A powerful "how-to-do-it-better" book, this is the first guidebook on competitive intelligence that uses case studies to provide behind-the-scenes insights into how professionals improve competitive intelligence processes. All organizations need to stay competitive in their respective fields to ensure success. Competitive intelligence (CI) is an established discipline that focuses on giving businesses and nonprofit organizations the advantage of staying fully informed about what their competitors are doing, are capable of doing, and will likely do. CI is a particularly valuable and powerful tool that supports everything from strategic planning to marketing and new business development to human resources-if it's executed properly. This groundbreaking book uses real-world case studies to expose common CI challenges and present a simple methodology for spotting problems, understanding how to rectify each problem, educating others in order to bring about improvements in a process, and testing and validating that the changes are working. Competitive Intelligence Rescue: Getting It Right provides invaluable insights from Carolyn M. Vella and John J. McGonagle, two of the most prolific authors, recognized experts, and in-demand speakers on the topic of competitive intelligence worldwide. Any manager, executive, or owner of any organization-including medium-sized and large enterprises such as businesses, law firms, hospitals, nonprofits, and universities-as well as anyone inside or outside of a firm who provides competitive intelligence to managers or executives will benefit from reading this book, regardless of previous experience with or knowledge about CI. Provides readers with practical tools and strategies to immediately identify and address their CI problems Enables businesses to realize discernible improvements in performance, planning, competitiveness, and agility Offers helpful checklists and other easy-to-use aids to make improving CI operations a straightforward process Serves leaders in any organization-for profit or nonprofit-charged with the challenge of maintaining a competitive edge in their industry

McGonagle and Vella maintain that competitive intelligence as we know it is just the first step toward the creation of true corporate intelligence. Their book thus explores ways in which new channels of communication and new uses of information and intelligence will change corporations, and how these changes can be anticipated now in an organization's strategic planning, crisis management, benchmarking, reverse engineering, and defensive intelligence activities. In doing so, they introduce readers to new techniques, such as shadow benchmarking and fractal management analysis. Readable, with useful checklists, forms, reminders, and drawing from real world cases, this book will be essential reading for executives in the public and private sectors, and their colleagues in the academic business community.

Vella and McGonagle premise their book on the evidence that modern companies throughout the world are undergoing radical, involuntary transformations, the result of an explosion of raw information suddenly available to them. Not only does this demand new ways to collect, process, and use information, but also a new way to look at and link information sources that until now have been unconnected. After discussing the importance of intelligence today and its greater importance tomorrow, Vella and McGonagle develop the concept of Cyber-Intelligence(TM), then show how it applies to strategy-creation, marketing, crisis management, benchmarking, and other organizational functions. They turn next to data gathering in the context of their Cyber-Intelligence(TM) concept, ending with a thoughtful discussion of where C-I is going next.

Competitive intelligence uses public sources to obtain valuable information on competition and competitors. By using competitive intelligence aggressively and intelligently, corporations can obtain information on potential acquisition targets, markets, key personnel, the probable emergence of new products, or the financial strength or contracts of a competing firm. An absolutely indispensable playbook for anyone who has to compete during the information explosion.

"Martin Sikora, Editor, Mergers and AcquisitionS"

Competitive intelligence uses public sources to obtain valuable information on competition and competitors. In an open society such as our own, businesses place a great deal of information in the public domain. By using competitive intelligence aggressively and intelligently, corporations can obtain information on potential acquisition targets, markets, key personnel, the probable emergence of new products, or the financial strength or contracts of a competing firm. In fact, the authors contend that as much as 90 percent of the information required to decide on a course of litigation, acquisitions, expansion, new product introduction, or financing, is available through competitive intelligence.

Traditionally, tapping into the power of competitive intelligence (CI) meant investing in the development of an internal CI unit or hiring outside consultants who specialized in CI. "Proactive Intelligence: The Successful Executive's Guide to Intelligence" offers an alternative: learn how to do it yourself and how to effectively manage the parts you cannot. The tools and techniques that will enable you to produce your own CI for your consumption are out there, and have been honed by decades of work. But, you cannot just adopt them - you have to adapt them.

