Due Dates

CI should be provided when and to whom needed. That is because CI, like many other types of information, often has a relatively short "half-life." Half-life refers to the period of time for which the data you have collected and the analysis you have generated retains at least 50 percent of its accuracy and relevance.

In the case of raw data collected for CI, the half-lives can vary widely. Typically the more micro-level and the more future oriented the information is, the shorter is the half-life, while the more macro level and historically oriented the data is , the longer is its half-life. In the case of raw data collected for CI, the half lives are typically like those described in Figure 9.2.

		Half-Life
Level of Data	Time Frame	*Minimum*	*Maximum*
Micro	Historic	2 months	12 months
	Current	1 day	3 months
	Projection	1 day	2 months
Macro	Historic	3 months	24 months
	Current	1 month	6 months
	Projection	1 month	4 months

Figure 9.2: Typical half-lives for CI data.

The same concept of half-life also applies to the resulting CI analysis you develop. When the intelligence is important, try to caution your end users to be conscious of its short "shelf life." CI end users should not just store an intelligence estimate and then drag it out a year later, expecting it still to be accurate. The conclusion you draw or the report you present is completely valid only as of the date you completed it. Therefore, the less time there is between the dates the research and analysis ended and the date when the CI is needed, the better the outcome will be for all concerned.

In addition, when dealing with an intermediary, the due date a CI professional is given may frequently be one that allows the intermediary time to digest or use the CI, thus making the information even older than it has to be. CI should properly be treated more as an input to a just-in-time process than as an asset that can be warehoused until needed.

There is another facet to due dates. That relates to the habit of some managers to move up previously established deadlines. In the case of CI, this does not mean, for example, if the time for an assignment is cut by 25 percent, then the end user can expect 75 percent of the anticipated product. Such a cut, for example, would mean that the CI professional would probably still be in the data-gathering stage. Any cuts would come from the analysis stage. In other words, by cutting the time for a CI project once it has begun, the end user is removing most, if not all, of that time from the analysis stage. The result is that the end user will get something more like a "data dump" than a finished, usable analysis.

^[3]As quoted in William A. Rusher, How to Win Arguments (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1981), 28.

^[4]Rosi Griffin, Strategic Marketing Manager, Siemens Ltd., "Establishing a CI Program: What Is Needed?" AIC Conferences, Competitive Intelligence Forum '94. Sydney, Australia, 1994, p. 7.

^[5]Rosi Griffin, Strategic Marketing Manager, Siemens Ltd., "Establishing a CI Program: What Is Needed?" AIC Conferences, Competitive Intelligence Forum '94. Sydney, Australia, 1994, p. 8.

^[6]See, for example, John J. McGonagle and Carolyn M. Vella, Outsmarting the Competition: Practical Approaches to Finding and Using Competitive Information (Naperville, Ill.: Sourcebooks, Inc., 1990), 65–92.

^[7]American Productivity & Quality Center, International Benchmarking Clearinghouse, User-Driven Competitive Intelligence, 11.

^[8]Douglas Porch, The French Secret Services (New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1995), 112.

^[9]See John J. McGonagle and Carolyn M. Vella, Bottom Line Competitive Intelligence (Westport, Conn.: Quorum Books, 2002), 121–22.

^[10]Quoted in The Conference Board, Inc., Competitive Intelligence, Research Report No. 913 (1988), 12.

^[11]This same type of document can be used to help assess the relationship between the various orientations of CI and the subjects needed to be assessed. See McGonagle and Vella, Bottom Line Competitive Intelligence, 61–88.

^[12]This is based on an actual memo circulated in 2000.

^[13]Saying "no" may be done diplomatically. For example, a CI manager may suggest outside resources, including consultants, who can provide the requested information out of the budget of the person making the inquiry.

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Due Dates

Due Dates