Alice heard Bob before she saw him. Talking rapidly on the phone and carrying a set of PowerPoint slides, Bob came bursting around the corner toward his office where Alice had been waiting patiently. With the barest nod of his head, he passed Alice and continued his phone conversation as he sat down at his desk. Something appeared to be up.

Alice was miffed. Bob was 15 minutes late to a meeting that he had asked for earlier in the day. Ostensibly they were going to discuss his upcoming meeting with his boss where Bob had to explain how to recover from various competitive attacks. Now that he had shown up, he was distracted by what appeared to be an emergency.

Alice had to admit that he seemed different from earlier that day. The tentativeness was gone and the energy that most associated with Bob was evident. She could understand why he was successful with his product line for so long. He was decisive, passionate and hard working. She waited from him to finish his call.

Bob finally hung up the phone and looked at her. “Come in, Alice,” he said.

“Sounds like you had an emergency today, Bob,” ventured Alice.

“You might say that,” replied Bob. “Do you know about the conference coming up in a couple of weeks? Well, we had some plans to make a splash there by announcing a new product. Guess who just preempted up.”

“I suppose it would be one of our competitors,” Alice answered.

“Yes, and not just any competitor. It’s those guys over at Advanced Products. They seem to delight in sticking it to us. This isn’t the first time that they have pulled a stunt like this. Seems like they are determined to keep the press focus off of us,” Bob said with a hint of anger.

Anyone that works in competitive intelligence deals with tough questions. Sometimes they concern specific competitors. Other times there are challenging issues about important trends. Making sense of copious details can consume a CI professional’s time. These questions arise during the execution of our jobs. Answering them is tough and specific to the assignment.

However, a different set of questions can be more difficult to answer.

These questions are fundamental and overarching. They are unrelated to a specific analysis technique or task. Instead, people ask them to understand relationships, value and the possible impacts of competitive intelligence. They are especially relevant to establishing a competitive intelligence function in an organization or when entering an organization as a consultant. Without good answers, the competitive intelligence person is vulnerable to “side tracking.” Side tracking inhibits a CI person from delivering the value that they have to the client because they are unable to answer fundamental  questions well.

Here are the 5 most difficult competitive intelligence questions and a possible answer to each.

After a quick “meet at my office” text message to Janet and Sam, Alice started walking back to her office.

Along the way, she thought about the meeting she had just finished with Bob. It fit the pattern that Alice had observed with so many clients for competitive intelligence.

First, they were wary about her group before tentatively showing some cautious curiosity. Then, like Bob, they seemed determined to make it clear that they were already doing everything possible to understand and beat the competition. Eventually, every manager asserted that no competitive intelligence group could do better! Finally, confronted by unanswered questions and undesirable results that they knew so well, a few asked for help.

Alice empathized with them. She saw the pressure that they endured and the earnest efforts to succeed. She knew that feeling “stuck” or unsure about how to proceed was an uncomfortable and vulnerable feeling. Over time, Alice had learned to listen calmly to the emotion. The “CI attacks” and challenges were not about her or her team. In fact, she learned to reframe them into a personal request for help. She knew that asking for help takes courage.

Janet and Sam were waiting for Alice in her office.

Bob was feeling the stress. After working late every night for the last two weeks, he was in early this morning. The quiet time for reflection he had hoped for was nowhere to be found as he found himself buried in email, presentation preparation and meetings. As if navigating all of the administrative details was not enough, his product line was not doing very well. And people were noticing. Bob’s boss had scheduled a meeting next week to hear the story of what Bob was going to do about it. Normally Bob welcomed such meetings because he prided himself in being prepared. This time, though, he didn’t know what he was going to say. His competitors really had him reeling.

Knock, knock.

Bob looked up to see Alice at his door. The immediate feeling was irritation. He still had 75 emails to get through before his next meeting! Then he remembered that he had asked for this meeting. Alice was heading up the new Competitive Intelligence team. Maybe she could help him. Maybe she had some clever competition slide he could use with his boss.

“Come in, Alice.”

“Good morning, Bob. How are things going?” Alice asked cheerfully.

Trying to manage a friendly smile but not succeeding, Bob said “Well, not so well if you’re asking about work. I am swamped.”

Alice nodded, “Yes, I’ve heard that your team was under some pressure. But you have been successful for such a long time. I’m sure that you will find solutions. How can I be of service?”

This was painful for Bob. He had been the “hard charger” for so long. Usually he was the one offering help to others.  He looked at Alice for a long moment and then asked, “I heard that you formed some kind of competitive intelligence group. What exactly is that?”