ABSTRACT

This chapter explains the Competitive intelligence's (CI) Terminology. A couple of web-based resources have been mounted, available free of charge, which define and clarify CI terminology. Competitive intelligence has its own terms of art', which can sometimes puzzle or confuse those coming to them for the first time. Every academic discipline and vocation has its own specialized jargon and acronyms. These serve as a convenient shortcut for communication between practitioners. Alas they also act as a barrier to understanding for outsiders. This is particularly so in the fields of management, finance and information, which lack the systematic, clearly defined nomenclatures available in the natural sciences. Indeed, the addiction to arcane acronyms, opaque phrases and fashionable buzz words are a deplorable aspect of too much management and business literature. Fuld and Company also offer an Intelligence Dictionary covering over one hundred CI terms.