If CI was running the company, then they would be called the “CEO”. My assumption is that they are, as you say, contributors. My experience mirrors your comments in that many are monitoring the competitive environment including (hopefully) those in executive positions. In fact, one of the internal “competitors” to a formal CI function is often the ad hoc intelligence gathering of senior management. The challenge that I have observed is getting the ad hoc and the formal systems to work together well since, in my opinion, neither is sufficient alone.

Nevertheless, which part of the post makes it appear that CI is running the company? All of it?

My intent is to illustrate how Competitive Intelligence helps senior leaders with the strategic challenges but not intend to imply that the people charged with making the decisions should be replaced with CI. In this particular post, I have only dealt with the kinds of input that I think that CI contributes to someone with overall responsibility for Strategic Marketing.

I have another blog entry at http://blog.jthawes.com/2009/06/02/the-prime-directive-of-competitive-intelligence/ that attempts to capture my perspective of what CI should contribute (in a broad manner) to decision makers.

Thanks for your comment. Let me know if I have missed your meaning.

– Tom