Customer Reviews

Competitive Technical Intelligence: A Guide to Design, Analysis, and Action (ACS Professional Reference Books)

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The title of this book is somewhat misleading. It is a concise and relatively informative discussion of technology strategy and tactics, rather than technical intelligence. It does contain a good overview of the different sources of technical intelligence, but very little useful material on intelligence analysis. A number of case briefs of are included, but they are weakened by the author's choice not to include company identities in the briefs.

Mr. Coburn may cause you to challenge the approach that you take in understanding your business. He forces you to look from the outside inward rather than looking outward which is generally the path of least resistance. Surprise your customers and competitors are also living in this space. We will begin to see things differently from this vantage point, and that is a key part of the message in this book. Our ability to utilize the knowledge that exists in this competitive world will facilitate the improvements inside of our business. The advantage for the winners in the future will be to capture this mass of data, transform it into knowledge and/or wisdom and move this activity into one of your routine business process. Not such an easy task to create in a cost cutting world, but you can't afford "not to."