Article

Business Information Review

28(2) 101–104
Competitive intelligence in the ª The Author(s) 2011
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biopharmaceutical industry: DOI: 10.1177/0266382111411070
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The key elements

Yulia Aspinall

Abstract
Competitive Intelligence (CI) can be described as a process of gathering, analysing and interpreting internal and external
intelligence on competitors and the competitive environment to guide a company’s strategy, planning and tactical decision
making in its commercial operations. Intelligence provision is done through the CI cycle, which includes identification of
key intelligence topics and questions, intelligence collection, analysis, interpretation and dissemination. CI can bring value
to the company if it is delivered regularly and if no elements of the CI cycle are overlooked.

Keywords
competitors, competitive intelligence (CI), CI cycle, human intelligence (Humint), key intelligence questions (KIQs), key
intelligence topics (KITs), knowledge management (KM), published intelligence (Pubint), stress test, vendors, war game

Introduction strategy, planning and tactical decision making in its com-

Knowing your competition is a fundamental ingredient for
success in business, whether your organization is a multina-
tional giant or a small owner-managed firm. If you do not
know your competitors’ strengths and limitations, their
strategies and how they deploy their resources, then you are
going to have a hard time working out the best way to beat
them. This seems so obvious that it is surprising how many
organizations still lack a systematic, structured approach to
collecting and analysing intelligence even if for no other
reason than to understand and reduce risks and threats to
current business.
Competitive Intelligence (CI) is not, however, just
about competitors. It also includes knowledge and fore-
knowledge about the entire business environment that
results in action. Knowledge refers to the past – what is
known and recognized, whilst foreknowledge points to the
future. It may include information about a wide range of
factors such as customers, distributors, social changes,
regulations, competitors, the economy, demographics and
so on, all of which can influence the success of the business
(Sharp, 2009).
mercial operations (Liebowitz, 2008). CI is essential to
anticipate and exploit opportunities for growth and
innovation in the future, to understand and mitigate risks
and threats to current business, and to sustain and grow
market share (Johnson, 2008).
The fundamental structure of any intelligence system in
a company is a CI cycle (Figure 1), which includes:
 Key intelligence topics and questions (KITs and KIQs);
 Collection;
 Analysis;
 Interpretation;
 Dissemination.
Key Intelligence Topics and Questions
(KITs and KIQs)
The identification of KITs and KIQs is a fundamental
starting point in any CI project. Without these, informa-
tion may be collected aimlessly and the results are likely
to be irrelevant. Some clearly defined KITs and KIQs are
therefore critical to the success of the intelligence
function.

The Competitive Intelligence Process

CI can be described as a process of gathering, analysing and Corresponding author:
interpreting internal and external intelligence on competi- Yulia Aspinall
tors and the competitive environment to guide a company’s Email: yulia.aspinall@yahoo.com

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102 Business Information Review 28(2)

Figure1. The Competitive Intelligence Cycle

KITs typically fall into three categories:

 Strategic decisions and actions – including the

development of strategies and strategic plans;
 Early warnings – including competitor initiatives,
technological surprises and government actions;
 Descriptions of key players in your market place,
including competitors, suppliers, regulators and
potential partners (Francis and Herring, 1999).

KIQs are a grouping of the main questions the company

wants answered about competitors and the competitive
environment in order to reduce its decision making risk.
For instance, what is the relative strength of a competitor’s
sales force? What is the probability that a competitor will
launch a novel drug formulation within the next 12 months?
If so, when is this likely to happen? Are they likely to be
able to obtain a new indication for an already marketed
product as a result of their current clinical trial programme?
Are they encountering issues of patient recruitment or early
alerts to safety problems?
After planning the approach to questions or topics and
resource allocation, the next step of the CI cycle begins –
collection.
Intelligence Collection
There are two types of competitive intelligence – primary,
publicly unavailable intelligence, also known as Humint
(human intelligence) and secondary, publicly available
intelligence, or Pubint (public intelligence). CI profession-
als usually use the term intelligence, which came into the
profession historically from government intelligence insti-
tutions. But CI has nothing to do with ‘spying’. In practice,
all the relevant data, information, knowledge will be legally
Figure 2. Intelligence pyramid
collected and analysed to provide the company with the
intelligence it needs (Figure 2). For consistency, I’ll con-
tinue to use the term intelligence as the collective term for
data, information and knowledge.
Human Intelligence can be gathered externally and
internally. External activities will include planned and
targeted unique interviews or discussions with industry
experts, key opinion leaders in the particular area, cus-
tomers, at conferences/industry events/fairs, and so on.
Often a company will employ an external CI vendor to
collect this type of intelligence, which means that budget
and management time must be allocated to manage the
project.
Whilst vendors can undoubtedly be an extremely useful
resource, particularly when covering large congresses,
many firms overlook the fact that 80 per cent of Humint

