Audit of a Competitive Intelligence Unit

ABSTRACT

The Spanish business environment associates the function of competitive intelligence (CI) to customer-focused marketing area. The fact that competitive intelligence is not seen as a high value-added tool in terms of security, technological vigilance, and strategic vision makes us ask ourselves if Spanish companies realize that CI is an essential source for improving competitiveness and verify if companies have implemented this function appropriately. This article proposes a review of the CI implementation process in Spanish companies. This research work provides an audit of processes carried out with the objective of identifying areas of improvement not only in the implementation but also in the sustainability of the intelligence programs so the reader can audit a function in terms of sustainability of the program. According to this research, the scope of the auditory work in CI is in initial phases, more centered on the auditing of resources than intelligence, the focus of the audits in CI is based on the measures of product control and usability for clients and the implementation of CI audits in Spanish companies as a way of strengthening and legitimizing CI units. Finally, based on the results and needs of the study, we propose a CI auditing process.

Resumen

El entorno empresarial español asocia la función de Inteligencia Competitiva (IC) al marketing de clientes y competidores. El hecho de que la IC no sea vista como una herramienta de alto valor añadido en términos de seguridad, vigilancia tecnológica y visión estratégica nos hace preguntarnos si las empresas españolas saben que la IC es una fuente esencial para mejorar la competitividad y si están implementado esta función de forma apropiada. Este artículo propone una revisión del proceso de implantación de la IC y proporciona una auditoría de los procesos realizados con el objetivo de identificar áreas de mejora, no sólo en la implementación sino también en la sostenibilidad de los programas de inteligencia. En este artículo se muestra en primer lugar que el alcance del trabajo de auditoría de la IC se encuentra en fases iniciales y está más centrado en la auditoría de Recursos y Comunicación que en la de Inteligencia, en segundo lugar que que el foco de las auditorías de IC se sitúa en las medidas de control de producto y usabilidad para clientes y, en tercer lugar, que la implementación de las auditorías de IC en empresas son una forma de fortalecer y legitimar las unidades de IC dentro de la organización. Los resultados obtenidos nos llevan a proponer un proceso sostenible de auditoría de IC.

KEYWORDS:

• Competitive intelligence
• economic intelligence
• internal audit
• evaluating intelligence
• business strategy

Palabras clave:

• inteligencia competitiva
• inteligencia económica
• auditoría interna
• evaluación de la inteligencia
• estrategia de negocios

Notes

^1. Recent studies of competitive intelligence have chosen mixed methodologies (Correia & Wilson, 2001; García Alsina, 2011; Jaworski et al., 2002; Wright et al., 2002). Delivering a sustainable model requires mixing qualitative techniques (interview, business case of real implementations) with quantitative techniques from the survey.

^2. CI departments have identified and defined actions as part of the function of defending the organization’s assets, and this involves knowing its threads and risks to be able to establish measures to alleviate or reduce them to a level which the organization can tolerate.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Héctor Izquierdo Triana

Héctor Izquierdo Triana holds a Ph.D. in Economics, degrees in Law, Economics, and Business Administration (ICADE, Universidad Pontificia Comillas), and an Executive MBA (IE Business School), first in his class at IE Business School. He is Associate Professor at IE Business School and ICADE. With rich experience working in 25 countries, in sectors such as energy, railroad transportation, and government administration, and in positions as Director, Member of the Steering Committee or Member of the Board, he learned about CI and its implementation in different countries and businesses, combining his practical experience with the academic.

José Luis Fernández

José Luis Fernández holds a Ph.D. in Philosophy (Universidad Pontificia Comillas) and an MBA (ICADE, Universidad Pontificia Comillas). He is an Ordinary Professor at ICADE and Director of the Chair of Economic and Business Ethics. He is Member of the Board of Directors of the European Ethics Network. His professional career includes, amongst other positions, that of Vice-Chancellor of Foreign Relations and University Extension of the Universidad Pontificia Comillas and President of Ethics, Economics, and Management, Spanish Association for the Ethics of Economics and Organizations (EBEN-España).

Eva Ballesté

Eva Ballesté holds a Ph.D. in Economic and Business Sciences from the National University of Distance Education (UNED) as well as an Executive Master in Financial Management (IE Business School) and Master in Management Accounting and Control Systems (Copenhagen Business School). Professor Ballesté has solid professional experience in the administration, management, and strategy of companies such as Alstom, Grupo Puentes, Endesa France, and Amitech.