This Seminar Selector lists the key questions that each seminar addresses. If you can answer "yes" to three or more of the 10 questions posed for each course, this course will meet your needs.

Intelligence Sources & Collection Techniques
(course-description) (problem sets)

Do you need to...

1. Learn the difference between data, information and intelligence and how they apply to your business?

2. Understand the Economic Espionage Act (EEA) and the legal and ethical information-gathering limits your organization must know?

3. Know how to better use the Internet for gathering and locating intelligence?

4. Use creative or unusual sources for determining competitive costs, operational or strategic intelligence?

5. Apply specialized interviewing techniques for acquiring pinpoint information -- even from senior managers?

6. Gather trade show or conference intelligence in the most effective manner?

7. Know the fundamentals of building an on-going intelligence program for your company?

8. Write a business plan for an intelligence process?

9. Learn the best-in-class intelligence software packages for your company -- as well as the ones to avoid?

10. Identify and apply the most effective ways to motivate your entire organization to gather and communicate intelligence?

Competitive Benchmarking & Tactical Analysis
(course-description) (problem sets)

Do you need to...

1. Identify the most, and least, important competitive threats for your company or business unit?

2. Know how to anticipate your rival's strategic direction and which direction it might be taking?

3. Know the most "intelligence-rich" moment to monitor a rival's movements in the market?

4. Focus on the core issues surrounding a competitor -- and eliminate time-wasting analysis?

5. Learn the principles of analyzing a company's financials and cost of operations?

6. Uncover the operating costs of a privately-held company or subsidiary operation?

7. Anticipate a company's strategy based on analyzing that firm's senior management?

8. Forecast a rival's long-term moves in the market?

9. Predict and identify predator companies that may enter your market?

10. Know how to deliver intelligence to management in a way that will speed up decision making?

Competitive Blindspots
(course-description) (problem sets)

Do you need to...

1. Understand the major forces affecting the performance of your industry?

2. Track early trends that will change the performance of your industry?

3. Predict where the industry is going?

4. Predict competitors' moves?

5. Assess competitors' responses to your firm's moves?

6. Understand your company's position relative to competitors?

7. Identify and alert management where your company's strategy is wrong?

8. Identify where your competitors' strategies are wrong?

9. Develop a framework that will direct and organize a continuous collection effort (in addition to answering management questions)?

10. Support senior executives with insightful analysis?

Cross-Competitor Analysis
(course-description) (problem sets)

Do you need to...

1. Track and assess more than 5 competitors at once?

2. Understand competitors that are very different?

3. Track an industry that is in transition?

4. Make sense of foreign competitors?

5. Analyze competitors that are subsidiaries of larger holding companies?

6. Learn to work with minimal available data?

7. Understand change? Rapid change? The effect of growth?

8. Integrate consumer/customer behavior into your analysis?

9. Forecast industry structure several years into the future?

10. Simplify the analysis of large numbers of companies?

Managing the Intelligence Program
(course-description) (problem sets)

1. Does your management understand and use your intelligence capabilites?

2. Do you have a method/process for identifying management's intelligence needs?

3. Does your current intelligence organization/process meet your company's needs?

4. Do you believe it takes a formal organization to produce efffective intelligence?

5. Do you have adequate resources, i.e., people and money, to run an effective intelligence operation?

6. Does the individual running your intelligence function have the necessary experience and skills?

7. Does your organization have a formal set of "Legal & Ethical Guidelines" ?

8. Do you believe you are producing truly "actionable" intelligence? Do you know what the three key elements are to doing so?

9. Should the intelligence organization's function/output be evaluated?

If so, should the evaluation be done on a financial basis?

10. Do you believe/know whether your major competitors are running CI operations against your company? Have they been successful?

Anticipating Innovation
(course-description)  (problem sets)

Do you need to…

1. Focus your ongoing intelligence collection to provide optimal support to your firm’s innovative efforts?

2. Anticipate external forces that provide opportunities for innovative products or services?

3. Find way to complement your firm’s market and consumer research in identifying latent or unarticulated customer needs

4. Identify potential breakthrough technologies that can fuel new growth in your current or extended product lines?

5. Identify new technologies that may disrupt your business or product plans fueling your growth?

6. Identify external sources of technology that might be used to accelerate your product or service development efforts? ?

7. Overcome resistance to external information (NIH) in your product development or R&D groups?

8. Assess whether your firm should devote more resources to a formal technology scouting effort?

9. Anticipate competitor’s new product features and marketing strategy to help position your new product or service launches?

10. Assess your competitor’s technical base and investment in new technologies?

War Gaming: Theory & Practice
(course-description) (problem sets)

Do you need to:

1. Predict your competitors' strategies and actions for the next year?

2. Predict industry evolution path for the next 1-3 years?

3. Learn to develop creative strategic options and think like an entrepreneurial company?

4. Update executive participants (during a management retreat) with the latest developments in your competitive arena and the resulting implications to your company's future?

5. Assess the competitive environment before the strategic planning cycle begins?

6. Identify your company's strategy weaknesses?

7. Learn to track competition in emerging industries?

8. Shift management's attention to an external focus?

9. Introduce competitive thinking into marketing, research, and business development plans?

10. Assess your rivals' technological, commercial strategies, as well as your customers' future directions?

Value Chain Analysis
(course-description) (problem sets)

Do you need to…

1. Estimate cost positions among various rivals in your market?

2. Understand how and why different industry players present - and can sustain - large differences in profitability?

3. Determine the actual strategic differences in value chain activities between your company and its rivals?

4. Deliver more precision in your strategic competitive assessments, offering more "hard" financial and performance models on competitors, customers, suppliers, and acquisition targets?

5. Produce relative cost analysis for your company and its rivals?

6. Understand the precise nature and sources of competitive advantage in your industry?

7. Alert management to threats regarding your company's competitive advantage against competitors' performance improvements?

8. Prepare recommendations to management on your company's competitive positioning?

9. Improve your overall effectiveness in your competitive assessments?

10. End analytical confusion and debate over why a particular rival possesses competitive advantage?

Scenario Analysis
(course-description) (problem sets)

1. Is it likely that there will be significant changes in the business environment in which your company operates?

2. Does management have concerns about its plans being upset by surprise developments?

3. Could you benefit from learning how to evaluate alternative scenarios in the business environment?

4. Do you think an early warning process would benefit you company?

5. Would you like to learn how a world-class scenario planning process works, and what the outputs are?

6. Could a new technology make portions of your company's processes, products or services obsolete?

7. Are there two or more potential paths of change visible in your market?

8. Would you benefit from having a methodology for selecting and monitoring the events that can help you company avoid surprises?

9. Has your industry ever been upset by a step change in technology?

10. Andy Grove of Intel has said, "Only the paranoid survive." Do you think your company is insufficiently paranoid about the future?