Intelligence is one of the main characteristics of the human being. From the beginning of humanity, man used his intelligence to survive. And the business world is no exception. With less structured and less systematic methods, business intelligence has always been present. Today, the whirlwind of the current world and the saturation of markets is decisive for the implementation in the business fabric of Competitive Intelligence methodologies derived from analysis of large volumes of information from the environment that minimize the risk of innovation, to satisfy a increasingly demanding market, with more power and of course with more knowledge.
“If you know others and you know yourself, you will not be in danger in a hundred battles; if you do not know others, but you know yourself, you will lose one battle and win another; If you don't know others or you don't know yourself, you will be in danger in every battle ”, is one of the famous phrases of Sun Tzu, author of The Art of War, an influential Chinese book on military strategy that was possibly written between 400 a. C. and 320 a. C.
This ancient phrase is constantly repeated in the texts associated with IC. If we translated it into the competitive business context, it would look something like this:
If you know the environment and you know your resources, capabilities and values (RCV), you will not be in danger in a hundred scenarios; If you don't know the environment, but you know your RCV, you will lose competitive position in some markets and you will gain in others; If you do not know the environment or your RCVs, you will be in danger in each of the markets in which the company operates.
Since man is a man, the concept of intelligence has been present in all spheres of life, many times more because of the survival instinct than associated with business. Our grandparents already practiced intelligence in their businesses, although their presence has probably been unstructured, more intuitive than planned, and in less turbulent contexts. But the truth is that man and intelligence are synonyms, although sometimes it is hard to believe.
A mediados de siglo pasado, las empresas desarrollaban su negocio en un clima caracterizado por su elevado grado de estabilidad y escaso nivel de incertidumbre. Los incrementos de productividad basados en la eficiencia de la gestión productiva y financiera marcaron las directrices seguidas por la industria hasta finales de la década de los ´60. No obstante, en esa época ya comenzaron a aparecer los primeros vestigios de la exploración del entorno. Concretamente Aguilar F.J., citado por la mayor parte de los investigadores contemporáneos como uno de los mayores contribuidores de esta teoría, presentó en 1967 la primera publicación sobre el monitoreo del ambiente de los negocios: “Scanning the business environment”.
Subsequently, in the business world, the market focus gained importance, emphasizing commercial and marketing resources, to conclude in the mid-1980s in an environment that favors a strategic orientation towards the development of human resources management.
From then on, revolutionary technological events took place that served as antecedents to what has been called the Information Society, where the emergence of a scenario characterized by the globalization of exchanges with new and numerous competitors, capable of using technologies advanced production with comparative cost advantages, oblige companies in developed countries to substitute competition policies based on price, for differentiation policies based on intangible factors, in which quality, design, service and fundamentally the Technology is beginning to be seen as key factors in competitiveness.
In a world where speed loses clarity and companies struggle to survive instead of competing to create value, the rapid renewal of knowledge, the dynamism of technological advance with the consequent reduction in time in product development and market launch (lean production), should be basic components of current industrial policies, so that the greater their ability to anticipate and destabilize in the new competitive environment, the greater their chances of success both in the short and long term.
In this new scenario, a principle of uncertainty governs that makes its observation and analysis complex. So an adequate monitoring of the environment together with a correct management of technological, financial, and productive resources would facilitate the company to acquire a greater capacity for coupling, and mainly, the possibility of anticipating, and even causing ruptures that allow it to renew your competitive advantages at the right time. These breaks can only be generated by someone who systematically explores needs that have not yet been manifested by demand.
Few companies manage to be proactive. It is clear that the few that arrive do not do so through surveys or market studies that reveal what is there and who ask people how a product or project can be improved. When people run out of ideas, opportunities appear for those who have them, for those who dare to promote them and for those who know how to do it.
In a chaotic environment, rupture overcomes routine and generally leads to the birth of a new leader (Bilancio, G. 2001). An anticipator with the ability to observe and monitor the environment, identifying opportunities to set a new course, sustained by creativity and a new capacity for innovation.
Therefore, Competitive Intelligence (CI) is a business model that arouses growing interest in the field of strategic management. Its implementation predicts a clear convergence with innovation, which leads to the consolidation of companies with a vocation for the future. In the words of Bilancio, these companies try to control the uncontrollable, being favorable to chaos to explore divergences and find opportunities. They maintain a strong ORDER but subordinate to CHAOS, and this makes them lead the markets.
