June 2009

There are six key steps to keep in mind for finding competitive information for business. The steps bring together elements of the searcher’s professional interest as a specialist in their field, research know-how, knowledge management and networking.

One: Keep in touch with your market
Insightful specialists and organisations are in touch with what is happening in their market.

Two: Refine the research parameters
Journalists use the ‘who, when, what, where, why and how’ approach to get to their story. A similar approach is useful as a starting point for narrowing down vague or broad research requests.

Three: Think about who cares
Before you start throwing words into Google, think about which sources are the most likely to have reliable information on the topic you are researching.

Four: Talk to your contacts
When you are looking for competitive business information, a good network of connections is invaluable.

Five: Build on your organisation’s knowledge
Take advantage of the extensive repository of knowledge and unique insight that your organisation or client base has developed over many years.

Six: Use directions to the right path
With many information requests, there are quite often one or two points that direct the research path you take.

FUMSI Report – Folio on Competitive Intelligence

Heather’s article, Finding competitive business information in six steps, has been published in the latest FUMSI Report –Folio on Competitive Intelligence, along with:

• Key to Research Success: Asking the Right Questions, by Jane John
• Finding Competitive Business Information in Six Steps, by Heather Carine
• If They Only Knew: Finding Competitive Intelligence from the Websites of Your Competitors and Their Friends, by Arthur Weiss
• Filling in the Gaps: Company Intelligence Beyond the Corporate Website, by Sarah Hinton
• People Information: Finding Accurate, Authoritative and Well Organised Data, by Donna Fryer
• Finding Competitive Information for Growing Companies, by Christine Hamilton-Pennell

For further details, please see: http://web.fumsi.com/go/report/find/1305 .