Summary

In this volume, noted experts in a variety of information, business, and management fields offer a comprehensive overview of the role information plays in global business and its impact on competition and competitiveness. At the core of the collection is a common belief in the essential value of information to the modern business and a recognition that the corporate intelligence function must today cope with changing realities produced by both new technology and the globalization of markets. Taking these as their points of departure, the contributors discuss a broad spectrum of corporate intelligence issues ranging from the uses of artificial intelligence and the structure of the corporate intelligence system to the nature of security threats, financial warfare, and corporate risk assessment.

The chapters are divided into five sections and begin with two essays on the emerging interrelated global world order. George Roukis discusses the corporate intelligence process as it embodies the global view, while Hugh Conway shows how modern technology has changed the corporate intelligence function. Three chapters explore the information applications of new technologies, including the use of the computer to further all aspects of corporate intelligence gathering and the emergence of an information industry to serve the needs of intelligence gatherers. The following section contains chapters that address,in turn, the use of intelligence in strategic decisionmaking, coping with bad news, the process of intelligence gathering, and field-marketing intelligence. Turning to a discussion of outside threats to corporate intelligence data security, the contributors examine computer security in general, defense related computer security, and the terrorist threat to corporations. In the final section, the contributors look at a number of strategic challenges. A particularly interesting chapter examines corporate intelligence in Japan; others look at geography and corporate risk assessment, the Soviet foreign intelligence service, and corporate responses to financial warfare. Competitive intelligence and marketing executives, as well as students in international business programs, will find this volume enlightening and provocative reading.