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Aspinall
already exists inside their company, and often neglect inter-
nal intelligence collection. Why is this? One reason could
be that CI professionals are not aware of the processes and
techniques which enable them to harvest internal intelli-
gence or, more precisely, they are unaware of the mass of
internal knowledge that already exists about competitors
and competitive environment.
Here we enter the field of Knowledge Management
(KM). KM is a large and complex discipline in its own
right, and outside the scope of this article. However, a brief
description is helpful, since the success of internal intelli-
gence collection will depend to a significant degree on how
effectively CI professionals can adopt KM techniques to
channel relevant knowledge already in the organization to
the CI department.
Whilst many different definitions of KM exist, my per-
sonal favourite is this:
KM is about a) connecting people to people to create, share
and exploit knowledge more effectively; b) connecting
people to the information they need to develop and apply
their knowledge in new ways and c) connecting people to
knowledge tools in order for them to make the most effec-
tive and efficient use of knowledge and information.
(IPRC, 2003)
Introducing very basic processes such as regular CI/brand
team alignment meetings, teleconferences, and even CI
lunches to collect knowledge on competitors and the com-
petitive environment can be effective and cost efficient,
whilst helping to engage staff in the CI process.
Classical CI events such as stress tests (so called ‘war
games’), scenario planning, and conference debriefs are
also excellent techniques for knowledge harvesting.
The most important benefit of the stress test is identify-
ing, challenging and improving company assumptions
about itself, competitors, the market and the future (Fuld,
2011). During the exercise, teams may challenge the brand
strategy or plan by simulating (by putting themselves in the
shoes of their competitors), a real market evolution of com-
petitor actions. At the same time members of the teams
effectively share and exchange their knowledge, which
may not happen in the ‘normal’ working environment.
Secondary information (Pubint) is where desk research
comes in. This can be collected from a wide range of hard
or online resources ranging from market research and
analyst reports, through company annual reports to drug
databases. It’s important to use up to date, reliable resources
to collect different types of secondary information, whether
biomedical, clinical, market or patent information. In the
biopharmaceutical industry the demand for different types
of information will depend on the stage of the drug develop-
ment process that the company’s new compound has
reached. In the early drug development process, for
example, demand for biomedical information will be much
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103
bigger than that for market or clinical information. In
contrast, for products already on the market, market and
sales information and so on will be essential.
To cover published information collection, CI
professionals have several options – to use library resources
if available, to outsource to a third party, or to develop appro-
priate internal expertise and skills in databases and searching
techniques.
Having collected the information, the next phase begins
– analysis and interpretation. It is during this phase that the
information collected is cross-referenced, checked, trans-
ferred into an actionable form that informs the decision
making process.
Analysis and Interpretation
For the pharmaceutical industry, there are several analyti-
cal tools and techniques used by CI professionals. Two
approaches are clearly defined – the initial analysis, using
either simple filtering or calculation tools embedded in
databases or software, and the CI analysis.
According to a Cutting Edge CI report, the most popular
CI analysis techniques are SWOT and gap analysis, bench-
marking, competitor modelling and scenario planning
(Fletcher and Bensoussan, 2003).
Other commonly used tools include five forces analysis
(Porter, 1996), four corner analysis, war gaming and value
chain analysis (Fletcher and Bensoussan, 2003).
Each of the analytical techniques requires specialist
knowledge and needs to be applied according to the proj-
ect requirements. For example, five force or landscape
analysis, first introduced by M. Porter, is used to under-
stand the profit potential of an industry or therapeutic
area by understanding the forces that impact profit – the