Why? Because, when you finish reading this book, you will be the data collector, the analyst, and the end-user. Traditional CI is premised on a reactive, two part relationship - a CI professional responding to what an end-user identifies as a need; by doing this yourself you can turn CI from being reactive to being proactive. As the decision-maker, you can get what CI you need, when you need it, and then use it almost seamlessly. Written by two of the foremost experts on CI, Proactive "Intelligence: The Successful Executive's Guide to Intelligence"

shows where and how CI can help you and your firm,

provides practical guidance on how to identify what CI you need, how to find the data you need, and how to analyze it, and

discusses how to apply CI to develop competitive- and career- advantages.

Each chapter is supported by important references as well as by an additional list of resources to support and supplement your knowledge. "Proactive Intelligence: The Successful Executive's Guide to Intelligence" teaches you how to generate proactive intelligence and use it to advance your business and your career- making it an essential resource for managers and executives, as well as everyonewho wishes to integrate CI into their daily work routine."

Written for planning professionals in corporations and the nonprofit sector, this book addresses the need for adequate competitive intelligence. Types of corporate planning are examined and practical, detailed advice on using CI techniques to make planning more effective are offered. The book begins with an overview of CI and business planning, subsequent chapters address procedures involved in using CI. Each chapter includes a list of key references. The book concludes with a glossary of terms and four appendixes that deal with the CI process as a whole. "Business Information Alert"

Written for planning professionals in corporations and the nonprofit sector this volume addresses a critical facet of the business planning process: the need for adequate CI (competitive intelligence). As the authors note at the outset, a business cannot develop a sound competitive strategy without reliable CI, nor can it expect to apply that strategy without an ongoing CI effort. "Improved Business Planning Using Competitive Intelligence" examines the types of corporate planning and offers practical, detailed advice on using CI techniques to make planning more effective.

The authors begin with an overview of CI and business planning, focusing on such areas as the phases of CI, the importance of planning, the basic requirements of planning, the types of CI available, and the ways in which CI can be injected into corporate strategy formulation. Subsequent chapters address the actual procedures involved in using CI: gathering and analyzing data, recognizing disinformation, integrating CI into business planning, supplementing business planning with CI, shadowing markets, and defending one firm from another's CI efforts. Each chapter includes a list of key references. A glossary of terms and four appendices dealing with the CI process as a whole complete this indispensable contribution to the literature of corporate planning.

As businesses learn more about competitive intelligence (CI) and how to use it, the ferocity of competition rises to a new level. Naturally, people will seek ways to protect themselves and their organizations against CI, but how? McGonagle and Vella, specialists in CI and what can be called CI countermeasures, have studied the problem from its beginning, and now offer corporate executives and executives in public and nonprofit organizations a portfolio of strategies and tactics. Each one is designed to meet two mutually important criteria: self-protection against the competitive intelligence activities of others, but also the freedom and mobility needed to maneuver in the marketplace. The result, a so-called cloaking program, allows an organization to become significantly less visible to its competitors, and can therefore compete more effectively against them. Including full details on the new Economic Espionage Act of 1996, this book is an extremely useful resource for executives throughout the public and private sectors.

McGonagle and Vella maintain that there is nothing illegal about protecting an organization against competition. They argue that businesses can and should restrict the information available to others--available legally and ethically from newspapers, for example, or from an organization's annual reports. The authors' aim is for organizations to respond to CI's advances by making it more difficult for competitors to learn about them. They begin by explaining how CI data collection works and the analytical tools that are most effective and commonly used. They then develop the basic precepts for establishing and managing a cloaking program, that is, a way for a business to protect key pieces of competitively sensitive information by the same legal and ethical means others are using to discover it. Well written and easily accessed, "Protecting Your Company Against Competitive Intelligence" is important information not only for experienced CI professionals and those who aspire to such positions, but also for executives with general management responsibilities.

Almost two decades after it emerged as an essential business tool, competitive intelligence is still finding its way. Despite its recognized importance, companies struggle to acquire the kind of intelligence they need and measure its effectiveness and value. This book provides essential tools for selecting the right kind of CI and assessing its contributions to a company's financial performance.

The authors identify three fundamental, intertwined mistakes a company can make, showing how to evaluate them and repair the damage they may have done. McGonagle and Vella dissect the current state of CI, survey its evolution into five distinct yet overlapping types, develop a framework for determining which types fit special needs, and evaluate means of communicating CI up and down the line. They discuss the most common raw data source categories--the bases of support for all CI analyses--and the workings of metrics in general. CI professionals and related end users are provided with a process they can employ immediately, right out of the box, which will not only help them select the right metric but will prove invaluable as they seek to evaluate the future metrics that are sure to come.

