The Secret Language of Competitive Intelligence: How to See Through and Stay Ahead of Business Disruptions, Distortions, Rumors, and Smoke Screens [Hardcover]

Leonard Fuld (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 23, 2006

THE ART OF SMART . . . how not to get blindsided by the competition

Your key competitor has a cost advantage and you can’t for the life of you figure out why or how.

• A new technology or competitor is on the horizon that will completely upset the applecart in your business
as Google is now doing in advertising and Wal-Mart has done in retailing.

• You think a key competitor may drastically drop prices or perhaps roll out a significant new product. What can you do to ascertain what their major moves will be?

Competitive intelligence, the ability to see through or stay ahead of your competition, is the unspoken, hidden key to success. It is the means to knowing a customer’s strategic thinking, a rival’s cost structure when making a bid, or a competitor’s new product plans. Much as in a game of chess, you must think many moves ahead of your rivals—exactly the advantage competitive intelligence can give you.

Leonard Fuld provides the tools to cut through the smoke screens and rumors that distort reality and shows:

• How to avoid becoming your own worst enemy by removing blinders that can hide a competitor’s threatening moves

• How to see your competitor’s vulnerability and take advantage of the easily exploitable opportunities it presents

• How to run a war game to anticipate a rival’s pricing moves, new product introduction, or distribution strategy, and even to avoid being surprised by new entrants who play by different rules altogether

For more than twenty-five years, Leonard Fuld has been developing groundbreaking ways for managers to stay two steps ahead of the competition, providing effective ways of finding out about pricing, new product rollouts, strategic alliances, outsourcing, and cost of operations. In The Secret Language of Competitive Intelligence he shows how to take data that is widely avail-able to everyone, think critically about it, and convert it into highly refined intelligence that leads to effective market-based decisions.


Table of Contents

DISRUPTIONS, DISTORTIONS, RUMORS, AND SMOKE SCREENS: Page 1
Just Another Day in the Office

Chapter 1 THE ART OF SMART: Page19
How Intelligence Insight Helps Win the Game of Risk and Reward

Chapter 2 REALITY BITES: Page 45
Remove the Blinders

Chapter 3 WILL GOOGLE BEAT MICROSOFT?: Page 69
Using War Games to See Three Moves Ahead

Chapter 4 MAKE ME INTO A PEPPERONI: Page 119
Seeing the Trees to Understand the Forest

Chapter 5 EARLY WARNING: Page 135
Getting Intelligence on Competitors That May Not Exist in a World That Has Not Arrived

Chapter 6 THE INTERNET HOUSE OF MIRRORS: Page 165
Seeing Through the Confusion to Gather Intelligence Gems

Chapter 7 COMPETITIVE FOG: Page 211
How Rothschild, Buffett, Walton, Dell, and Branson Saw Clearly and Others Did Not

Chapter 8 DAY TO DAY: Page 237
Integrating Intelligence with Your Work

Chapter 9 THE BIG UNANSWERED QUESTIONS: Page269

Notes 285
Acknowledgments 293
Index 297

Editorial Reviews

Review

“One of the most important - and toughest - jobs of a manager is "seeing through" the competition: understanding the strategy, cost structure and pricing models of the companies that you bump up against in the marketplace. Leonard Fuld's new book offers approaches and insights into solving a problem which bedevils managers at every level.” —Robert Crandall, retired Chairman and CEO of American Airlines

“Leonard Fuld is the grandmaster of this kind of competitive intelligence work. He knows all about how companies engage in denial and need what he calls a moment of ‘competitive clarity.’ This book walks the reader through his techniques in very clear language. Yet it imparts an extremely sophisticated understanding of how to understand what the competition is doing.” —William J. Holstein, Editor in Chief of Chief Executive

"Leonard Fuld is the guru of competitive intelligence. In his new book, he shows your company how to anticipate competitors' moves, through war games and other methods. His stories and ideas will make you question whether you're doing an adequate job of staying ahead of the competition." —Philip Kotler, S. C. Johnson Distinguished Professor of International Marketing, Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University

