It took you years of hard work to reach the corner office.

You worked through multiple assignments to deliver results and overcome challenges. At each career step, your responsibilities increased and so did the expectations. More and more people looked to you to set the strategies and determine the directions to follow.

Now, after all that time, the entire company is yours to lead. You have arrived.

Others look at you and think that you have the most latitude because of your high position. If they only knew the truth. So many things constrain and concern you. The employees look to you for leadership and countless decisions about priorities, promotions and their own job security. Customers constantly want more and on better terms than before. Investors want the share price to increase and their investments to pay off. Analysts want above average growth and a story about ongoing differentiation. Meanwhile, your many competitors only want you to fail and are doing their best to make that happen.

Somehow, you have to orchestrate this complex combination of constituencies and competitors.

There is not one answer to this balancing act. You naturally will integrate inputs from your team and the environment to settle on what seems best. One source of inputs is competitive intelligence. Competitive Intelligence can help you to organize your external perspectives and align your team to compete better. Here are five ways.

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You know what it is like to define and shepherd a product through the long process of development and then face the ultimate marketplace judgment about your efforts. There are so many times that you would pay handsomely for credible information that helped you decide on the right strategy, select the right market, position correctly versus your competitors and, of course, reach your revenue and profit goals. Good competitive intelligence addressees all of those questions.

Your job is to champion one or more products for your company. Each product needs to be successful in a marketplace crowded with existing competitors. New threats emerge over time that you have to anticipate and proactively manage. Development teams count on your guidance to build the product with the right features. Your general manager relies on you to help deliver the needed revenues and profits. All along the way, you have to understand the environment, explain your recommendations and justify the company’s investments for your product. This is not a job for the timid.

Competitive Intelligence Helps With the Challenges

One of the things that intrigues me about competitive intelligence is the types of relationships that are required to be successful. Intuitively I think and empirically I know that people matter most. We get assignments from them, ask them to tell us their fears and deliver implicit commentary on their performance even as we report on the competitive environment.

I get it that they need specific information about competitors. I also know that clients or managers want to increase their confidence in their decision making. And, commonly they want to feel that they won’t be blindsided. Most of all they want help to make wise choices about the future that will reflect well on their leadership.

So what role should I play? Information source? Critic? Counselor? Oracle? Or, maybe, friend?

I can hear you through the computer right now (disagreement and skepticism transmit well). Yes, you think that the first 3 or 4 possibilities often fit. But, definitely not the “friend” role. That is entirely too soft a description that no client or senior manager would provide in a job description. They want bottom line results and value those that directly (directly!) contribute. Tangible, measurable and preferably quick results would be their highest goal.

Yet, I wonder about that. Not understating the need for results and concrete benefits, I think that we sometimes miss the human element of leadership and what it needs most.

Many times leaders are trying desperately to keep ahead of the game. There are rivalries within the company which are threatening their position. The people that work with them are constantly angling for attention and favor. Competitors, of course, would be gleeful if they failed. The Board is constantly evaluating their performance and it is easy to understand that most won’t advance. It’s a jungle and thriving within that jungle is tough. One needs help but where will it come from?

There is not one answer to that question.

In meeting with leaders from multiple companies, there is a common thread that I observe about the need for and lack of competitive intelligence in their businesses. Given the dearth of competitive intelligence insight, why don’t companies spend more time and money getting better at this function? There are five common reasons that I hear from companies.

1. We already do competitive intelligence (but it is not helping us).
2. We can’t afford it (but we can accept the costs of not doing it).
3. We don’t believe it can help (because we think we are already are doing everything we need to do).
4. We tried it before (and it didn’t deliver valuable information).
5. We need certainty (and there is some risk in the answers).