商界搞情報(bào)工作要學(xué)習(xí)中情局
????商業(yè)間諜活動(dòng)或許是違法的,但企業(yè)仍然可以想辦法密切關(guān)注競(jìng)爭(zhēng)情況。全球各地,有些企業(yè)每年要花200多萬(wàn)美元,用于聘請(qǐng)外部機(jī)構(gòu),或是讓內(nèi)部部門追蹤和分析競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手的行為及策略。這些公司通常通過公開資源或情報(bào)研究來(lái)達(dá)到這個(gè)目標(biāo),這種做法通常被稱為競(jìng)爭(zhēng)情報(bào)。 ????競(jìng)爭(zhēng)情報(bào)與研究機(jī)構(gòu)Fuld & Company的總裁萊納德?富爾德說:“競(jìng)爭(zhēng)情報(bào)就是收集信息,收集到一定程度,你就可以據(jù)此進(jìn)行決策?!边@里的收集信息包括收集競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手的產(chǎn)品、定價(jià)、企業(yè)文化和投資等信息,此外還有市場(chǎng)行況、政府監(jiān)管等外界因素。” ????競(jìng)爭(zhēng)情報(bào)最重要的一個(gè)目標(biāo)就是減少意外情況。摩托羅拉公司(Motorola)前情報(bào)總監(jiān)詹?海令指出:“過去五年,企業(yè)好像被顛覆性的新技術(shù)打了個(gè)措手不及。因此企業(yè)高級(jí)管理層對(duì)收集情報(bào)越來(lái)越重視,而且我們看到情報(bào)應(yīng)用的范圍也在擴(kuò)展?!?/p> ????海令在加盟摩托羅拉前曾是一名美國(guó)中情局(CIA)官員。80年代中期,摩托羅拉要求海令把他在政府情報(bào)部門的工作經(jīng)驗(yàn)帶到摩托羅拉來(lái)。海令說:“我相信,像政府一樣,跨國(guó)企業(yè)也需要自己的情報(bào)部門,以便做出正確的決策?!?/p> ????從許多方面來(lái)看,競(jìng)爭(zhēng)情報(bào)的歷史,幾乎和商業(yè)本身一樣悠久。早在19世紀(jì)末,著名的猶太財(cái)閥羅斯柴爾德家族就把一批銀行家送到法國(guó),學(xué)習(xí)歐洲的銀行技術(shù)并借鑒他們最佳策略。不過,海令認(rèn)為,現(xiàn)代意義上的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)情報(bào)是在20世紀(jì)80年代誕生的。海令特別提到了哈佛商學(xué)院(Harvard Business School)教授邁克爾?波特的《競(jìng)爭(zhēng)策略:行業(yè)和競(jìng)爭(zhēng)對(duì)手分析技術(shù)》(Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors)一書。他說:“正是這本開創(chuàng)性的著作,讓大家開始把情報(bào)收集當(dāng)成一門專業(yè)進(jìn)行關(guān)注?!?/p> ????抗衰退的商業(yè)服務(wù)? ????盡管在經(jīng)濟(jì)開始衰退后,許多企業(yè)都在削減預(yù)算,但情報(bào)支出卻不減反增。Fuld & Company對(duì)400家全球性企業(yè)進(jìn)行的一項(xiàng)調(diào)查顯示,過去五年內(nèi),在那些設(shè)置了競(jìng)爭(zhēng)情報(bào)部門的企業(yè)里,在競(jìng)爭(zhēng)情報(bào)上投入超過100萬(wàn)美元的企業(yè)的數(shù)量從5%增加到了10%。 ????在那些對(duì)競(jìng)爭(zhēng)情報(bào)投入超200萬(wàn)美元的企業(yè)里,制藥業(yè)企業(yè)占了27%,遠(yuǎn)遠(yuǎn)高于其他部門?!焙A钫f:“制藥企業(yè)可能最擅長(zhǎng)收集競(jìng)爭(zhēng)情況的企業(yè)。另外社會(huì)上也有大量他們可以利用的公開信息?!毕啾戎拢^去五年里,金融服務(wù)業(yè)的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)情報(bào)支出下降最多,科技業(yè)的競(jìng)爭(zhēng)情報(bào)支出增長(zhǎng)最快。 ????制藥企業(yè)(以及他們聘請(qǐng)的外部機(jī)構(gòu))通過多種方式進(jìn)行競(jìng)爭(zhēng)情報(bào)收集。大型制藥公司為了給新產(chǎn)品造勢(shì),往往會(huì)召開一些科學(xué)會(huì)議,像Fuld & Company這種商業(yè)情報(bào)機(jī)構(gòu)經(jīng)常參加這種會(huì)議。他們會(huì)睜大眼睛,豎起耳朵,搜集小道消息和內(nèi)幕消息,同時(shí)也仔細(xì)傾聽參會(huì)者詢問的問題,因?yàn)檫@些都可能有助于更好地理解行業(yè)內(nèi)的動(dòng)向。 |
????Corporate espionage may be illegal, but companies can still keep tabs on the competition. Some large corporations around the globe spend more than $2 million a year hiring outside firms or staffing internal departments to track and analyze the actions and strategies of their competitors. These companies pull this off with the help of public resources and investigative research, a practice collectively known as competitive intelligence (CI). ????"Competitive intelligence is gathering information, which is analyzed to the point where you can make a decision," says Leonard Fuld, president of competitive intelligence and research firm Fuld & Company. This includes gathering information about competitor's products, pricing, business culture, and investments, as well as external factors like market conditions and government regulations. ????More than anything, CI aims to eliminate surprises. "Companies seem to have been caught off guard more by new and disruptive technologies in the last five years," says Jan Herring, former director of intelligence at Motorola. "As a result, senior management has become more appreciative of gathering intelligence and we're seeing expanded areas of application." ????Herring, a former CIA officer, was asked to bring his government intelligence experience to Motorola in the mid-80s. "I believed that, much like governments, multi-national companies were going to need their own intelligence departments to be able to make the right decisions," says Herring. ????In many ways, competitive intelligence is as old as business itself. In the late 1800s, the Rothschild family sent its bankers to France to observe banking techniques and adopt the best strategies. However, Herring says the modern incarnation of competitive intelligence took root in the 1980s, pointing to the publication of Harvard Business School professor Michael Porter's Competitive Strategy: Techniques for Analyzing Industries and Competitors. "It was the seminal document that caused everybody to focus on intelligence gathering as a profession," says Herring. ????Recession-proof business service? ????While businesses have been slashing budgets in the wake of the recession, expenditure on intelligence has actually edged up. A survey of 400 global companies by Fuld & Company reports that in the last five years the number of companies that spend more than $1 million on CI has increased from 5% to 10% of all companies with CI programs. ????The pharmaceutical industry accounts for 27% of companies that spend more than $2 million on competitive intelligence, far more than any other sector. "Pharmaceutical companies are probably the best at doing what we do now," says Herring. "Plus there is a lot of public information out there they can utilize." Predictably, the financial services world has seen the largest decrease in spending while technology is the fastest growing sector for CI programs in the last five years. ????Pharmaceutical companies (and the outside firms they hire) perform competitive intelligence in a variety of ways. CI practitioners like Fuld attend scientific conferences, often hosted by drug companies looking to generate buzz for their latest product. They keep their eyes and ears open for gossip, insider information, and questions asked by attendees that might lead to a better understanding of what's actually going on in a given industry. |
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