"My challenge as an executive is digesting gobs of loose data. One of the great benefits of Leonard Fuld's The Secret Language of Competitive Intelligence, is to figure out how to filter that data and understand what it really means." —Dr. Ku-Hyun Jung, President, Samsung Economic Research Institute

“A big part of every executive's job is having a clear-eyed realistic understanding of the marketplace. Yet, the problem, as Leonard Fuld says, is that every market is full of ‘distortions, rumors and smoke screens.’ What he does in The Secret Language of Competitive Intelligence is provide potential solutions to the problem with practical tools for separating fact from fiction and the wheat from the chaff. The result is a methodology for understanding whether the competition you face is mediocre, weak or strong, what its future plans are and the steps you need to take to be successful. In short, a smart, easy-to-use set of ideas for how to get the information you need to make the decisions you must.” —Yang Yuanqing, Chairman of the Board, Lenovo Group Ltd

About the Author

Leonard M. Fuld, the founder and president of Fuld & Company and cofounder of the Fuld Gilad Herring Academy of Competitive Intelligence, was called “the undisputed dean of competitive intelligence” by Fast Company. His articles have been published in leading publications, including the Wall Street Journal, Harvard Business Review, and Journal of Business Strategy. Mr. Fuld and his firm have also been profiled in the New York Times, The Economist, Fast Company, Newsweek, and Investors Business Daily, and he has appeared on the Today show and Marketplace.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Crown Business (May 23, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0609610899
• ISBN-13: 978-0609610893
• Product Dimensions: 5.8 x 1.2 x 7.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (12 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #222,399 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Leonard Fuld is a pioneer in the field of competitive intelligence. He has created many of the intelligence-gathering techniques currently used by corporations around the globe. Mr. Fuld was among the first four people to be named a Fellow of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) and was awarded the Meritorious Award, the highest award offered by SCIP, in 1998.

Mr. Fuld's company, Fuld & Company, founded in 1979, specializes in providing business intelligence to corporations to improve their decision-making for strategy, operations and tactical applications. His company has served over half the Fortune 500 companies as well as corporations around the world. Headquartered in Cambridge, MA, Fuld & Company Inc. also operates officew in London, Dalian (PRC), and Delhi.

Mr. Fuld is a widely published author. In addition to his newly published book, The Secret Language of Competitive Intelligence (Crown Publishing, 2006), he has previously published, Competitor Intelligence: How to Get It - How to Use It (Wiley, 1985) and Monitoring the Competition: Find Out What's Really Going On Over There (Wiley, 1988), The New Competitor Intelligence (Wiley, 1995), as well as a distance learning product, The Fuld War Room (CD-ROM). His articles have appeared in major business publications including The Harvard Business Review, The Wall Street Journal, CIO Magazine, Chief Executive, Marketing News, Directors & Boards, Boardroom Reports, Chief Executive, and The Journal of Business Strategy among many others.

He is a recognized expert who has helped companies and institutions improve their early warning capability. He has worked with the United Nations, as well as with numerous corporations around the globe to improve their intelligence and decision-making capabilities.

Mr. Fuld has been profiled in a large number of magazines including Harvard Business Review, Fortune, Industry Week, Venture Magazine, Marketing News, The Christian Science Monitor, The New York Times, Newsweek, Across the Board and Business Marketing. He has also been featured on The Today Show, Marketplace, CBS Network Newsbreak, Financial News Network Evening News and ESPN's Nation's Business Today.

