Wednesday, November 30, 2011

Competitive Intelligence

Hello Again!

We're back from Thanksgiving break and winter term is officially here! This term I am taking Competitive Intelligence (business intelligence). I had my first class yesterday and it seems like this will be an interesting course! We were given a company to analyze for ten weeks (similar to the country study in Advanced Intel, but this time it'a a company study). Our class has been "hired" by Starbucks to construct a company profile of Starbucks' biggest competitor - Tim Hortons.

Over the next teen weeks we will be looking at Tim Hortons in depth; their sales, marketing techniques, current research and development projects they are working on, and their overall company background - all of which is useful information to Starbucks.

In the intel program at Mercyhurst, we are exposed to three disciplines of intel: national security, competitive, and law enforcement. This is class is designed to give students an introduction to competitive intelligence (CI). The course teaches the basic fundaments and terminology associated with CI.

We are also required to read a business book for this class and do a book report. The book I selected is "The 5 Levels of Leadership" by John C. Maxwell. I just started and it is so far pretty interesting.

Competitive intel is a career I am considering so I hope to learn a lot in this class. I will have more posts coming regarding our project and the class.

Last post I attached a photo of the new intel building that is being constructed on campus. When I returned from Thanksgiving break I couldn't believe the progress that has been made, so I thought I would attach an updated picture of the new building.

This is an updated photo of the new intel building on campus. Notice the skywalk from the new building to our library.
It looks better and better everyday. Can't wait to finally have class in there!


Thank you for reading!
Ryan