Developing a competitive intelligence strategy framework supporting the competitive intelligence needs of a financial institution’s decision makers

Abstract

Background: For competitive intelligence (CI) to have the greatest contribution to strategic management, CI professionals require an in-depth understanding of the CI needs of decision makers. CI professionals have to carefully plan how to best inform corporate decision-making.A strategy framework is a planning tool which can be used to explore ways to enhance an organisation’s strategic planning capabilities.

Objective: To investigate the CI needs of a financial institution’s decision makers in order to develop a CI strategy framework. To present the strategy framework as a planning tool to CI professionals in the financial services industry as well as mapping the process of developing a planning tool, thereby enabling a financial institution’s CI capability to better meet the CI needs of decision makers.

Method: The guiding paradigm of interpretivist research directed the research design of a single qualitative case study, using an inductive approach. Qualitative data analysis techniques were used, which included the use of numerical data, to develop a planning tool for CI professionals based on a thorough understanding of the CI needs of decision makers.

Results: Decision makers place considerable value on CI in terms of its contribution to strategy development, decision-making, gaining advantage over competitors and enhancing the financial performance of the organisation. Relationships between concepts and patterns or trends that were identified and utilised to establish themes in the data resulted in a 12-point strategy framework.

Conclusion: A financial institution’s CI capability can be enhanced to better meet the CI needs of the organisation’s decision makers when CI professionals carefully plan their approach of informing corporate decision-making. This paper presents a 12-point CI strategy framework as a planning tool for CI professionals.