Two of the most prolific and challenging authorities on the topic of competitive intelligence (CI) reflect on and respond to the changes in the field over the last decade. The authors point out that CI users have to change what they are doing, show why they are doing it, and provide ways of doing it. Their book reviews the problems in the development of CI since the 1980s, discusses the impact of the Internet and the rise in use of other secondary sources, and draws from and provides access to the growing body of CI information, knowledge, and literature.

Combining a scholarly approach with hands-on advice, McGonagle and Vella have written the first work to guide CI professionals through the emerging literature of their field. Among the important changes in the field the authors cover are: the radical changes in on line database searching and ways in which the Internet has fundamentally modified how we think of accessing data. Their book explores and reports the major body of work from the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, now that more businesses worldwide are using competitive intelligence and either writing about their experiences with it, or joining in new benchmarking studies. The result is newer information on what really works, what doesn't work, and who is doing what with it. The book is thus a starting point for people new to the field of CI as well as a resource to help experienced professionals do their jobs better.

There is very little material available that provides practical, hands-on assistance for the CI professional who is providing CI to one client—his or her employer—and who constitutes the largest single group of CI practitioners in existence. This book meets that need by serving as a desk reference for CI managers to help them understand their own circumstances and determine what works best for them. Competitive intelligence (CI) is now becoming a mature profession. With that maturation comes the need to develop and understand the how's and why's of managing CI, as distinguished from understanding how CI works. There is very little material available that provides practical, hands-on assistance for the CI professional who is providing CI to one client—his or her employer—and who constitutes the largest single group of CI practitioners in existence. This book meets that need by serving as a desk reference for CI managers to help them understand their own circumstances and determine what works best for them. In addition to providing hints on diagnosing individual situations, many forms and checklists that the manager can use immediately are included.

Traditionally, tapping into the power of competitive intelligence (CI) meant investing in the development of an internal CI unit or hiring outside consultants who specialized in CI. "Proactive Intelligence: The Successful Executive's Guide to Intelligence" offers an alternative: learn how to do it yourself and how to effectively manage the parts you cannot. The tools and techniques that will enable you to produce your own CI for your consumption are out there, and have been honed by decades of work. But, you cannot just adopt them - you have to adapt them.

Why? Because, when you finish reading this book, you will be the data collector, the analyst, and the end-user. Traditional CI is premised on a reactive, two part relationship - a CI professional responding to what an end-user identifies as a need; by doing this yourself you can turn CI from being reactive to being proactive. As the decision-maker, you can get what CI you need, when you need it, and then use it almost seamlessly. Written by two of the foremost experts on CI, Proactive "Intelligence: The Successful Executive's Guide to Intelligence"

shows where and how CI can help you and your firm,

provides practical guidance on how to identify what CI you need, how to find the data you need, and how to analyze it, and

discusses how to apply CI to develop competitive- and career- advantages.

Each chapter is supported by important references as well as by an additional list of resources to support and supplement your knowledge. "Proactive Intelligence: The Successful Executive's Guide to Intelligence" teaches you how to generate proactive intelligence and use it to advance your business and your career- making it an essential resource for managers and executives, as well as everyonewho wishes to integrate CI into their daily work routine."

The field of genetics has changed considerably since the first edition of Genetics for Cat Breeders was published in 1971. For decades the discussion of genetics was limited to observations of populations but now geneticists are beginning to look at the actual molecular mechanisms behind the traits and diseases seen in the cat. Continuing the pioneering work of the late Roy Robinson, Carolyn Vella and her team of experts have significantly expanded the scope of previous editions to produce a work which is now of equal benefit to both veterinary surgeons and cat breeders. Their aim has been to make the book more accessible and understandable whilst providing an impartial look at sometimes controversial and complex issues. The book retains the most important information published in previous editions and also incorporates some of the continuing work done by Roy Robinson prior to his death. A considerable amount of new information has been added in order to provide both breeders and veterinarians with the broadest possible range of information. The authors have not only reviewed the traditional sources of scientific literature and recently published studies, but have also conducted interviews with veterinarians, researchers and breeders. * The 4th edition of Roy Robinson's established text on cat genetics has been updated by a team of specialists to reflect a decade of changes and advances in genetic research * The authorship now includes a practising veterinarian as well as experienced cat breeders, thus making this new edition useful at both veterinary and breeder levels * New technical and historical appendices contain important reference material and a glossary has been added for ease of reference