Competitive Intelligence: How To Gather Analyze And Use Information To Move Your Business To The Top

by Larry Kahaner

Overview

In the first book designed for businesses of all sizes and managers at every level, Larry Kahaner explains the increasingly vital practice of competitive intelligence and how American companies can use it for success.

Competitive Intelligence : How to Gather, Analyze, and Use Information to Move Your Business to the Top is a practical guide to turning raw information into priceless knowledge and winning business strategy.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780684844046
Publisher:	Touchstone
Publication date:	02/11/1998
Pages:	304
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.00(d)

About the Author

Larry Kahaner is an American journalist, author, ghostwriter and former licensed private investigator.

Editorial Reviews

An estimated 7% of large U.S. companies, and many smaller firms, have established competitive intelligence (CI) divisions to spy on the competition, legally and ethically. By accessing government reports, scanning newspapers and the Internet, filing Freedom of Information requests and mining critical information from patents, corporate mission statements and aerial photographs, CI divisions anticipate competitors' actions, learn from their mistakes, find out what equipment they've purchased, identify acquisition targets and keep abreast of regulatory, political and market changes that could affect business. In a conversational, highly accessible style, Kahaner, a private investigator based in Virginia, explains how to set up a CI unit. He profiles intelligence-gathering operations at Motorola, Nutrasweet, AT&T, Corning, Procter & Gamble and Marion-Merrell Dow, as well as sophisticated CI operations in Japan, Sweden and other countries. The smart snooper's bible. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly - Publisher's Weekly

Drawing from his broad experiences as a journalist, author, licensed private investigator, and consultant on intelligence matters for corporate clients, Kahaner gives us a practical guidebook about how many Japanese firms have competitive intelligence divisions as compared with the barely three percent of U.S. companies that practice competitive intelligence. Through illustrative case studies and examples, Kahaner shows Western companies how to establish competitive intelligence units and use them for advantage in the international environment. Kahaner explains what business competitive intelligence is and what it can do for a company; the methods and processes of executing intelligence and comparative facts about the role of competitive business intelligence in other countries, and dicusses pertinent issues such as cost and ethics, opportunities, and the future. A practical book recommended for upper-level business executives and professionals involved in business competitive intelligence; law-enforcement and government officials can also benefit.Joseph W. Leonard, Miami Univ., Oxford, Ohio

Library Journal