1. WORLD CLASS MARKET
INTELLIGENCE
CAPABILITIES BRING
HIGHER EFFICIENCY AND
STRONG ROI - ONLY 10%
OF COMPANIES
By Gianluigi Cuccureddu
May 31st, 2011
Discuss and feedback this article on BusinessInsider.com
Managing Partner of 90:10 Group Netherlands
CMO Agora Media Innovation
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2. Higher efficiencies in decision making and strong ROI on their market intelligence budgets
are the outcomes according the 2011 Global Market Intelligence Survey by the Global
Intelligence Alliance (GIA). The need to address growing global competition has accelerated
the development of systematic market intelligence at global companies. The study shows
that only 10% of the surveyed companies have market intelligence capabilities that are
world class.
The Survey -amongst 900 Market Intelligence professionals- found the following
distinguishing qualities of companies with world class market intelligence functions:
1. They work closer with decision-makers
Over half of the companies with world class market intelligence capabilities have at most
one organizational layer between the market intelligence function and the CEO, and none
have more than four layers. Such companies also have more top management as internal
clients.
2. They have more extensive networks
Companies with world class market intelligence capabilities get contributions from more
people within the organization than companies on average.
3. They work in a more regular fashion
52% of market intelligence work goes into regular deliverables opposed to ad-hoc
deliverables, while the figure is 45% for companies in general.
4. They more often have a centralized market intelligence function
While 69% of companies with world class market intelligence capabilities have a centralized
market intelligence function, the same is true for only 56% of companies in general.
5. They use their budgets and staff more effectively
Even though companies with world class market intelligence capabilities work with
intelligence budgets and team that are comparable in size to other companies in general,
they score significantly higher both in the maturity level of their market intelligence
functions and in decision-making efficiency.
The average budget is is one million euro for a Market Intelligence department. Half of the
companies spend less than €200.000 and 20% has more than one million to spend. The
largest budgets can be found in high competitive and mature industries.

3. Market Intelligence 2.0
Infrastructure
In the Survey article the use and impact by social media technologies could not be derived.
If we look at the distinguishing qualities of companies with world class market intelligence
functions, they could well be impacted by social media because there are more extensive
networks who work in a more regular fashion. If the social technology infrastructure is set
up correctly, sharing and collaboration can become part of daily routines.
The second advantage of social technologies are cost reductions and an increased efficiency
of sharing, collaboration and getting the right information in the right department at the
right time.
Continuous real-time intelligence
What's interesting for Market Intelligence in general as a discipline is the enrichment by
social media data and its real-time character. The process of acquiring and analyzing
information in order to understand the market (both existing and potential customers) is
real-time,continuous and descriptive. By analyzing unmediated conversations and content
on current and future needs and preferences, attitudes and behavior of the market, the
quality of the input increases because Market Intelligence will get lots of answers without
questioning.
Future
Competition increases, PLC's become shorter, occur faster and the New Consumer as defined
by Lewis and Bridger, seeks authenticity, is individualistic, independent and well-informed.
This new type of consumer actively destroying patterns challenging research and analysis.
These are just three reasons to keep further investing in Market Intelligence and the social
media data integration into the process.
Are your Market Intelligence capabilities enhanced by social media?