeches and presentations by top executives)
• Establishing security
• Provide guidelines and tools to ”internal information providers” to
ensure that the right information is disseminated to the right
individuals
• Evaluating the plan
• Match objectives with current realities and seek improvements
• Setting a budget
• Allocate the right financial resources to protect valuable information
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Tips To Remember
• The practice of defensive competitive intelligence is an on-
going process
• Consider content alert services to monitor the appearance of
your firm’s name on the web
• Everyone within the organization should ‘buy-in’ to the plan
• A routine information audit is recommended to see what is
available online. (Consider using a consultant to see what can
be found online)
• Remember some information may lie on the ‘invisible web’.
Google will not find EVERYTHING on your company
• Do NOT forget the Web 2.0 as a source of information that
grows by the second
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About Intelegia
Intelegia, a subsidiary of E&B DATA, is a company that strives to
assist individuals in understanding the changes in the business
environment through internet intelligence. Via training, consulting
and publications, Intelegia aims to provide the best approaches
and tools to obtain the best information and utilize decision-
making frameworks.
For training solutions to establish your defensive competitive intelligence
strategy, contact Isabelle Poirier at +1 (514) 276-1700 Ext. 104 .
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