by F. John Reh
Abstracts prepared by Hugh Fisher

The best business operators keep track of what the competition is up to; you should do the same. F. John Reh examines some tactics for successful market intelligence, such as searching freely-available information, examining competing products, and going right to the source by talking to competitors' employees and scouting their trade show and convention presences.

Chief among information sources is the Internet. Skilled searchers can browse financial information and company reports, company and product information, and reviews and other documents which are either public information or are published by third parties. Most of the time, a company's own web page can be source of important information. Reh offers examples of how these searches can be made, and also describes companies which monitor and track news and information on major companies for a fee. By using the freely-available information, owners can compile different information sources and gain a bigger idea of what others in their fields are doing.

http://management.about.com/cs/businessethics/a/CompIntel062402.htm