The Manager's Guide to Competitive Intelligence

Rating:
Summary: Helpful New Addition to the CI Literature
Review: I purchased The Manager's Guide to Competitive Intelligence a few weeks ago, and I've found particularly useful the chapter on 'Going Outside for Help'. The '10 Questions to Ask a CI Consultant' are very useful for evaluating potential consultants. The authors' writing style is straight-forward, and this book is a great new addition to the CI literature

Rating:
Summary: A Must Read for the CI Manager
Review: The team of McGonagle and Vella have done it again!

The Manager's Guide to Competitive Intelligence is a most useful book for two different groups of people. First, it will be of immense use to those persons that have been asked by their manager to start a competitive intelligence unit. The authors cover everything possible from hiring, to managing, legal and ethical issues, working with management, salary scales, etc. In short the person new to CI will walk away with a complete outline on how to get started. The second group are those persons that have been in CI for about 3-5 years and wish to refresh themselves with networking, working with management, salaries, and skill sets.

What I like most about this book is that the authors have researched the field and incorporated a lot of material into one central place - their book. This will make it easier for the reader to locate source materials.

For those persons with a strong interest in competitive intelligence, this is another McGonagle/Vella book they will have to add to their collections.

Mark Robinson
The author of "Beyond Competitive Intelligence."

Rating:
Summary: Solid but not ground-breaking
Review: This book is a solid text that provides a good range of the basics about managing a CI effort. The authors know their material well and present it in painstaking detail (too much?) in places. The book doesn't read easily and actually flows more like an elaborate outline than a well-written story.

This will benefit those new to managing CI units and might even be of some help to those with a few more years in the field. I doubt it will break new ground for experienced CI managers. It is likely to be of at least some value to most readers interested in the field.