Current state of competitive intelligence in South Africa

Abstract

The economic success of a country depends on its capacity to apply activities which create a compet-itive advantage. The business environment is highly complex in South Africa and the purpose of thisarticle is to examine the current situation with regard to competitive intelligence (CI) activities in SouthAfrica. Since CI is a relatively new activity in South Africa, this study is mainly exploratory in nature. Aquestionnaire survey methodology was used where questionnaires were administered to CI experts inorganisations in South Africa. The majority of respondents has postgraduate degrees and was in eithertop management or senior/middle management level of their organisations. Only 55% of the respondentsare of the opinion that they cope above average with changes in the business environment and 60% ofthe respondents strongly agreed that the most important CI activity in their organisation is to use CIto remain cognisant with government legislative trends. It is recommended that organisations shouldenhance a CI culture by creating CI awareness among employees and provide CI training sessions for newemployees.