Competitive Intelligence for the Competitive Edge [Paperback]

Alan Dutka (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: January 1, 2000

Get a Leg up on Your Closest Industry Rival! With years of real-world business experience behind him, author Alan Dutka offers this compelling look at competitive intelligence--the process of collecting, analyzing, and acting upon information about your competitors and the competitive environment--and how it can improve your company's bottom line and give you a leading edge. Taking a true practitioner's approach, "Competitive Intelligence for the Competitive Edge" shows you how to integrate your business's operations--particularly marketing, advertising, and strategic planning--with the latest competitive intelligence techniques in order to achieve positive results in all areas. The author also: Reviews the latest tools and techniques for data gathering, storage, and analysis Provides helpful insight on information interpretation and dissemination of intelligence within a corporate structure Includes numerous real-life examples of using competitive intelligence techniques in actual business situations Offers important information on obtaining competitive intelligence information for the global marketplace Provides a list of resources for competitive intelligence information "Competitive Intelligence for the Competitive Edge" is a must-have for any business professional interested in launching a successful competitive intelligence program. About the Author Alan Dutka is President of National Survey Research Center, a marketing and opinion research company based in Cleveland, Ohio. He is a frequent lecturer for the American Marketing Association and for the Society for Competitive Intelligence. Mr. Dutka's other published titles include "State of the Art Marketing Research," secondedition, with Al Blankenship, and "The AMA Handbook for Customer Satisfaction."

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: NTC/Contemporary Publishing Company (January 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0658000594
• ISBN-13: 978-0658000591
• Product Dimensions: 9 x 6 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 15.7 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 2.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #3,482,095 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

18 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Don't bother with this one..., August 11, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Competitive Intelligence For The Competitive Edge (Hardcover)

This book more resembles a report of Dutka's research than it does a presentation on how to make CI work. Dutka obviously has done a lot of homework, but we never find out why he thinks the reader should care about all his facts and figures. (His target audience is market research and pollsters, not general business, perhaps?)

Maybe this book will someday serve as a reference work for the companies and industries mentioned, but it will not help you learn about what CI is and why it matters.

There is one good thing about it...the reader can skip whole sections of the material and not miss a single point, so reading time is a minimal intrusion.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A good introduction to CI, August 27, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Competitive Intelligence for the Competitive Edge (Paperback)

I just finished this book and felt that the previous submission (Alabama) did not provide a balanced review of Dutka's work. Actually, I believe that this reader missed the point of the book entirely. If you need to be told the value of measuring market potential and evaluating competitive threats, then you should probably read a nice book about moving cheese and prepare yourself to be laid off.

Having completed an MBA program, I am familiar with the research techniques Dutka employs to gain insight into the competitive landscapes of various industries. In fact, I found the book to offer applications of basic business tools, which when used in concert provide companies with valuable competitive information on which they can act. Nothing more, nothing less. It's a quick read and offers some good examples of CI in practice.