http://www.sajim.co.za/training.main.3nr2.asp?print=1


   
  Training Vol.3(2) September 2001

Information Management Training 
Adeline du Toit 
asadt@lw.rau.ac.za 

Competitive intelligence, also referred to as corporate or business intelligence, is an 
emerging discipline, which has only become increasingly important in the business arena 
since the early 1980s. 

For enterprises to compete effectively in the knowledge economy, they need to change their 
values and have a new focus on creating and using intellectual assets. To be successful in this 
environment individuals need to acquire a new combination of skills. In particular they need 
to learn skills that allow them to find, manage and share information and knowledge. The 
role of competitive intelligence has always been to create knowledge. Employees monitor, 
examine and analyse data in order to make critical business decisions. It is the 
implementation of knowledge management processes that captures tacit information coming 
out of competitive intelligence, makes it explicit by storing it and makes it available to be 
shared and reused by others in the enterprise. 

For this reason, employers increasingly are demanding of new employees a minimum level 
of competence and understanding of competitive intelligence, and curricula are being altered 
in many academic institutions to respond to the demand for expertise in competitive 
intelligence.  

The Acadia University in Canada offers a Web-based competitive intelligence programme to 
cater for this need. Founded in 1838, Acadia University has been consistently ranked as the 
best Canadian undergraduate university in annual surveys among business professionals by 
Maclean's newsmagazine. Providing world-class business education to students for more 
than 40 years, the business programme is one of the reasons why Acadia continues to receive 
such high rankings.  

The School of Business at Acadia University is unique. A laptop-teaching environment 
places students at the forefront of technology-based business education initiatives. A 
tradition of innovation is reflected in The Acadia Advantage, an academic initiative that 
integrates the use of notebook computers into the undergraduate curriculum. All students are 
issued an IBM ThinkPad computer as part of tuition. The aim of the Competitive Intelligence 
Program is to develop business analysts who add value to employers through their abilities to 
effectively use electronic online resources for competitive advantage.  

Course offerings such as Organization Theory and Business Policy serve as platforms for the 
training of students in the practice of competitive intelligence. The courses train students to 
use electronic information sources to effectively resolve important business concerns. Using 
the industry value chain or system as an intellectual platform, students assess the strategic 
behaviour of a publicly traded corporation, acquire competitive intelligence skills, and do so 
with the aid of Acadia Advantage technology. Teaching them to match relevant online 
information sources with a series of analytical frameworks develops the interpretive abilities 



of students. 

In the programme, online information sources, theories, communication technologies and 
analytical frameworks are used to develop graduates capable of resolving important business 
concerns such as:  

Identifying a firms' competitors;  
Profiling an industry or competitor;  
Assessing the legal situation surrounding a corporation;   
Assessing the degree to which an enterprise's behaviour is socially responsible;  
Identifying individuals within a company's hierarchy who are true corporate power 
holders;  
Identifying signs of impending, significant organizational change; and  
Performing due diligence prior to entering into important business relationships.  

Further information is available at www.acadiau.ca 

  

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ISSN 1560-683X

Published by InterWord Communications for the Centre for Research in Web-based Applications,
Rand Afrikaans University