September 25, 2000

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Competitive Intelligence Pays Off On The Home Front

By Larry Kahaner

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ust as competitive-intelligence techniques are used to monitor competitors, they're also employed to keep internal information secure. In the old days, companies secured information through brute force--by locking doors, disconnecting PCs, and making sure every scrap of unneeded paper was shredded. This system worked, but it was expensive and inefficient. It also led to low worker morale, because employees felt they were under constant scrutiny, and lower productivity, as workers wasted time signing in and out for information.

Enter Operational Security (OPSEC), a discipline that relies on targeting key pieces of information--those that would be crucial to competitors--and protecting them. The result is that outsiders may get some information, but not the critical pieces of the puzzle.

"OPSEC has been embraced by military and civilian government agencies because it saves time and money," says John Quinn, president of Quinn International, a competitive-intelligence company in Great Falls, Va. "Now companies are using OPSEC to keep their most important information secure without forcing workers to operate in a stressful, lockdown environment."

OPSEC is a five-step process:

• Identify critical information: Pinpoint each piece of vital data by looking at your own company through the eyes of a competitor's competitive-intelligence department.

• Analyze the threat: Gauge the harm a competitor could do to your company if it had this information.

• Analyze vulnerability: Determine how your company is most vulnerable to losing control of this information--through what department or employee.

• Assess risk: Weigh what might happen against what could happen. Decide what protecting this information is worth.

• Implement countermeasures: Delete or change information on your Web site and elsewhere.

A good example of OPSEC in action is the case of a computer company that advertised in Augusta, Ga.-area newspapers for testers of a new product. Although the unidentified company took a chance that competitors might learn about its progress (which they did through databases that track advertisements), it determined through OPSEC analysis that the ads were worth the gamble. Before OPSEC, the company might have employed expensive, complicated methods to play its cards close to the vest. Instead, it simply kept key elements of the project secret.

Martha Clampitt, a research analyst for Reynolds Metals Co. in Richmond, Va., says her company's product names are one of its most important assets, and she focuses on protecting them from unfair use by competitors. "In a recent push notification, I saw that a competitor's Web site was using our product name. It was embedded in the Web site but not visible on the screen," she says.

While a visual check of the competitor's site would have turned up nothing unusual, the tactic allowed search engines to associate the Reynolds product name with the competitor's site, thereby luring potential Reynolds customers away. "I contacted our lawyers," says Clampitt.

Before the Web, companies relied mainly on human intelligence to see who was targeting them. Now, they check their Web sites' statistical reports, which show the domain names of site visitors. "We can tell not only who's interested in us but which product or service they're interested in by what page they've selected," says Eric Timm, VP of strategy and business development at Monsanto Co.'s nutrition sector in St. Louis." We also know how long they stayed there."

Competitive-intelligence professionals know that while they can protect some information, they can't hide it all--especially because of the Internet. "The Internet has democratized information," says Helene Kassler, director of library and information services at competitive-intelligence pioneer Fuld & Co. in Cambridge, Mass. "It's open to everyone."

Return to main story, "Keeping An 'I' On The Competition."

Illustration by Brian Stauffer

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