Useful Competitive Intelligence (CI) Links, Video Clips, Podcasts, Internet Articles and Websites

CI Links

MINDSHIFTS PAPERS, PRESENTATIONS & SLIDES

STEEP Analytical Techniques - an overview

CI Australia Forum - A CI Australia Forum to allow CI Practitioners to network & discuss local issues.

CI Case Studies - An exciting resource for CI practitioners featuring Case Studies with responses from CI experts.

Business is War - A CI simulation of war games in a business environment.

CI Strategies and Tools - An essential site for gaining an understanding of CI.

CI Seek - Provides links and information on CI including associations, companies, employment and training.

Intelligence Tips - Provides helpful pointers on how to keep an eye on the competition now that business cycles are moving faster than ever.

SCIP - US - The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals is the international CI association providing seminars, networking opportunities, publications, and more.

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Podcasts

Smart Ideas on Competitive Intelligence - According to Babette Bensoussan of MindShifts, Aussie companies are less disciplined than most foreign businesses when it comes to competitive intelligence. Phil Dobbie of BTalk Australia looks at what your company should be doing and, in your business, who should be doing it?

In this June 2010 podcast Babette Bensoussan discusses the Bluesin Technology CI Case Study in a 'Strategically Thinking' interview with Tom Hawes.

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Video Clips

2012

Morgan Spurlock: The greatest TED talk ever sold
With humour and persistence, filmmaker Morgan Spurlock dives in to the hidden but influential world of brand marketing, on his quest to make a completely sponsored film about sponsorship. His theme - organisations should embrace risk and embrace transparency - rather than fear it. Something to consider for 2012!

2011

Hayek v. Keynes: An economic theory rap battle
Now this is an amazing and pertinent video given the current economic climate. So cleverly done - not to be missed! For background to this take a look here.

Arthur C. Clarke Predicts the Future in 1964
In 1964, Sir Arthur C. Clarke, the futurist and sci-fi writer best known for his novel "2001: A Space Odyssey", peered into the future and made some perceptive predictions! Interesting how much he got right back then. What would be your predictions in the next 5, 10 or even 20 years?

Applying Scenarios, Wargames and Advanced Intelligence Analytics (Part 1 of 2)
This video is the first of a two part conversation on best practices in applying advanced intelligence analysis, in which four leading CI experts, (including Babette Bensoussan's co-author Craig Fleisher), discuss scenario planning and wargaming.

On being wrong
A thought provoking video. Most of us will do anything to avoid being wrong, but what if we're wrong about that? "Wrongologist" Kathryn Schulz makes a compelling case for not just admitting but embracing our fallibility.

7 Billion: Who is the World's Typical Person?
National Geographic used hard numbers to describe the world's typical person. He is right-handed, makes less than $12,000 a year and has a cell phone, but not a bank account. But this will change by 2030.

How will future demographics influence your competitive environment?

Cyberdyne HAL Robot Suit and Cybernics research
HAL is a robot suit that strengthens and augments human capabilities. Applications are not only in the area of the military, but also in health and welfare, and to augment factory work. This technology belongs to the new field of cybernics. How might this affect your existing products and services? Wonder what else is out there!

Sapporo Beer Commercial -Legendary Biru
Take a look at something different ..... an amazing ad in 3D. Have you thought how this technology might impact your industry?

How to see the world like Malcolm Gladwell
(Author of "The Tipping Point", "What the Dog Saw")
When you look beneath the surface of the everyday, you realize how radically different and unexpected other people’s experiences are from your own. A useful insight into understanding your customers perceptions, those of the people you work with, and your competition.

2010

How Complexity Leads to Simplicity
Visualising the complex can produce some interesting insights. Maybe this is a new way for our contacts and clients to deliver intelligence. What do you think?

Strategic intelligence firm, Fuld & Company, runs 6th Annual National War Game
The Annual Strategy War Game National Championship, "The Battle for China's Smart Grid," was organized by Fuld & Company on April 28, 2010 and offers predictions on China's Smart Grid. IBM, Siemens, GE Energy and Cisco were represented by students from elite Business Schools throughout USA. Most of the students have worked in energy, technology and/or in China. Fuld's public War Games have made successful marketplace predictions each year.

The Genius Behind Minority Report's Interfaces Resurfaces, With Mind-blowing New Technology - This video will help you appreciate how fast gestural interfaces are developing. As tech advisor on the film Minority Report, John Underkoffler’s work inspired the interfaces that Tom Cruise used. The real-life system he's been developing, called g-speak, is unbelievable. In February, he unveiled his latest work at TED.
The video is 15 minutes long, but fast forward to 6:30 if you want to zip straight to the truly exciting demonstrations.

Blue Ocean Strategy - This video is a brief synopsis of the business management book 'Blue Ocean Strategy' and provides a valuable overview of both Blue and Red Ocean Strategies. Tomorrow's leading companies will succeed not by battling competitors, but by creating “blue oceans” of uncontested market space ripe for growth. Can you determine if your ocean is red or blue?