He is a featured speaker, educating boards of directors and other executive groups at major corporations worldwide and at numerous professional conferences including the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO), American Marketing Association, the Conference Boards of New York and Canada, the Planning Forum, the Society of Competitor Intelligence Professionals (SCIP), and the American Society of Industrial Security. Fuld's popular competitor intelligence seminars have been attended by over one thousand executives from major US and international corporations.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars A Hodgepodge of Anecdotes, July 14, 2006

By 

Loyd E. Eskildson "Pragmatist" (Phoenix, AZ.) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secret Language of Competitive Intelligence: How to See Through and Stay Ahead of Business Disruptions, Distortions, Rumors, and Smoke Screens (Hardcover)

"The Secret Language of Competitive Intelligence" consists of the usual assembly of anecdotes, accompanied by no clear credible means of assimilating intelligence or proceeding.

One example, in particular, struck a chord - AT&T's entry into the credit-card business, summarized by "Why should AT&T not enter the credit-card industry?" One reason might be because it subsequently withdrew - I had such a card, and it was canceled by Citi Card because the free phone privileges were too expensive. Regardless, clearly Fuld had drifted off-course - deciding to enter the credit-card business is a strategic, not a competitive-intelligence gathering issue.

Fuld notwithstanding, I still think the best path to competitive intelligence is to keep abrest of the business literature (not just your own industry - sometimes innovations in other areas can be applied into one's own; use the Internet, business conferences, and business magazines), interview applicants from competitor companies, ask your most alert customers what they'd like to see and what they're looking forward to (from anyone), and similarly inquire of your best suppliers regarding new innovations they are planning or aware of.

In addition, periodically ask yourself/associates, "What if . . .?" (Eg. Macy's, Nordstroms, etc. should be wondering "What if Wal-Mart started selling up-market clothes?" This is particularly important because it's no secret that they are planning to do so, and this could decimate high-market department stores. So, how are they likely to start, who knows what, etc.

Finally, regardless of source, keep the information in a handy notebook, grouped in some useful manner. (P.S. There is no "secret" language of competitive intelligence.)

Hopefully this review saved you $15.72, plus shipping and the time wasted reading a boring 320 pages.

6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Fuld CI, January 9, 2007

By 

Sandra Schlick "Sandra Schlick" (Switzerland) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secret Language of Competitive Intelligence: How to See Through and Stay Ahead of Business Disruptions, Distortions, Rumors, and Smoke Screens (Hardcover)

This is a nice book but I am a bid disappointed after the book "The new competitor intelligence" from L. Fuld, as I was expecting more structures and proceedures. In stead it deliveres a lot of examples. It is not bad but for me his previous book I can recommend more. "The new competitor intelligence" contains details about the whole CI-Process, sources and structures.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Good for beginner; lacks plan of action, January 10, 2007

By 

Jeffrey N. Takle (Washington, DC) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Secret Language of Competitive Intelligence: How to See Through and Stay Ahead of Business Disruptions, Distortions, Rumors, and Smoke Screens (Hardcover)

The book was a good primer on what intelligence is, and performed an exploration of cultural intelligence. The treatment of investigating not just your competitors, but also your supply chain or customers as an intelligence effort, are well done. Fuld spends some time discussing the ethics of collecting information on each of these categories of people and what we in America think is "fair" in the games of business.

The book is an easy read and, I think, pretty interesting. Where it falls short is in failing to provide any specific structure or plan of action that the reader can implement. Having learned what intelligence is, and how and why it is useful, Fuld leaves the reader with few tools to plow forward towards success. He touches only briefly on what, in the military, is called the "Intelligence Collection Cycle" or an intel collection plan and readers would benefit greatly from learning the 7 steps (or however many he wanted to make them) to developing a formal, structured, intelligence collection plan for one's company. If thought out in a systemmatic way, the actual collection of information is far less tedious, much of it can be automated, and it will not just be used in performing static research, but can be a living tool to actively inform management decision on a daily basis. For example, if set up, automated processes can inform you that your competitor just fired one of their top managers and suggest that you contact that manager and either try to hire them, or learn more about their former employer.

Overall, the book is well worth buying if you are new to intelligence as a profession. If you have done intelligence formally before, the book is less useful.