Managing Expectations of Internal Clients at SCIP Latin American Competitive Intelligence Con

Aug. 4, 2011 - PRLog -- Communication between a competitive intelligence group and its internal clients is crucial to successful intelligence, and often boils down to how well the client understands what actually can be delivered, the research gathering process, when results can be expected, and at what cost. It also depends on how well the competitive intelligence facilitator understands what the client expects for the investment.

This topic will be addressed at the SCIP Latin American Competitive Intelligence Conference by Gary Maag, CEO of Proactive Worldwide.  “The companies that are winning today are those that can play the better hand, get out of the gate faster,” said Gary. “Today’s business environment demands evidence based intelligence for better decision-making. However, in order to ensure these efforts come off without a hitch, communication between the intelligence provider and user needs to be flawless.  An imperative part of that communication effort centers around managing expectations for better intelligence results.”

Specific key activities can help manage expectations and develop a consistent win-win relationship between CI users and providers. This includes:
•   Identifying the five most important expectations and how to manage them.
•   Determining how to eliminate senior management’s “get me whatever you can” mentality.
•   Developing a mutually beneficial relationship between internal competitive intelligence clients and providers. Outline the benefits received by managing expectations and the negative effects of not properly managing expectations

About the speaker

Gary Maag has built a 20-year career in consulting and market and competitive intelligence research based on a broad array of industries and has leavened this experience with the practical grounding of managing businesses and directing marketing and sales efforts. He works with clients in many industries on the development of competitive intelligence efforts, general market and competitor analysis, and strategic planning. Gary specializes in competitive intelligence system development and design, the application of competitive intelligence processes, the interrelation of these processes with strategic planning, and the development and execution of planning efforts.

About the conference

The Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) and Informa present the 3rd Latin American Competitive Intelligence Summit, October 4-6, 2011 in São Paulo, Brazil. The conference theme this year is “Intelligence and Strategy: The Key to Winning in Emerging Markets.” The intended audience for this event is made up of entrepreneurs, managers, directors, executives with responsibility and interest in processes involving decision making, management information, market research, innovation, entrepreneurship and organizational planning. More information on this conference can be found at the SCIP website www[dot]scip.[dot]org (in English) and at www[dot]sciplatam[dot]com (in Portuguese).

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SCIP is a global non-profit membership organization providing education and networking opportunities for business professionals working in the rapidly growing field of competitive intelligence. Started in 1986, today SCIP has members in 70+ countries.