threat of new market entrants, the bargaining power of
customers and suppliers, the threat of substitutes and the
degree of competitive intensity (Porter, 1996). Value
chain analysis is used to identify potential sources of a
competitor’s economic advantages, for instance in supply,
production or distribution. Scenario planning, on the other
hand, is a structured way of developing multiple scenar-
ios of what the future may look like (Fletcher and
Bensoussan, 2003).
Once the relevant information has been robustly ana-
lysed, the next and most important stage is required –
interpretation. CI professionals need to have a deep
understanding of their company’s present and future strat-
egy to be able to evaluate every piece of new intelligence.
What does it mean for the firm, does it represent an oppor-
tunity or threat, where, when and what can be done to
address it? Often this process is compared to a puzzle
game, where each piece of intelligence needs to be
checked against the historical pattern – does it fit, and if
not, why?
104
Dissemination
The role of the dissemination phase is to ensure that the
right people receive the right intelligence at the right time.
Dissemination of the analysed and interpreted intelligence
can take place using a variety of vehicles, including (but
not limited to):
 E-mail;
 Bulletin/Newsletter;
 Presentation;
 Personal communication;
 Intranet/E-room;
 The CI portal;
 Seminars.
CI portals are becoming increasingly common as
tools for intelligence dissemination. There are a number
of CI portal software providers. Some of them are spe-
cialized for CI (Global Intelligence Alliances, Digi-
mind), whilst others can deliver a full enterprise
solution which may include knowledge management
tools (Comintell, Cipher). Setting up the CI portal may
require considerable work, but the time and the money
spent is a valuable investment if it results in improved
CI deliverables.
Whilst dissemination is the final stage of the cycle,
CI is an ongoing process and only works when done
consistently and regularly. New decisions and shifts in
strategy are continuous activities that require constant
updates from CI insights.
It is impossible to provide a comprehensive overview
of CI in the biopharmaceutical industry in such a short
article, but this brief summary hopefully provides a use-
ful insight. No company – pharmaceutical or not – can
make smart decisions without a thorough understanding
of its competitors and the competitive environment.
However, by implementing some basic processes and
giving adequate attention to each element of the CI
cycle – KITs and KIQs identification, Humint and
Pubint collection, analysis and dissemination – it is
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Business Information Review 28(2)
relatively straightforward to give themselves a real
competitive edge.
References
Fuld L (2010) Participate in a War Game: A Pharmaceutical
Battle. Pharmaceutical CI conference and exhibition,
pre-conference workshop, September 13–14, New Jersey, 2011.
Fletcher GS, Bensoussan BE (2003) Strategic and Competitive
Analysis. USA: Pearson Education International.
Francis D, Herring J (1999) Key Intelligence Topics: A Window
on the Corporate Competitive Psyche. Competitive Intelli-
gence Review 10(4): 10-19.
Info Pro Resource Center (IPRC) (May 2003) KM from Informa-
tion Professional Perspective. Available at: www.factiva.com.
Johnson A (2005) Anticipating Tomorrow, Understanding Today.
Competitive Intelligence Magazine 8(5): 54-56.
Liebowitz J (2006) The Next ‘Fall’. Competitive Intelligence
Magazine 9(1): 54-55.
Porter ME (1996) Competitive Advantage. New York: The Free
Press.
Sharp S (2009) Competitive Intelligence Advances. USA: John
Wiley & Sons, Inc.
About the Author
Following a first degree in Biology, Dr Aspinall received her
PhD in Histology, Embryology and Cytology at Novosibirsk
Medical Institute, Russia, after which she spent seven years
teaching in medical school as Associate Professor. She began
her career in the biopharmaceutical industry in 1994 as a med-
ical representative with AstraZeneca in Siberia, then moved
to their International Medical Information department in the
UK. Over the next few years she set up and managed CI func-
tions in both biotech (Cambridge Antibody Technology, now
MedImmune Cambridge, UK) and pharma (Actelion,
Switzerland) companies, supporting the drug development
and commercialization process from discovery to launch and
post launch. In 2003 she was the recipient of the Dialog
Quantum2 InfoStar Award in recognition of her work. She
is currently an independent consultant (www.yvainfo.com).