ACI Articles
Porter in Action 4- the Last Frontier
By Benjamin Gilad Change Driver: Rivalry In my workshop Competitive Blindspots I often place “competitive action” as the least important structural change driver. It’s not the least important issue for a company- just the least probable change agent of an industry's...
“Quick Success” in Competitive Intelligence?
By Benjamin Gilad Newcomers to CI roles are often advised to get a "quick success" to gain credibility with decision makers. While this is an excellent advice in a typical corporate culture of "action now", it is addictive. Later, this practice translates into...
Can Competitive Intelligence defeat AI??
By Benjamin Gilad You bet. And for the entire forseeable future. Here is my Thanks Giving present to my competition analysts out there. AI and strategy- a comedy of errors An HBR article, “How CEO use AI” provided two examples of companies using AI for strategic...
Porter in action – Part III
By Benjamin Gilad In two previous posts I featured the relevance of Porter’s insights to Competitive Intelligence professionals struggling with ad hoc information requests and few or no frameworks to think about the big picture. My CIP™s know this, practice this and...
Porter in action – round 2
By Benjamin Gilad The death of strategy In my Cross Competitor workshop for CIP™, I teach the use of a visual tool created by Porter called Strategic Clustering (or Strategic Mapping). The tool depicts – in a systematic way- the different approaches to competing by...
Porter in action – a classic CI “secret”
By Benjamin Gilad One can’t do real competitive intelligence without understanding at least the foundation of strategy. Why? Because Competitive Intelligence means competitive insight, which means achieving some strategic distinction from competitors. If you all look...
Eureka! How CHATgpt helped me get an insight after 25 years!
By Benjamin Gilad Many people have a person who is their source of intelligence in the sense of either direct insight or material leading to insight. For a few people, I am this person, god knows why. But for me, it’s my wise friend, Jay Nakagawa. The other day, Jay...
ACI survey – executive summary Competitive Intelligence Professionals Rank Their Tools
Designing a curriculum for training CI professionals requires an open-minded perspective and humility regarding the profession. It’s not a standard profession, it’s multidisciplinary and it requires a unique skill set.Our latest survey asked CIPs™ which of our courses...
Competitive enablement: The importance of anticipating market developments
Article by Benjamin Gilad As a former business professor at a major university, I always considered strategy to be the most challenging task facing managers. While implementation can be challenging, it’s simply the allocation of resources most efficiently and...
The optical illusion of job descriptions
Article by Benjamin Gilad A recent post on LinkedIn brilliantly described with a few visuals the different realities of what a CI professional actually does. It leads beautifully into this Skeptical Analyst’s post about a recent ad for a senior CI manager for a (very)...
How untrained managers doing “CI” weaken their companies by being naive
Article by Benjamin Gilad If someone told you they were very happy they moved to a new place that has low wages, cramped living space, high rent, draconian health policy (two years of lockdown), people are chronically late, and shopping options are very limited, what...
Are the Special Forces losing their “special” designation?
Enhancing US Army SOF Transitions During Unconventional WarfareBy Leonard Casiple, PSYOP/SF, Gary Harrington, USMC/SF/CIA and Benjamin Gilad, PhD Introduction The three tribes of US Army Special Operations (Special Forces, Civil Affairs, and Psychological Operations)...
Culture eats strategy for breakfast? intelligence eats both
Article by Benjamin Gilad Culture eats strategy for breakfast is a famous cliché suggesting that the best strategies fail because culture prevents their successful implementation. It is also cited by CEOs in one survey as the number one reason for failure to reach...
What to do if you are “pigeonholed”?
Article by Ben Gilad I just delivered our first “Foundation of a CI Analyst” webishop in April. Boy, it was fun. At least I had fun. I am never sure, even after 30 years, if my “students” have as much fun as I do. I consider...
I hate Zoom. Thank god for Zoom.
Article by Ben Gilad I just finished running another analysis module for ACI via Zoom (Feb. 2021). I love that I don’t have to travel. For a teacher, though, who loves teaching (I know, it’s ironic, isn’t it; A fisherman loves fish? A teacher loves teaching?), Zoom is...
If you happen to have a 30-second ride in an elevator with your CEO, what would you say?
Article by Ben Gilad and Cam Mackey The title posits a question which some competitive intelligence practitioners may regard as spurious. Many don’t get to ride an elevator with their CEOs. Others will regard anything said in 30 seconds at best a sound bite, not...
Are Executives Blindsided by Competition? Article by Benjamin Gilad in California Management Review
The competitive intelligence revolution began in the 1980s but remains as important as ever. Companies face enormous challenges today, from the novel coronavirus to climate change to the shifting attitudes of young people towards capitalism. It is natural therefore...
How CI Changed in One Decade Survey Report
With all the noise afflicting managers, it is hard to do online surveys these days. So ACI took a break after 2015. But then as ACI’s strategy gradually shifted, we wanted to see if we were on the right track. No, that’s bollock. Of course we are. Do you think I can...
My Whole CI Life Survey Report
This survey and report will serve as a companion piece to the Academy of Competitive Intelligence 2013 survey (Who Are the Most Successful CI Professionals?) The 2013 survey profiled the factors that affect successful CI careers. Its secondary objective was to assess...
Who Are the Most Successful CI Professionals Survey
During the summer of 2013, the Academy of Competitive Intelligence surveyed its alumni, those certified (CIP™-I and Master of CI CIP™-II) and in the process of attaining certification. Four hundred and five (405) people whose emails could be identified from our...