BMW Augmented Reality in practice - BMW research projects - workshop applications at BMW. Using augmented reality, the mechanic receives additional three-dimensional information on the engine he is repairing, for example, to help him in diagnosing and solving the fault. Apart from the real environment, he sees virtually animated components, the tools to be used and hears instruction on each of the working steps through headphones integrated inside the goggles.

Leadership Lessons from Dancing Guy - it’s unlikely you can do a better job explaining leadership than this roughly shot three-minute video of a lone, shirtless guy dancing at a concert. The narration by Derek Sivers is spot on about leaders, first followers, popular movements and human nature.

Sports Illustrated - Tablet Demo 1.5 -This collaboration between The Wonderfactory and Time, Inc. is an excellent example of how tablets will enable the creation of innovative, addictive experiences by publishers, media companies, and advertisers.

2009

The Intelligence Collaborative - An introduction to the philosophies and future plans of the Intelligence Collaborative, a group of professionals and passionate amateurs around the globe who analyze a world in transition and help guide leaders in their most critical decisions.

Ricky Bobby Tries Competitive Intelligence - In some companies, conducting competitive intelligence is just like driving blindfold. This video gives a demonstration of what this can be like in action - take a look at the outcome!

Fighting the Trade War - In order to improve the competitiveness of French businesses, and to protect them from disloyal methods of competitors, the French government has mandated a team of competitive intelligence experts.

Nanoscience delivers 'Space Ghost' wrist device - This video is an illustration of the revolutionary leaps being made in the Nanoscience field. Launched alongside The Museum of Modern Art “Design and The Elastic Mind” exhibition, the Morph concept device is an example of the breakthroughs being achieved by the Nokia Research Center, in collaboration with the Cambridge Nanoscience Centre.

The New World of Work - The world is changing at such rapid pace. We have entered a world where reality is a daily challenge, global institutions are going bust and CEO's are barely managing, let alone leading us through this change. However, opportunity is great and with this new world comes a new ethic of openness, sharing and collaboration.Take a look at this version of the New World of Work.  

An extraordinary video clip about the future of media - In the Year 2014 the New York Times has gone offline, The Fourth Estate's fortunes have waned. What happened to the news? and what is EPIC?

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Internet Articles 

Using the Internet for Competitive Intelligence - Very good paper by Jean Graef of the Montague Institute from 1995.

On Predicting the Future: Competitive Intelligence as a Knowledge Management Discipline - Great article by Arik R. Johnson.

An Excellent Overview of CI - By Yogesh Malhotra, (1996), @BRINT Research Institute.

Competitive Intelligence - Get Smart! - A panel of experts provides a six point program for keeping an eye on the competition.

Building a Competitor Profile - This article outlines the steps in building a good customer profile and the questions you need to ask.

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Websites

All businesses refer to a range of resources for the information required to run a business. Here are some of the links MindShifts finds useful, and we thought it would be good to share them.

Search Engines & MetaSearch Engines

AltaVista - Fantastic for doing all sorts of word seachers.

Copernic - The daddy of all search engines.

Exploratorius - The meta search engine, as it includes all my favourite search engines: Google, AllTheWeb, Northernlight and Altavista.

Google - A neat website that lets you search on exactly what you do and do not want to find.

LookSmart - An Australian search engine.

Search Engine Watch - The best reference site for search engine placement and research techniques, with up-to-date developments on all the top search tools available for free or on subscription.

Sensis - A search engine built for Australians, reflecting Australian results on the left of the page, and World results on the right.

Yahoo - Very broad search engine, allowing you to search by website, web page or news story.

Other search engines: Infoseek, Lycos  and Excite.

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Business

ABIX - Australian Business Intelligence, a commercial source.

ACCC - Australian Competition and Consumer Commission

Australian Bureau of Statistics - The official Australian statistics collection agency.

Australia Business Online - Australian businesses association.

Australian Government Entry Page - A great place to get your bearings on business in Australia.

Australian Productivity Commission - Good for free industry reports since 1990, (eg: from the automotive industry to private health insurance).

Australian Prudential Regulation Authority (APRA) - Regulates banks, insurance companies, superannuation funds, credit unions, building societies, and friendly societies; great source for banking statistics.

Australian Securities and Investments Commission (ASIC) - For company searches.

Dun & Bradstreet - Providing assistance to businesses. D&B's global commercial database contains more than 100 million business records.

Ditto - A good place to start to search for pictures.

Equities Info - Directly links to annual reports for over 1,000 companies listed on the Australian Stock Exchange.

Freeskills - For FREE online training in almost all major software products.

LLRX - up to date CI Guide. The website provides Law & Technology Resources for Legal Professionals.

Newslink - Connects to 3300 US newspapers and 2000 non-US newspapers.

NewsDirectory - an international portal with good Australian and New Zealand coverage.

Web Marketing and E-commerce - the biggest resource on the web, offering practical advice on best web marketing practice and thousands of links to related articles and sites.

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Information Sources

Wikipedia - A free encyclopedia source.

Answers.com - A ready-reference site.

Analysts
Factiva, The Gartner Group, IDC and IBISWorld

Online databases (usually fee-based services):
Lexis-Nexis, Dialog and Hoover's Online.

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