The level of importance attached to competitive intelligence at a mass import-retail organization

M.A.The purpose of thi s study was to es tabl i sh the level of impor tance at tached to compet i t i ve intel l igence (CI ) at a mas s impor t - retai l organi zat ion in South Af r i ca. The rat ionale of CI i s to aler t an organi zat ion about the cur rent s i tuat ion relat ing to i ts bus ines s envi ronment , compet i tor s and how these aspect s af fect the compet i t ive s i tuat ion. CI has thus been viewed as a core tool to ut i l i ze wi thin organi zat ions in order to funct ion compet i t i vel y. The value and s igni f i cance that CI present s to organi zat ions upon implementat ion was di scus sed thoroughl y by focus ing upon the growth of CI , the manner in whi ch CI is usual l y executed, the neces s i t y of conduc t ing CI , var ious organi zat ional st ructure opt ions, establ ishing a CI cul ture, measur ing the cos t of CI relat i ve to i ts benef i ts and ethical i s sues per taining to CI operat ions. The CI c ycle was examined in depth by paying at tent ion to four phases of this c ycle. The f i rs t phase is planning, in whi ch di rec t ion and purpose i s gained for CI ; col lect ion i s the second phase in which informat ion f rom a var iet y of sour ces i s gathered; the thi rd phase i s anal ys is , in whi ch raw informat ion is anal yzed and conver ted into intel l igence and the last phase, dis seminat ion, refer s to dis t r ibut ing intel l igence to endusers in the form of a CI product . Af ter the above had been invest igated, the inf luence that CI has on deci s ion-mak ing was determined. I t was found that there i s a pos i t ive inf luence on decis ion-making since CI as s ist s in reducing the number of uncer taint ies when mak ing dec is ions and bet ter dec i sions can thus be made. 4 A sur vey was conducted at a mass impor t - retai l organi zat ion to come to a conclus ion on the purpose of the s tudy. A total of 107 employees were randoml y selec ted to complete a quest ionnai re and af ter the resul t s of the sur vey were recei ved, f indings were reached. Based on the resul ts i t was found that this organi zat ion pract ises CI , albei t in an informal manner and i t was conc luded that a relat i vel y high level of impor tance i s at tached to CI wi thin this organi zat ion; however , a few areas for improvement were ident i f ied and a recommendat ion was made on implement ing a formal CI funct ion wi thin the organi zat ion