Early Warning: Using Competitive Intelligence to Anticipate Market Shifts, Control Risk, and Create Powerful Strategies

With strong opinions and wry humor, world-recognized expert Benjamin Gilad reveals how to anticipate and react to early signs of trouble.

Surprise is rarely a good thing in business. Unexpected developments range in their effects from inconvenient to disastrous. To avoid being blindsided, companies must develop a Competitive Early Warning system, or CEW, which combines strategic planning, competitive intelligence, and management action.

Such systems let organizations manage risk more effectively and prevent "industry dissonance" -- when market realities outpace corporate strategies. Early Warning reveals how to:

• Change strategy to meet new realities
• Learn from the mistakes of others via the book’s eye-opening stories
• Avoid common tactics like benchmarking and using consultants, which may do more harm than good
• Tell executives what they need to know -- not what they want to hear

Each chapter ends with a Manager’s Checklist of key points, and the book includes numerous charts, tables, and tools.