About the Book
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
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 everyexecutive'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
"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, asLeonard 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
