Controversies in Competitive Intelligence: The Enduring Issues [Hardcover]

Craig S. Fleisher (Editor), David L. Blenkhorn (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 28, 2003

Chosen for their clear, direct relevance to scholars and practitioners in the volatile field of competitive intelligence, the 24 issues evaluated here represent the cutting edge of CI's most pressing concerns. Current, scholarly, pragmatic, and among the first of its kind, this book presents the heart of the field in a way that even the relatively uninitiated can grasp and quickly apply.

The authors cover the latest technological advances and their relation to the tools most valued by CI professionals. They also show that despite its enormous range of possibilities, CI has limits. Navigating the ever-changing organizational and marketplace environments is difficult. A key debate involves what should and shouldn't be done to maximize the beneficial power of CI. Fleisher, Blenkhorn, and the book's contributors present the crucial points of this debate. This book is perfect for practitioners seeking guidance, but also as a supplemental text for students in such courses as marketing strategy and planning, business-to-business marketing, and competitive intelligence itself.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"Who would like this book? it is not a matter of like, but a matter of need. I think that anyone seriously involved in or even interested in CI, whether as an academic, an internal manager, or an outside consultant, should read this. Why? Because this book affirmatively raises hard questions, and then provides an unflinching look at each....[a] powerful, well-documented argument."-Competitive Intelligence magazine

Book Description

Twenty-four cuting edge issues are evaluated for scholars and practitioners in the volatile field of competitive intelligence.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 344 pages
• Publisher: Praeger (February 28, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1567205607
• ISBN-13: 978-1567205602
• Product Dimensions: 9.7 x 6.4 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.6 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,706,118 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Dr. Craig S. Fleisher is Chief Learning Officer at Aurora WDC, one of the globe's top professional services firms specializing in the areas of business, competitive, market and strategic intelligence. He is also a member of the graduate faculty for the Executive MScom at Università della Svizzera italiana in Switzerland and Docent in Business Information Management, Tampere University of Technology, Finland. His PhD was earned from the Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh.

Previously, he was the Founding Dean of Business and Public Affairs and Professor of Management (Strategy & Entrepreneurship), College of Coastal Georgia USA, President of the international association of Strategy and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP - Alexandria, VA), inaugural chair of the Competitive Intelligence Foundation (CIF - Washington, DC), and Editor of the Journal of Competitive Intelligence & Management. Also a former MBA director, university research leadership chair and endowed research chair holder, he has been a member of university faculties in over half a dozen countries. His prior business experience was in strategy consulting, mortgage banking management and real estate appraisal.

A recognized global expert who has helped many leading multinational enterprises and institutions improve their intelligence capabilities, public affairs management, performance measurement and/or analysis processes, Craig has authored or edited over 10 books + many translations and published scores of refereed papers and book chapters. He has been an invited speaker, facilitated workshops or keynoted meetings in over forty countries, supervised dozens of graduate theses, and has been a regular recipient of executive education and university teaching awards. He contributes on the editorial boards of many international scholarly journals such as Journal of Public Affairs (Wiley), Business & Society (Sage), Intl. Jnl. of Technology Intelligence & Planning(Inderscience), Asia Pacific PR Journal (Canberra), and the S. African Jnl. of Information Management, among others.

He is a long-time active member of several international associations including the Academy of Management, Golden Key Intl. Honour Society (GKIHS)for whom he was recognized as a national Advisor of the Year, Founding Member and former executive officer of the Intl. Assn. of Business and Society (IABS), Life Member of the Intl. Assn. of Business Communicators (IABC), Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society, Academy of Marketing, and Canadian Who's Who, among others. He has received numerous recognitions for his contributions including being an international SCIP Meritorious Award winner and Fellow, top Canadian MBA professor, multi-time outstanding faculty member or instructor at several universities, and best conference paper awards.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars framing and answering a variety of CI questions, February 23, 2004

By 

B. Hohhof "CI expert and author" (IL) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Controversies in Competitive Intelligence: The Enduring Issues (Hardcover)

Controversies in Competitive Intelligence is as different from User-Driven Competitive Intelligence as one can imagine. In this book, Craig and David have asked other writers to join them in framing and then answering, a bewildering variety of questions. And, to their collective and individual credit, every chapter comes to grip with the important question it is charged with dissecting. Of more than passing interest to those seeking to know if CI is truly global yet (a question not asked in this book), 21 of the 22 contributors are working or teaching in Canada, and the other one is in Australia.

Who would like this book? It is not a matter of like, but a matter of need. Frankly, I think that anyone seriously involved in or even interested in,CI, whether as an academic, an internal manager, an outside consultant, or as an official involved with SCIP, should read this. Why? Because this book affirmatively raises hard questions, and then provides an unflinching look at each.

Each chapter takes the reader through an understanding of the particular issue, sets out an approach to analyzing it, and then comes to its own conclusion on what is the right answer. That does not mean you will agree with what all of the authors have said. In fact, I cannot imagine that you would do so.

If you read every chapter, you must inevitably come to those with which you disagree, but which you must honestly acknowledge that the authors do a fine job of setting out an answer. I found that I was muttering, in more than one place, "Well yes, but..." That means that the author's approach is causing me to think about the issue. And it should cause you to think as well. And for that I give it high marks.

Excerpt from review written by John J. McGonagle, Book editor for Competitive Intelligence Magazine, published in the September/October 2003 issue by SCIP www.scip.org

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Unafraid to tackle the tough matters head on, July 20, 2003

By 

Heath C. Sturt (Down Under) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Controversies in Competitive Intelligence: The Enduring Issues (Hardcover)

I've now read about a dozen CI-oriented books in the last twelve months and Controversies in Competitive Intelligence stands out from the rest of them for tackling head-on some of the more troubling matters long affecting the field. Not too dissimilar in format from the last book I read by these authors (see my review of "Managing Frontiers in Competitive Intelligence"), it consists of two dozen chapters, mostly by different authors who work in the CI field, and addresses the questions that many of us, including me, have been dealing with for years.

Several chapters thoroughly piqued my interest, especially the ones that dealt with avoiding over-reliance on the internet for CI work (Chapters 7, 8, and 10) - something I see far too many of my corporate clients succumbing to, the growing debate over the field itself - best demonstrated by Fleisher's chapter 5 on what to call the field and chapter 3 whether those doing it are professionals, and the chapters that deal with CI's relationship to other organizational processes such as marketing (Chapter 22 by Blenkhorn), knowledge management (Chapter 23 by Knip), MIS (Chapter 13 by Nikkel), and CRM (see the very interesting Chapter 12 by Davis). Although I viewed these as the most valuable, there were no chapters in the book that I didn't find at least somewhat interesting and thought-provoking.

The book won't provide all the answers we need to answer the questions it poses. Many of the chapters in the book could likely be treated in book length manuscripts themselves - and some of them deserve that treatment sooner rather than later. Having said that, this book is a very worthy and unique addition to the working bookshelf of any serious CI consultant or practitioner, is among the most insightful and valuable recently released in this field, and is easily worth the time to thoroughly read through its meaty 350 pages.