Keywords
Citation
Floyd, N. (2003), "Business Intelligence: Using Smart Techniques", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 274-276. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363760310472308
Publisher
:Emerald Group Publishing Limited
The strength of this book is that it does exactly what it purports to do on the jacket: to show the reader how to examine the external environment for threats and opportunities and then develop appropriate strategies. It does not describe the initial information gathering; it assumes that the data are already gathered. It illustrates the use of text mining to analyze the information, deriving intelligence about competitor activities and the external forces affecting the business.
The great strength of the text is the author’s liberal use of the numerous means he used in the accumulation and analysis of this intelligence. He first illustrates the use of these forms in building intelligence and then illustrates the use of scenarios and simulations in the creation of an effective response. His approach is applied and well illustrated through his use of an on‐going case in which each of these activities is used, illustrated and explained.
The book contains six chapters entitled: Environmental forces and text mining; Environmental forces analysis; Competitive analysis techniques; Environmental and competitive analysis methods; Environment and objective analysis results; and Scenario and simulation analysis.
Chapter 1: Environmental forces and text mining
The author begins by describing the focus of his book and his objectives in writing it as well as the steps he will take to accomplish his objectives. This chapter also contains careful definitions of the terms used in his explanations. He describes data and text warehousing as well as data and text mining. The author then introduces text mining and the extraction of information as a product of text mining. He describes the two basic forces on which he focuses: environmental forces, which he describes as those external “events that can cause a company to achieve or fail to achieve its business objectives” (p. 3), and competitive forces, which describes competitor activities and plans. As such they are the major subset of the environmental forces.
Chapter 2: Competitive analysis techniques
Chapter 2 describes the setting of the ongoing illustrative case study. The sample industry is the air bag system industry. A fictional company within the industry that is the subject of the case is an airbag manufacturer that is engaged in the process of business intelligence gathering.
In performing this environmental analysis, the author identifies and considers ten environmental factors:
- 1.
(1) regulatory;
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(2) litigation;
- 3.
(3) political;
- 4.
(4) governmental;
- 5.
(5) technological, objective;
- 6.
(6) collaborative;
- 7.
(7) marketing;
- 8.
(8) foreign;
- 9.
(9) management;
- 10.
(10) competitive.
He then suggests that large collections of information may be turned into business intelligence more rapidly and using fewer resources by the use of text mining.
The author walks the reader through the steps this company’s strategist would take to obtain business intelligence. The initial data gathering has already taken place. The objectives of the strategist are to extract information in order to identify the threats and opportunities in the external environment. The term “concept” is used to represent the kind of information being identified. The nature of text mining and its use in environmental analysis is further described.
Then, the author describes text mining for concepts. Concepts are represented by keywords and text is retrieved using text mining in the form of keyword‐extractions. Each extraction consists of up to eight lines of text containing at least one of the keywords. The bountiful use of illustrations is one of the strengths of this book. In this chapter, graphs and forms for recording the captured concept are liberally used.
Chapter 3: Competitive analysis techniques
This chapter describes some basic business objectives and the strategies for reaching those objectives. The strategies discussed include:
- •
how to recognize strategically relevant articles; and
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what questions to ask and answer to determine a company’s strategic capabilities.
Two of the most helpful sections in this chapter are the list of competitor‐related keyword types and the competitor‐related if‐then rules for assigning values to the strategic relevance of the extract. The methodology for assigning values is complex and will not be discussed here, although the book is quite clear in its explanations. The chapter concludes by analyzing the strategic relevance of key‐word excerpts using the competitor‐related if‐then rules for decision making.
Chapter 4: Environmental and competitive analysis methods
In this chapter the author introduces the environmental force form, designed to “help you think about the your company’s environment … [It] helps you determine which force at working your business environment is likely to have the most effect on your company’s activities” (p. 108).
Information on environmental forces was gathered earlier, utilizing text mining as discussed in Chapter 2. This chapter introduces the use of scenarios and simulations to analyze the data and the use of forms to facilitate the analysis process. They are used to help determine which forces are at work in your environment. The environmental analysis form lists the same ten environmental forces that were suggested earlier. The researcher then indicates the dominant environmental force suggested by the text excerpts obtained. A most helpful section is where the author suggests groups of keywords indicating each environmental force.
A second form, the business objectives form, is introduced. This form includes a list of likely business objectives once the environmental forces have been analyzed and your own objectives have been indicated. The author introduces a “Competitor analysis form” that helps determine your competitor’s business objectives as well as his or her strategic capabilities. The chapter concludes with an illustration of the use of simulations in analyzing your competitors’ moves, your possible responses, and the likely results.
Chapter 5: Environment and objective analysis results
This chapter describes the final step in the analysis process: the use of simulations in analyzing both your competitors’ moves, your possible responses and the likely results. It is the last chapter containing new material.
The author creates numerous scenarios from the information gathered earlier through text mining. He then walks the reader through the simulations based on these scenarios.
Chapter 6 Scenario and simulation analysis
The author concludes with a chapter summarizing the case and the findings as well as the use of scenarios and simulations of possible responses and a competitor’s counter‐responses to the strategies developed. This is an extremely long (over 85 pages) and helpful illustrative summary of the process and findings and might bear a casual looking through prior reading the entire book to clarify the role of each of the steps described in Chapters 1‐5. Obviously, it is essential to study it carefully following Chapter 5, but for those of us who can not resist reading the end of a mystery in order to better hunt for the supporting clues as we read the book itself, an early look‐over of Chapter 6 might prove helpful.
The great strength of the book is not the revelation of new information; rather it is the thoughtful and thorough use of existing knoweldge coupled with the liberal use of well‐designed forms that provide reminders of options. Use of these forms walks the less‐experienced researcher through the decision‐making portion of gathering and interpreting business intelligence.
It would be most helpful that the reader begin the book with some knowledge of data‐gathering techniques, environmental forces, SWOT analyses, text warehousing and text mining techniques. Except for the initial text mining, which lies outside of the scope of this book, the author does a masterful job of describing each of these topics. However, this omission of data‐gathering techniques is not a deficiency of the book; it is simply that data gathering is not a part of the scope of this book.
The book is highly recommended for those who are familiar with gathering the data and who want to improve their skills in converting those data to business intelligence.