The document discusses competitive intelligence, defined as the legal and ethical collection and analysis of information about competitors to enhance business decision-making. It highlights trends such as social media monitoring, big data analytics, and customer understanding through personas, providing various resources for further exploration. Additionally, it emphasizes the importance of storytelling for effectively presenting competitive intelligence research.

1. Jill Hurst-Wahl Director, MSLIS Program, Syracuse University
President, Hurst Associates, Ltd.
Manufacturers Association of Central New York: Tech Council
What’s New in Competitive Intelligence?
What is it?
“…the legal and ethical collection and analysis of information regarding the capabilities, vulnerabilities, and intentions
of business competitors” and “…skilled use of intelligence to enhance business decision-making and organizational
performance” - Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP)
Includes knowing your:
 Competitors
 Your own organization
 Customers
 Industries
 Markets
 Government regulations
 Global environment
Current / Continued Trends:
 Social Media
 Tracking competitors, events, sentiment, etc.
 Spotting trends
 Geofencing - software that uses GPS or RFID to define geographical boundaries.
 Resources:
 Martin, Rion (2015). “Using Social Listening for Competitive Intelligence.” http://infegy.com/blog/using-social-
media-to-spy-on-your-competitors/
 Hess, Kenneth (2015). “Big Data and Social Listening.” http://www.datamation.com/data-center/big-data-and-
social-listening.html
 Schwartz Rafi (2015). “What Your ‘Algorithmic Citizenship’ Says About Your Web Habits.”
 http://magazine.good.is/articles/whats-your-global-internet-algorithmic-citizenship
 Big Data
 Metadata
 Data analytics
 Unstructured Data
 Visualization
 Resources:
 Weisul, Kimberly (2014). Cracking the Code of Big Data: 5 Questions to Ask Now.” http://www.inc.com/kimberly-
weisul/five-big-overlooked-questions-about-big-data.html
 Corrado, Celeste (2014). “Unleashing the Power of Information + Innovation.”
http://strategiccompetitiveintelligence.blogspot.com/2014/09/unleashing-power-of-information.html
 Anderbjörk, Gabriel and Jesper Martell (2015). “Introduction to Competitive Intelligence Portals: The What, Why,
and How of using IT tools to support your intelligence work.” http://comintelli.com/wp-
content/uploads/2015/12/SCIP-Intro-to-CI-Portals-Gabriel-Anderbjok-Jesper-Martell.unlocked.compressed.pdf
 Customer Understanding & Segmentation
 Personas - fictional characters created to represent different user types.
 Resources:
 HubSpot (2015). “6 Steps to Building User Personas and Why You Should Care.”
http://www.slideshare.net/HubSpot/6-steps-to-building-user-personas-and-why-you-should-care/4-
A_way_to_model_summarize
 Calof, Jonathan (2015). “Customer Intelligence Meets Trade Show and Event Intelligence.”
https://www.scip.org/re_pdfs/1448900422_pdf_CIM_Final-Locked.pdf (pg. 46-49)
 Storytelling for CI Professionals
 Resources:
 Cascade Insights (2015). “7 Tips For Presenting Competitive Intelligence Research Like A Pro: B2B Market Research
podcast.” http://www.cascadeinsights.com/7-tips-presenting-competitive-intelligence-data-like-pro/
 Samuel, Alexandra (2015). “The Best Data Storytellers Aren’t Always the Numbers People.”
https://hbr.org/2015/10/the-best-data-storytellers-arent-always-the-numbers-people