THE ROLE OF COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE IN PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Анотація

Competitive Intelligence is a concept that encompasses all processes of researching the market, the enterprise's external environment, competitors, and its own internal capabilities and potential. Despite its name, intelligence focuses not only on competitors themselves but also involves general environmental monitoring and the creation of an information base for decision-making. It is this latter aspect that highlights the growing role of competitive intelligence in project management.
The primary tool of competitive intelligence is OSINT (Open-Source Intelligence) – the collection of information from public sources (mostly on the Internet). Most of the information required for decision-making is publicly available. The role of intelligence in project activity is justified by its ability to provide the information necessary for strategic and tactical decision-making, thereby reducing uncertainty and risk. According to PMI research, about half of all projects fail: 13% fail completely, and 37% deliver only partially the expected results. According to this study, the main obstacle for managers is the gap between planning and execution [1]. Competitive intelligence can bridge this gap by transforming open data into valuable insights. In the context of Industry 4.0, knowledge is a critical success factor for projects, and intelligence can generate such knowledge.
Let’s consider the main benefits of competitive intelligence in project management (Table 1).
Table 1 – Main benefits of competitive intelligence in project management
Benefit
Implementation
Possible Outcome
Risk Reduction
Continuous monitoring of the environment, regulatory changes, market conditions, and stakeholder expectations and sentiments.
Early notification of critical changes that may alter the project planning baseline or impact the execution process.
Market Positioning
Tracking competitors' actions (pricing, new projects and products, website updates).
Rapid response to competitor moves and identification of emerging or promising competitors.
Innovation
Analysis of patent databases, research trends, and competitors' job vacancies, which may indicate the start of new developments.
Timely response to maintain competitive standing in the "innovation race" and early adoption of technological advancements.
Due Diligence
Verification of potential suppliers and key contractors.
Reduction of risks, including supply chain disruptions, formation of bad debts, reputational risks, and negative impact on the company's image.
Compiled by the authors based on [2; 3]
Thus, competitive intelligence, being oriented toward the external environment among other things, provides the external context for internal project execution. Furthermore, certain OSINT tools (such as Klue or Crayon) integrate with project management software (like Jira or Asana), transforming intelligence outputs into specific, actionable tasks.