A project management approach to competitive intelligence

Abstract

The research problem that this study seeks to solve is to examine the relationship
between competitive intelligence (CI) and project management (PM). These disciplines coincide
in their threefold approach to action, collection of results, and ability to react in response to
environmental signs. However, the academic and professional literature has not explored the
possible synergies between CI and PM, with the exception of the seminal proposals by Prescott
in 1988 and 1999. The aim of this opinion article is to propose a new methodological approach
for the production and transfer of CI in accordance with the international standards of PM. The
methodology consists of an inductive reasoning process from specific observations and evidence
gathered in our professional experience as CI practitioners over twenty years, contrasted with
the findings of the scientific literature, the PMBOK® Guide of the Project Management
Institute, and with the CI model proposed by the most relevant Spanish technical standards in
R&D&I management and strategic intelligence management. The paper discusses the vision of
intelligence production and dissemination in a project with five phases or groups of processes:
initiation, planning, execution, monitoring and control, and closure. Also, the responsibilities of
the human intelligence team are exposed. This proposal could be an alternative to the
departmental-based intelligence cycle model more aligned with the organizational culture and
the usual operational practices and business processes of companies, founded on the design and
deployment of projects with a specific beginning and end that is carried out to create a product,
service or unique result. It is concluded also that there is a need for undertaking experimental
implementation and case studies of this proposal in companies and their assessment by future
academic studies.