01 / Intelligence practice · Core
Understand your competitive field before its rules change.
We research competitors, substitutes, new entrants, alliances, offers and observable moves to help you understand your position, spot relevant changes and assess possible responses.
- What it is
- Competitive Intelligence is the lawful and ethical research of competitors, substitutes, new entrants, alliances, offers and observable moves to understand a competitive position and anticipate relevant change.
- Who it is for
- Leadership, strategy and development, sales and marketing.
- Typical formats
- Competitor profiles, rivalry landscapes, analysis of moves and conditional scenarios.
The questions
Questions we help answer.
- Who really competes for the same customers, needs or channels?
- What has changed in our rivals’ offer, distribution or positioning?
- Which entrants or technologies could redefine the rivalry?
- Which facts support, or contradict, our reading of the environment?
- Which signals should we watch before revisiting a decision?
Visual explanation · Simulated example
A competitive field is not a list.
An illustrative example designed to show what this service helps you understand. It uses no commercial information or client data.
- Competitor · competition
- Substitute · substitution
- Partner or channel
- Hypothesis · moment B
Market under study
Every relationship is read against this market. Select a player to see its relationship.
Position on the chart does not express size or influence.
All synthetic relationships are shown: competitors, substitutes and partners.
View relationships as text
| Player | With | Relationship | Claim type |
|---|---|---|---|
| Company A | Market | Direct competition | Fact |
| Company B | Market | Direct competition | Fact |
| Company C | Market | Competition in an adjacent segment | Inference |
| Service X | Market | Substitution | Inference |
| In-house alternative | Market | Substitution | Hypothesis |
| Partner X | Company B | Distribution | Fact |
| Channel 1 | Company C and market | Shared channel | Inference |
| Partner Y | Market | Technology provider | Hypothesis |
| Company B | Service X | Alliance (moment B only) | Hypothesis |
| Entrant N | Market | New entrant (moment B only) | Hypothesis |
Technology widens the analysis. It does not replace judgment.
The work combines research and source verification, critical interpretation and relevant technologies. Conclusions keep their limits, and decisions belong to the people accountable for them.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Short answers on what we do, how we do it and what we do not do.
What sources does competitive intelligence use?
Public, licensed, authorized or lawfully provided sources, and interviews in which our identity is disclosed. Every finding states its source and date.
Can you know a competitor’s plans?
No. We do not claim to know third parties’ private plans. We analyze observable moves, separate observation from inference and state the uncertainty.
Is it a one-off study or ongoing monitoring?
It can be either. A study answers a specific question; with Intelligence Operations the reading is kept up to date on an agreed cadence.
Let’s discuss your next question
What do you need to understand before your next decision?
Tell us about the market, the competitive move or the opportunity you are trying to understand. We can help you frame the question and assess a suitable research scope.