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What information can you get from competitive intelligence?

The ethical issues surrounding competitive intelligence (CI) can be understood by looking at some of the activities that practitioners of CI claim they can undertake. The following list comes from an article profiling a CI professional in the USA and lists some of the things they claim they can undertake, the likelihood of success and how long it will take to gather the information:

• Cell-phone number of your competitor’s main contact with Walmart:
• 80% chance; five minutes.

• The names and contact information of the people suing your biggest rival:
• 80% chance; 30 minutes.

• Stake out your competitor’s booth at a trade show to see what people are saying about your product:

• 95 % chance; four hours.

• The market segmentation your competitor is using in its advertising:
• 95% chance; one to three days.

• Stake out your competitor’s manufacturing facility to see how much stuff it’s making:
• 95% chance; three days to three weeks.

• The names of your competitor’s top five salespeople and their salaries:
• 80% chance; margin of error +/− 10%; three days.

• Identify which of your competitor’s former executives are most likely to come to work for you:
• 80% chance; one week.

• Profit margin of your competitor:
• 50–50 chance; margin of error +/− 10%; five to ten days.