A good decision is based on knowledge, not on numbers.  plato

 Price Waterhouse Studies

In a 2 year benchmarking study of 24 companies in the aerospace/defense industry, Price Waterhouse showed that the best companies use competitive intelligence, and those who don’t, suffer.

The study, a “best-in-class” study found that “competitive intelligence played a crucial role in explaining why some companies won 67% of the contracts they went after compared to the industry average of 18%.” according to Michael O’Guin, who managed the study.   

If one considers that the 67% group, who did use CI, was included in the industry average of 18%, then those companies who did not use CI did much worse than the 18% average.

Since costs for going after contracts can run into millions, selecting those contracts which had a chance of success was but the first step, a step that competitive intelligence played a role amounting to 60-70% of that selection process alone.

The study, called TQM/100 ended in 1993. Competitive intelligence was used by the best-in-class companies to focus on what it takes to win contracts. Accurate knowledge of customers needs and thinking, and what the competitors position and strategy were was crucial to setting their own strategy and positioning.

The most successful company in the group, whose name is secret, had dedicated staff in a competitive intelligence program (highly unusual in the early 90’s) and the company continued to collect information for future use about the winners strategy, pricing, strengths and weaknesses. This makes some sense, as a company who is a competitor today, is also likely to be a competitor tomorrow.