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

Problem Sets

The Role of CI in Strategy

Strategy is the second most overused and abused term by business executives and their companies (if you wonder about the first term, it is “synergy”). The sad reality is that few managers are actually taught the meaning of strategy, and what separates a superior one from an inferior one. For example, the worst enemy of strategy is not an external shock such as a lethal competitor move, but internal diffusion by undisciplined initiatives of senior executives. Given that strategy is NOT every pet project with a vague promise of “lots of money” at the end, you should see the value in answering the following questions.

Questions
1. What makes one strategy better than another? Can you say in advance which strategies have a better chance of success than others?
2. What tests can be used of a strategy’s fit with the competitive environment?
3. How come a strategy that can yield millions in revenues may still be a lousy strategy?
4. What is the role of CI in making a lousy strategy? (yes, lousy)

For many managers, indoctrinated by the unfocused corporate concept of “strategy” to believe strategy is anything management says it is, there is little connection between strategy and a company’s actual operations. Thus, strategy becomes a slogan, a marketing hype, and little else. Worse, strategy becomes, by default, a competitive race which ends in everyone losing. Can you link your company’s strategy to its daily activities?

Questions
1. How can you consider the effect of individual activities on the overall strategy? If a competitor changes an element in its activities, can you predict the effect on its performance?
2. What is an activity map and how does it show the strength of a strategy? Can you draw one for your competitors? Your own company?
3. Most companies use CI tactically. However, even when they use it to inform strategic decisions, they don’t know what to ask. What should they ask of their CI manager when it comes to informing strategy?

One company with a superior strategy is Southwest Airline, which earned positive returns for two decades while its competitors went largely bankrupt. Most people think Southwest strategy is to be a low cost airline. In actuality, it is the result of Southwest’s superior strategy. One aspect of its strategy is no assigned seats. In other words, passengers are assigned to a group (A, B or C) and stand in lines, and when they board (group A boards first), they take whatever seat is open. If you are in group C, you do not always like the result.

Questions
1. On July 11, 2006, USA Today reported that Southwest Airline is experimenting with assigned seats. Is that important? What difference does it make?
2. In 1999, Dell experimented with selling to retailers. Why did it stop? How come HP overtook Dell in global market share 2006? Could you have, broadly speaking, predicted that outcome?
3. Based on the lessons from Southwest Airline (and Dell, and Stihl and Neutrogena and many others), can CI play a role in making your company’s strategy stronger? Can CI managers make strategic recommendations based on the information they collect?