Competitive Intelligence Analysis: What ED Can Learn From Business

Business executives are always trying to find out what their competition is up to. Are there some things economic developers could learn from them? I think there may be.

Here is a starting point.

A recent Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) membership survey asked what methods of analyzing CI information were most used, and which were rated most effective:

Tools for Analyzing Information
[Percent using each tool]

Competitor profiles: 88.9%
Financial analysis: 72.1%
SWOT analysis: 55.2%
Scenario development: 53.8%
Win/loss analysis: 40.4%
War gaming: 27.5%
Conjoint analysis: 25.5%
Simulation/modeling: 25%

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Effectiveness of Analysis Tools
[Percent rating each tool extremely or very effective]

SWOT analysis: 63.1%
Competitor profiles: 52.4%
Financial analysis: 45.5%
Win/loss analysis: 31.4%
War gaming: 21.9%
Scenario development: 19.2%
Conjoint analysis: 15.8%
Simulation/modeling: 15.4%