Definition of Competitive Intelligence Competitive intelligence is the gathering of information about a businesss competitors to make one's own business

more competitive. It is the kind of market research designed and carried out to find and keep a businesss market share. Gathering information about the competition and analyzing it is an important part of working through a business plan, but competitive intelligence is just as important to established businesses. New competitors may move into a market; existing competitors may change their practices. A more focused definition of CI regards it as the organizational function responsible for the early identification of risks and opportunities in the market before they become obvious. Experts also call this process the early signal analysis. This definition focuses attention on the difference between dissemination of widely available factual information such as market statistics, financial reports, newspaper clippings which are performed by functions such as libraries and information centers, and competitive intelligence which is a perspective on developments and events aimed at yielding a competitive edge. The term competitive intelligence is often viewed as synonymous with competitor analysis, but competitive intelligence is more than analyzing competitors where it is about making the organization more competitive relative to its entire environment and stakeholders: customers, competitors, distributors, technologies, and macro-economic data.

Why competitive intelligence being a major issues around the world and why it is important in corporate business? Much competitive intelligence is collected without the cooperation of competitors. There are the issues that arise when an insurer, or its agent, obtains information from public sources or from third parties. These issues include privacy, confidentiality, trade secrets, and both civil and criminal. Much competitive intelligence can be gleaned from information in the public domain through library research, newspaper articles, trade journals, and other publications. Another source of information is data that can be purchased or rented from third party vendors. This information may include names, addresses, telephone numbers, mailing addresses, social security numbers, age information, health and medical data, and other personal or proprietary information. In particular, some information that is available by this method may have been acquired for one purpose and then sold or rented for another. The utilization of personal information acquired in this manner is problematic for the competitive intelligence professional. The rules and regulations regarding the use of personal information cannot be found simply in a statute or an interpretive regulation. Information obtained for one purpose may be lawful, but if utilized for another purpose, may be illegal. Recommendations and conclusion As conclusion, competitive intelligence is vital to the company in order for them to gain more profit and make their company survive in future among others competitors. With a better stratergy management, the company can get the information about others competitor and make their objectives achieved. However, the process to get right information and use it legally can be big issues. Therefore, as recommendation the government should create the rules and regulation regarding this issues in order to control company or business activities. In addition, goverment not should only create the rules but also do the enforcement about it.