BAM 2009 British Academy of Management “Competition, competitive intelligence and trends” THE END OF THE PIER? Competing perspectives on the challenges facing business and management. ISBN: 0-9549608-5-8 Brighton Centre, Brighton, UK. September 13-15

Competition, Competitive Intelligence and Trends Aída Salazar García, Joaquim Lloveras I Macià (1) and Marisela Rodríguez Salvador(2) (1) UPC- Technical University of Catalonia. School of Industrial Engineering of Barcelona. Ave Diagonal 647, 08028 Barcelona, Spain. (2) Instituto Tecnológico de Estudios Superiores de Monterrey ITESM Ave. Eugenio Garza Sada #2501 Sur, Col. Tecnológico Monterrey, N.L. México 64849

Abstract: Large and small businesses enterprises seek information, methods, and tools to innovate according to the changes in the world; Understanding customers’ need is required for successful innovation, helping them to develop new products, processes or services to support the decisions in order to create strategies aligned to the company’s vision. Currently the private, public and educational sectors are interested in working together to prepare changes in different areas, such as technology, medicine, health, tourism, transportation, etc. These organizations use Porter’s five forces model to understand the environment, but Competitive Intelligence provides a different analytical approach to obtain information from patens, databases, etc. However, how to identify the type of requirements to be competitive? What skills must be taken into consideration? What statistics indicate enrolment to study science and technology? In order to achieve satisfactory results in a problematic year like 2009, companies should accept challenges and prepare to solve their everyday problems. This study will focus on developing strategies with the proper identification of market needs, global trends and industry threats by assigning the adequate resources. Keywords: Porter’s five forces, competitive intelligence, trends.

1. Introduction International trade and with it competition for distant markets has, of course, existed for centuries and the competitive intelligence has become important in recent decades as result of the increasing complexity of the process of Research and Development (R&D) in most industries and global competitions (Benavides, 2006). However, not all organizations are able to remain in the market when there are significant changes in the environment as a new competitor, a substitute product, regulations for entering a product to another country or just the opposite, new customers, requirements… Exist a close relationship with different disciplines such as innovation, strategy, forecasting, benchmarking and the Competitive Intelligence (CI), has been demonstrated that case studies is a systematic methodology that helps organizations make better decisions based on information obtained during the process, and predict the behavior of competitors, suppliers, customers, technologies, acquisitions, market behavior, products and services and the general environment with a

Competition, Competitive Intelligence and Trends

degree of uncertainty (Jourdan, 2008), for it is necessary to develop skills at all levels of the organization and to have a different vision in order to improve products, services, methodologies knowing technological trends. So, the participation of the citizens in the decisions would become necessary, because specialized scientific-technical knowledge is not seen as enough base for the decisions. As the use of technology information is essentials for the competitive intelligence (Bijker, Hughes & Pinch, 1987) suggest the interaction between technology and human actors, which leads them to decide what type of technology use and the CI in collect information phase could show technologies used in other countries or tendencies, but the fact of acquiring a new technology does not mean success. Now, the perspective of the Companies until 2009 in Europe will increase in exports and sales, but there will be a limited level of investment and employment will have a decrease compared with last year. The perspectives of the Spanish companies until 2009 are negative and only the exports submit positive expectations (Chamber of Commerce of Europe) 1.1 Competitive Intelligence In order to understand Competitive intelligence concept we show two definitions Competitive intelligence is the gathering and analysis of information from human and published sources about market trends and industry developments that allows for advanced identification of risks and opportunities in the competitive area. (Gilad, B., 1988) Competitive intelligence is the process of obtaining, analysis, interpretation and diffusion of information of strategic value on the industry and the competitors, which is transmitted to those responsible for making decisions at the right moment.(Gibbons and Prescott, 1996) The Competitive Intelligence has its origins in different countries such as Japan, France, USA, Sweden, Germany, United Kingdom … began to be known by companies the last decade, ten years later, have activities that represent the cycle of Competitive Intelligence are carried out by the companies but not in a systematic way, (Postigo, 2000) mentioned that three quarters of companies sensed the competitive environment in an informal or sporadic way and the trend of this result is to SMEs due to lack of resources and knowledge. Must be mentioned that the Government of Japan had the vision since the 19th century to seek the current knowledge in the world to form his own empire (referred to in the Japanese constitution of 1868) which today is evident in their technologies, companies, innovations and especially in the rising number of patents registered each year, which leads us to identify communication strategies applied to achieve an overall progress. 1.2 The Cycle of Competitive Intelligence Competitive Intelligence cycle, describes the process by which raw information is acquired, gathered, transmitted, evaluated, analyzed and made available as finished intelligence to use in decision-making. Usually spend more time on analysis and data collection. In Figure 1 the diagram shows the steps of the cycle of Competitive Intelligence (Rodriguez M, 2002).

