6. Bringing your competitive intelligence system to life

Competitive intelligence is often an important link in a company's economic intelligence. It's only natural to keep an eye on those who threaten you, and competitive intelligence often makes a real difference to the day-to-day work of sales and marketing teams, giving them the keys to positioning themselves on price.

However, the flaw in a competitive intelligence system often arises at the very moment when it appears to be at its most effective. The operational system operates in a vacuum, constantly monitoring the same environment and the same sources of information.

To keep the scope of your competitive intelligence alive, regularly perform the following tasks:

• periodically update monitoring sources;

• monitor more general sources or more vague keywords....