Antonella Martini
Full Professor of Strategic Management
Competitive Intelligence Master CIP™- II Level certified
Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Energia, dei Sistemi, del Territorio e delle Costruzioni, Università di Pisa

• https://unimap.unipi.it/cercapersone/dettaglio.php?ri=4224
• a [dot] martini [at] ing [dot] unipi [dot] it

Lecturer: Filippo Chiarello
Dipartimento di Ingegneria dell'Energia, dei Sistemi, del Territorio e delle Costruzioni, Università di Pisa

• http://filippochiarello.blogspot.com/
• filippochiarello [dot] 90 [at] gmail [dot] com

CI programs have goals such as proactively detecting business opportunities or threats, eliminating or reducing blind-spots, risks and/or surprises; and reducing reaction time to competitor and marketplace changes. The end product of any worthwhile CI activity is what practitioners term ‘actionable intelligence’ – i.e. intelligence that management can act upon; perspective. It is more than analysing competitors: it is a process for gathering information, converting it into intelligence (about products, customers, competitors, and any aspect of the environment) and then using it in decision making. In this sense, big data brings big change to CI. The course is very interactive and includes also in-class seminars with experts on emerging topics, defined each year (i.e. patent analysis, due diligence, social network analysis for business). It provides many tools and techniques; HBS cases are used. Students will apply these tools in groups when analysing a preselected case company. They are expected to present early stage versions of their CI reports and, in the final workshop, they will present the results of their CI analysis, which is then discussed in plenary.

Module 1: Foundations of competitive intelligence

• Systems thinking for management
• CI process and Key Intelligence Topics
• Sources and collection techniques
• CI professionals

Module 2: Competitor and Market intelligence tools

• Competitive benchmarking (to assess competitive cost of operations, to analyze the true capabilities of a rival, as well as its immediate future actions)
• Blindspots
• Business ecosystems, platforms and business model innovation

Module 3: Corporate foresight tools

• War gaming
• Scenario analysis tools and techniques
• Weak signals and early warning system

Assessment: group assignments

References: Selected book chapters and articles provided by the teacher. Slides to facilitate class interaction provided. All of the materials are in English language.

Prerequisites and recommendations: The students are expected to be familiar with key management (financial & managerial accounting, cash flow analysis, org design, business processes) and strategy (Porter’s models, innovation management basics) concepts before starting the course. For management engineering students, the course is highly recommended at 2nd year of the MSc degree (useful complement for PSSP). Recommended for students wishing to apply for Junior Consulting projects (MSc thesis).

Hours - Orario e Aule