Competition, Competitive Intelligence and Trends

Figure 1. Competitive Technical Intelligence process .

Source: Rodriguez, 2002

2. Methodology For this research, the Competitive Intelligence process contain five representative stages and each one will be defined for better comprehension. First stage; consist in the planning of the process according to the requirements of the company, prioritize needs, make audit of resources, and make the possible timetable. The goals, objectives and activities should be defined form the company and from the team Second stage; the information sources are screened following two processes.  The first one must be performed inside the company, with the purpose of identifying hidden sources of information, and the second process must be directed toward the identification of the more relevant sources of information on an international scale which is used to detect the state of the art and emergent fields in the area of the study.  Third stage, it consist of the collection of information from the previously identified sources, the scope should be closely related to the scientific and technological research and always with the company’s vision.  Fourth stage begins with the integration of the information since different sources are involved; a first classification is made to standardize the information and obtain a general idea of the research; it involves an intensive analysis of resources to organize the basic data, patents, data bases, reports and other from the web and be closely with experts. Intends to identify key topics for the development of products (Kotler, 2006).

Competition, Competitive Intelligence and Trends  The fifth stage and last, consist in the final detection of scientific and technological trends of research in a broad scope. With the final result will be easy identify opportunities and threats for improving the strategic planning and will be necessary to show a specific presentation to General director or with all detail to operative directors.. Then will come the time to take decisions and actions that marked the company's future. Finally will be an evaluation of the program and ensuring the functioning of the system. The purpose of this process is to define the degree of importance of these solutions according to the needs of the customer (Rodriguez, et al. 2008). When we are talking about environment, could be one or more of these areas involved in the research to produce an innovation. Figure 2 show us the keys aspects to monitoring in constantly way. Figure 2. Environment.

Source: Cornella, 1994

Knowledge Economy has shown that innovation consist in a process of searching and learning dependent on interactions and specific situations is a complex approach and a challenge to the future, mainly considering the exigencies of a globalized market. The economic success of any country, region or place increasingly depends on its capacity to specialize in activities which allow it to establish effective and dynamic competitive advantages, based on local competencies and capacities to learn, in the sense of creating an environment of transformation and progress, as well as the capacity to cooperate, which has become a key in innovation. Statistics shows that survey participants appear more concerned with improving their skills and increasing the impact of their analytical products than obtaining additional funding or technology. Furthermore if participants are involved accessing, integrating, sharing information, and better educating themselves about competitive intelligence. Will be a positive trend and will demonstrate the value competitive intelligence provide to the organization. Figure 3 show us the main activities supported by Competitive Intelligence.

Competition, Competitive Intelligence and Trends

In existing literature, many different technology intelligence methods are discussed (Porter et al., 1991). Besides the great importance attached to technology intelligence methods in the theoretical approaches, there is a lack to research on describing how to choose appropriate technology intelligence methods in practice. Figure 3. Business activities supported by CI.

Source: Fehringer, D., 2006

2.1 Information Sources Sources of Information in the case of competitive information, the largest appeal that the company owns are its own employees, who get updated information on the movements of the industry players. However there are other information sources from environment to gather current information. When the staff comes at a conference in R&D, industrial fairs, meetings of professional associations, encounters with customers and suppliers (Figure 4), is having access to first-hand information on the external environment long before it is published. Figure 4, shows an indicator to identify the type of source of information consulted. (Postigo, 2000) revealed in a study that there are some obstacles in the companies for the execution of the formal activities of the IC namely: corporate culture, the cost is high and does not produce benefits, lack of financial resources, the current methodology is sufficient, the lack of human resources or just because it had not been considered before. Secondary sources continue to be a main source of information for many competitive intelligence professionals, often viewed as more important than primary or people sources. The most accessible and least costly. Figure 5a & 5b. Figure 5a and 5b, show us the mainly source of information used by organisations with high percentage company employess, publication and internet websites.

