All ACI programs teach students how to overcome the most challenging competitive intelligence issues. The following are sample lessons taught in:

Problem Sets

Anticipating Innovation

• Anticipating Disruptive Technologies
• Finding Technology to Address Emerging Needs in a Services Business
• Assessing Competitors’ Early Stage Development
• Timing the Entry of New Technologies

1. Anticipating Disruptive Technologies

Your firm is in the enviable position of being market leader, resulting in part from your introduction of new materials technology several years ago that provided a superior solution to customer’s number one need of strength. Your scientists and product development staff are confident you can maintain your strength advantage in the face of increasing competition due to your depth of expertise and cumulative experience. Your concern is that you may be too complacent and miss a ‘disruptive technology’ that will change the rules of the game.

Questions:

1. Where do you look for potentially disruptive technology?
2. How do you deal with your internal experts who consistently say that there is no threat?
3. What are some of the leading indicators that a new technology might be introduced?
4. What role does need assessment play in anticipating technology substitution?

2. Finding Technology to Address Emerging Needs in a Services Business

A joint marketing and IT planning team in a financial and investment services firm has concluded that the drivers of your business are changing. Specifically, due to shifts in your customers’ expectations and technology being used by them, new features are likely to be important in giving them timely access to their portfolio information; capabilities that your current technology is not well positioned to offer.

Questions:

1. How can you validate the changes in drivers and implications for your product?
2. Where do you look for possible new technology platforms to address the emerging customer drivers?
3. What is the difference between a ‘solutions driven’ and a ‘technology driven’ search process and which one is likely to provide a more innovative solution?

3. Assessing Competitors’ Early Stage Development

Recent trademark filings indicate that your competitor may be positioning themselves to introduce a new product concept, but exactly what it is and when it is to happen are unclear. In order to develop an appropriate competitive response, you would like to know more about their plans.

Questions:

1. What types of intelligence might be used to develop an assessment of their intentions and capabilities?
2. Which industry participants might have insights you can tap into, and how might you approach them without divulging your interest?
3. Can indicators such as scientific papers and patents provide any useful insights given the lag between work and publication and the short term nature of the perceived threat?

4. Timing the Entry of New Technologies

Most major firms in the industry accept that some form of advanced genetic testing is likely to find a home in the health care system and that early participants can position themselves to become dominant players – if they enter at the right time and focus on the right applications. The challenge is to find the applications likely to become the early winners and to position yourself against the offerings of other firms.

Questions:

1. How do you determine when early stage technologies might be ready for commercialization?
2. What intelligence about competitor’s activities might be useful in assessing where you want to focus your work and how might that intelligence be developed?
3. How important is it to identify the unarticulated needs that might emerge as drivers after the first product offerings; and how exactly do you identify and prioritize them?