The Handbook of Market Intelligence: Understand, Compete and Grow in Global Markets, 2nd Edition

Preface to the Second Edition

The Handbook of Market Intelligence – Understand, Compete and Grow in Global Markets summarizes almost 20 years’ worth of our experience in working together with global companies to build world class MI programs. The Handbook has grown from the consultative thinking that we first started marketing as GIA’s thought-leading White Papers at around year 2000. Subsequently, we have also built the lessons learned over the course of the years into the GIA World Class Market Intelligence Roadmap that has been adopted by numerous global companies as a tool for both strategic and operative MI development.

It’s almost exactly three years since the first edition of The Handbook of Market Intelligence was published in June 2011. Its reception has been enthusiastic among executives, seasoned MI professionals, and freshmen alike, and it has been thanked for both its MI development frameworks and the pragmatic, hands-on case examples.

A lot of the content in The Handbook of Market Intelligence is not particularly time-sensitive. Developing world class corporate MI programs is largely about influencing human behavior, establishing new practices and nurturing an intelligence culture. These things don’t change overnight, and many of the book’s chapters are as current today as they were in 2011.

At the same time, MI programs and priorities in global companies do evolve, and new best practices emerge. We have therefore updated the second chapter in this book with the ...