Competition, Competitive Intelligence and Trends

Figure 4. Source of information.

Source: Arilla, 2009

Figure 5a. Source of information Primary

Source: Fehringer, 2006 Figure 5b. Source of information Secondary

Source: Fehringer, 2006

Competition, Competitive Intelligence and Trends

2.2 Requirements to be competitive A requirement to enter the market to be competitive is "Have clear standards to compete with quality‖. The SMES should be incorporated into the processes ISO and use the environmental standards for counting with products eco-friendly, which are required by the world community. For the standardization, metrology and Quality Certification, there are laboratories. The problem is "To develop infrastructure and human resources", especially in countries where there are no venture capital to start new businesses, which limits the endogenous development of the same. However, it exist some important topics to be considered, like recognizing that everything can changes, and new paradigms might arise. One of the paradigms that must be overcome is: the vision that some political leaders have on science, which "They consider it an expense, a luxury and not an investment". To achieve the scientific and technological development that vision must be reversed, starting from the more basic levels of government administration, up to the highest levels of the holders of decision of the public investment, the hierarchical levels of Ministries and politicians. Another paradigm is "The role of science and technology have to play to improve the quality of life of its inhabitants," in the new context of globalization, which is a reality that on the borders and going toward the opening of markets, where our entrepreneurs will have to compete. Accepting that everything changes as products, processes, machines, policies, economy, and even ourselves, we must change our way of working, thinking ... Another point is to determine priorities and establish the vision of what was accomplished the first phase is planning, and as each day you learn something, you have to invest time in training that will give us knowledge to develop new skills. Some competitive skills are classified in three groups: 1. Executive competition refers to activities that relate to the circle of competitive intelligence. 2. Skills of coordination, directives and organizational department. 3. Individual abilities

3. Innovation One of the most representative definition is from the Oslo Manual (2005). One innovation is the introduction of a new or significantly improved product (or service) of a process, a new method of marketing or a new organizational method in practice of the company, the organization of the workplace or foreign relations. Innovation to be closely related to competitive intelligence, must be at the forefront of market needs and trends in different areas (technology, environment, medicine, industry, education ...) which also help to meet the threats could affect our product (good or service). All business-crucial inventions must be protected, and both for

Competition, Competitive Intelligence and Trends

practical and legal reasons (such as unity of invention), every crucial invention results in a patent application. It is necessary to mention the importance of protecting innovations in order to prevent the theft or misuse by third parties (Arilla, 2009). There are three modalities of Industrial Property: Patents, utility model and industrial secrecy (OEPM) The Figure 6 is the statistics of national patents registered in Spain since 2000 to date, it show the culture of the country to proctect innovations. Although some publications say ―Spain is at the European tail in technological innovation.‖(www.elpais.com). Figure 6. National Patents Statistics from 2000 to 2009

Source: Oficina Española de Patentes y Marcas (OEPM)

Just to mention some examples, French people have advances than Spanish in IT and they are investing more money, and they have a culture to protect their information and have advanced against intelligence. At the drugs industry, patents are a major source of information discovery and, when properly processed and analyzed, can yield a wealth of information on competitors’ activities, R&D trends, emerging fields, collaborations, among others. This review discusses the current state-of-the-art in textual data analysis and exploration methods as applied to patent analysis. (Grandjean, N. 2005). Patents, as indicators of innovation (Leydesdorff, 2001; Wilson, 1987) also demonstrate the potential of bio industry in healthcare. At the beginning of this century (the period 2001–2002), for example, chronic cancer was responsible for the issue of 4282 patents based on biotechnology. The leadership is held by the USA, followed by the UK. Current patent office procedures normally result in the publication of patent applications 18 months after the filing date. Therefore, patent applications cover the discovery work that took place approximately 2 years before disclosure. Despite this delay and despite the widely varying filing practices, patents remain one of the most reliable and comprehensive source of information on R&D activity and together with the products in development and market data form the backbone of competitive intelligence activities in the pharmaceutical industry. The analysis of patent portfolios can give a reasonably accurate idea of the volume of the activity in specific research areas, reveal the underlying trends, and detect emerging or hidden information or deviations from

