In
today’s high-risk world, foreseeing potential problems and eliminating them
before they happen is the ideal many executives strive toward. As business
environments move at a rapid pace, making the most of the increased volumes of
available market and customer data has become business critical, a new report
from management consultancy Arthur D. Little warns.

According to the report "The
Art of Systematic Surveillance,” many executives miss the opportunity to
use their data for strategic decision-making, instead relegating it to a “data
management” task carried out by IT. However, as marketing directors and other
business unit heads # are increasingly forced to make quick on-the-spot
decisions, a single view of all company-critical data will give them the information
needed to to respond quickly and confidently to threats and market challenges .

The report outlines a
centralised approach to intelligence management that facilitates the collection
and analysis of all company data, and allows leaders across the business to
quickly access up-to-the-minute market intelligence.

“Our experience shows
that many B2B companies fail to use their data to support long-term
decision-making, and the same can be said for B2C businesses facing new
consumer trends and shifts to emerging markets," said Per I. Nilsson,
Global Head of Arthur D. Little’s Technology & Innovation Management
Practice. “Organizations today are sitting on virtual mountains of unused
data and changes in the competitive landscape, technologies and business models
all mean it is more important than ever to dust off this data and use it wisely
by taking a centralized approach to intelligence management.”

Arthur D. Little
suggests five business functions where competitive intelligence can be
successfully applied:

1. Procurement –
identifying supply bottlenecks and changes in competitor activity

2. R&D – scouting
new technology to gain early advantage

3. Marketing –
monitoring competitor positioning strategy and advertising efforts

4. Sales/after-sales –
monitoring competitor sales approaches and distribution channels

5. Human Resources
–debriefing new employees and analyzing competitor compensation models

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