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

CI Links

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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Video Clips

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.

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!

French Public Policy Initiatives in Competitive intelligence - Alain Juillet, Senior Director in charge of Competitive Intelligence, is the guest of this France 24 Interview discussing the growing importance of Competitive Intelligence in the world of business.

The French Government is also currently actioning a number of Competitive Intelligence initiatives to maintain the competitiveness of French companies in the global market. To see an example of these initiatives, take a look at the video podcast from France 24.com listed below.

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.  

Credit Crisis - Take a look at this animated video clip explaining the complex origins of the current credit crisis. It is very good.

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.

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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