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

Problem Sets

Managing the Intelligence Program

Hannibal and Your Intelligence Program
Producing Actionable Intelligence
You Need a User-Needs Identification Process, But Not Sure How To Develop One
Managing Your Organization's BI Operations- Are You're the Right Person for the Job?

1. Hannibal and Your Intelligence Program
Hannibal, facing a threat of annihilation by Rome, crosses the Mediterranean and landed inside the Roman Empire. He had 42,000 mercenaries at his disposal, versus 72,000 Roman legionnaires, led by an experienced general, Varro. Hannibal won this battle.

Questions
1. What does it have to do with CI?
2. How did Hannibal win and what is the lesson for managing CI?
3. How is Sears related to this story?
4. Why sometime too much analytical thinking can prevent seeing the simple truth?

2. Producing Actionable Intelligence

The Business Intelligence (BI) department has been operating for about a year. It has a good reputation for being very responsive to management's requests, answering the hard questions. It produces a bi-weekly Intelligence Newsletter and competitor assessments that are very comprehensive. The Department has been asked to make intelligence inputs to the company's Long-Range Plan and several business unit strategies. Yet, it does not seem to be getting the recognition it believes it deserves. What more can be done?

Questions
1. Is the Director of Intelligence invited to the President's weekly staff meetings?
2. Are the Department's intelligence products actually resulting in business actions?
3. Are there other types of intelligence products and services that the Department should be offering?
4. Does the Department assess the "value" of its intelligence products?

3. You Need a User-Needs Identification Process, But Not Sure How To Develop One

Your General Manager has asked you to organize and start up a CI program for the Business Unit. He has identified several hot topics he wants you to focus on but has stated that he wants you to poll his direct reports and present the combined set of intelligence topics for their review and selection.

Questions
1. What is the best way to identify all their intelligence needs?
2. How many topics can be worked on at one time?
3. How should they be organized?
4. How should they be prioritized?

4. Managing Your Organization's BI Operations- Are You're the Right Person for the Job?
You have just joined the company's main-line business unit (BU) after three years in the field support group. The head of the BU has asked you to take the lead in establishing a CI function. You know the BU has not been doing well lately, mainly due to the aggressiveness and success of several new competitors. Your know first hand how difficult it is to get Headquarters' managers to pay attention to field activities and have doubts about their interest in CI.

Questions
1. Should you take the assignment?
2. Do you personally know these new managers?
3. Did you have trouble getting HQ to use or act on your field-service reporting?
4.How do your peers and previous managers characterize your "thinking"?
5. Would you have difficulty telling your new boss one of his old product lines is not fairing as well as it appears?6. Would you be comfortable reporting a possible intelligence operations problems to the law department?