Competitive Intelligence Competitive Advantage

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Summary: Create Your Own Competitive Advantage!
Review:      Michelle DeWitt has written Competitive Intelligence Competitive Advantage to assist and encourage members of the online community to develop sound Internet research skills and put available online information to productive use. Those conducting business online should make use of this book to learn more about their competitors and to assess and refine their own marketing strategies.      The author covers a lot of ground in the active use of newsgroups, listservs, company Websites, news sources, databases, and other resources to obtain useful information. Helpful tips include steps to reduce research time, making use of the best search engines, insightful methods of gathering information, and remaining upbeat and keeping eyes open for opportunities!      One of the brighter points of the book are the powerful case studies showing how information gleaned from these online sources can be pieced together to provide an over all perspective of given circumstances. Additionally, the author demonstrates how to easily formulate sound business strategies from this gathered information to produce a competitive edge.      The Internet is shaping the lives of future generations of people even today. Those who know how to use it to gather information and put it to good use will be positioned to move ahead in life. They will become the new decision makers of tomorrow. Don't be left behind! This book will show you how to obtain the information you need to succeed. Start using it today to create your own competitive advantage. Must reading!

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Summary: Superficial and rapidly becoming out of date.
Review: The book was largely a let down. Purchased at the same time as Kahaner's Competitive Intelligence, the two books (while not being strictly comparable) were miles apart in terms of valuable CI content and intellectual utility. Most of the information was very sparse and of a very low base beginner's style, not offering much to the reader at all. I couldn't comfortably recommend this book, especially at a cost of almost twice Kahaner's book. It appears to be more of an attempt to milk the term "Competitive Intelligence" than to provide any useful "Competitive Advantage."