Experiences of companies like Kodak and Lucent clearly highlight the fact that as the business landscape becomes increasingly filled with disruptions and smoke screens, corporations are increasingly realizing the significance of competitive intelligence as the means to see through and stay ahead of fast-changing rivals.
Long back, in the early 1970s, the Hunt family in the US had decided privately accumulate silver. It was the period when silver was trading at below $2 per ounce. However, soon their plan had become public. As a result, by 1979, i.e., in a span of just six years, silver prices had shot up 25 times to hover at $50 per ounce. While it hit the investing community, the biggest to be hit by overshooting silver prices were traditional film manufacturers. And among them the biggest sufferer was Kodak, the then undisputed leader in the film manufacturing industry. Fortunately for Kodak and its other industry peers, the silver price surge did not last for long, as timely intervention by the US Federal Reserve which hiked interest rates to rein in inflation, ultimately led silver prices to cool down. For Kodak, and also others, it was back-to-normal. However, there was one rival which was refusing to relax. It was Fuji, the Japanese film manufacturer, which later proved to be one of the Kodak's fiercest rivals. How Fuji could do it? However, before searching for an answer to this question, it would be worth knowing that Fuji was not the lone example of how a smaller rival could outdo competition. In the successes of firms like Cisco, American Airlines, Corning, Google, etc., there is a common thread, and that common thread is their ability to see through and stay ahead of business disruptions, distortions, rumors and smoke screens, or in other words, they possess what is called competitive intelligence, suggests the book. |
