Protecting Your Company Against Competitive Intelligence

As businesses learn more about competitive intelligence (CI) and how to use it, the ferocity of competition rises to a new level. Naturally, people seek ways to protect themselves and their organizations against CI, but how? McGonagle and Vella, specialists in CI and what can be called CI countermeasures, have studied the problem from its beginning, and now offer corporate executives and executives in public and nonprofit organizations a portfolio of strategies and tactics. Each one is designed to meet two mutually important criteria: self-protection against the competitive intelligence activities of others, but also the freedom and mobility needed to maneuver in the marketplace. The result, a so-called "cloaking program," allows an organization to become significantly less visible to its competitors, and can therefore compete more effectively against them. Including full details on the new Economic Espionage Act of 1996, this new book is an extremely useful resource for executives throughout the public and private sectors.

JOHN J. McGONAGLE is Managing Partner of The Helicon Group and CAROLYN M. VELLA is Helicon's Founding Partner. Together they have written five books and dozens of articles on CI and related topics. Internationally recognized for their workshops and seminars, they have advised clients on competitive intelligence and related subjects in Europe, Asia, Australia, and North and South America. Their three other Quorum books are,A New Archetype for Competitive Intelligence (1996), Improved Business Planning Using Competitive Intelligence (1988), andCompetitive Intelligence in the Computer Age (1987).