competitive intelligence for business success

As one of our Business Bites this is one of our extra-short courses focusing on core Competitive Intelligence skills and guiding you through the development of your own CI strategy. The course is 4 modules long and including 2 tutor-marked assignments; involving approximately 25 hours of study time.

It leads to the award of a Certificate of Course Completion.

This course provides a comprehensive introduction to the field of competitive intelligence and shows you how it can be used to bring competitive advantage to your business and keep you ahead of the field. Course book: Competitive Intelligence by Jim Underwood.

Subjects covered include: gathering information: primary and secondary research, competitor analysis, components of competitive intelligence, ethics and good practice, tools and techniques, competitive intelligence and business strategy.

"If you are ignorant of both your enemy and yourself, then you are a fool and certain to be defeated in every battle."

  Sun Tzu, The Art of War, approx 500 BC.

Whether large or small, your business works hard to carve out it's niche in the marketplace. Unless the products or services you offer are truly unique you probably do so against fierce competition from other businesses. While you might not exactly see yourself as being at war with those businesses, the fact remains that often you are chasing the same customer group. In some types of businesses you might also be competing for limited raw materials or for the most talented employees. Just as in a war, the successful business is the one that truly understands the enemy, and the landscape in which they do battle. This means tuning in to the way your competitors' think and function, as well as understanding their strengths and vulnerabilities, and their long and short term strategies.

Competitive intelligence can help you to discover the answers to these questions, providing information that may be used to develop your own strategies and keep you one step ahead of the field.

By understanding your competitors you may be able to:

prempt their next movesexploit their weaknessesavoid their mistakescreate a stronger and more effective strategy for your own business.

This course can show you how to carry our your own competitive analysis and integrate it into your overall business strategy.

Module One: Introduction to Competitive intelligence. The importance of CI to your business. Performance and intelligence. Informing company strategy. Understanding your business landscape. Positioning and benchmarking.

Module Two: Information Gathering. Accessing primary and secondary sources. Ethical CI practice. Sources of secondary intelligence: official records, web sites, annual reports, conferences, media coverage, and publicity material. Identifying primary sources. Online research - search tools and search engines, databases and portals.

Module Three: Analysis tools. Collating information. Comparative competitor analysis. Financial performance analysis. Creating your knowledgebase.

Module Four: Integrating CI and business strategy. CI as a core business function. Involving staff at every level. Staying one-step ahead of the competition. Future research.

Learning Curve is one of the UK's leading distance learning providers. All of our home study courses include study material, which is sent out in an attractive, hardwearing folder, essential course books and full tutorial support. We are accredited by the Open and Distance Learning Quality Council, members of the Association of British Correspondence Colleges and the British Institute of Learning and Development, and registered as providers with the Learning Skills Council. For more about Learning Curve click here.