Competition, Competitive Intelligence and Trends

expected patterns, among others. Patent analysis can also yield a wealth of information related to research activity, for example on collaborations, location of research work, key inventors and licensing. The author (Saldaña, 2008) highlight the development of manuals related to innovation in organizations and have been warned that few indicators and measurement methodologies had been developed, as well as in the case of the Oslo manual makes the isolation influence of the public sector. Firms with greater innovativeness will be more successful in responding to changing environments and in developing new capabilities that allow them to achieve better performance (Montes et al., 2004). For innovation to take place, firms may leverage human capital to develop organizational expertise for creating new products and services. However, expertise is much more complex and is primarily the results of deliberate practices on representative tasks in the domain (Ericsson and Charness, 1997). According the Oslo Manual, the innovation is classified in product, process, marketing and organisational and in all of them is necessary to make significative improvements, and there are some authors who say that any person can do innovation, and there are others who say that is important to have knowledge, so many institutes are offering innovation and creativity courses to develop skills required by companies. Other interesting area to study is knowledge management. Globalization and technological advance are increasingly affecting how firms in Organisation for Economic Co-Operation and Development (OECD) countries operate, compete and innovate. Competition is global, knowledge is spread more widely, R&D investments are increasing and the life cycles of products are shortening. In addition, large emerging economies like China and India have integrated into the world economy. To meet these new challenges, companies in OECD countries are adopting new approaches to innovation processes, organizational models, finance and decisionmaking. More and more OECD governments are giving firms tax breaks to drive innovation while cutting their direct spending on business research and development (R&D), and are also encouraging public research organizations to commercialize their inventions. Two-thirds of the 30 OECD member(http:www countries offered businesses tax subsidies in 2006, up from 12 in 1995, and most have tended to make it more generous over the years.

4. Business Problem While a great idea in theory, there was a lingering problem. Most consumers were not aware of what Competitive Intelligence was and the benefits of Competitive Intelligence at Industry. It quickly became apparent that consumers did not necessarily see the value in paying more for a product simply because it's certified, and many companies still do not know the competitive intelligence and the benefits they could provide. This is a brief introduction to what comes.

Competition, Competitive Intelligence and Trends The firms finds itself in a position where it can only react to the competitor’s move; it has lost the advantage it might have had if the right intelligence had been available earlier. So the real value is to provide managers with this tool to learn what the competitor will do, and acting modifying the strategies.  Competitor analysis and SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) are the most frequently used analysis methods.  E-mail has surpassed hard copy reports, personal delivery, and presentations as the most commonly used method for acquiring and disseminating, however practitioners have many delivery options to choose to know how to determine the best method for selecting specific deliverables.  Many tools and technologies are internally available to help collect information and report intelligence. In a case of study a competitive technical intelligence project was developed for a steel Manufacturer Mexican company (Rodriguez, 2002) with the purpose of identifying research trends that are being carried out on an international scale, including strategic actions that are being undertaken by firms with large scientific activity, and the methodology followed is ―Competitive technical intelligence process‖ with a continuous feedback. For this case a Competitive Intelligence specialist developed all the research and suggested better options for making decisions. However, the final decision to invest is made by the owner or directives with the previous environment analysis. If we accept the distinction between multinational and global industries as an important taxonomy of patterns of international competition, a number of questions arise (Porter, 1986) .When does an industry globalize? What exactly do we mean by a global strategy, and what if there is more than one kind?. An industry can be defined as global if there is some competitive advantage to integrating activities on a worldwide basis. To make this statement operational, however, we must be very precise about what we mean by activities and also what we mean by integrating. To diagnose the sources of competitive advantage in any context, whether it be domestic or international, it is necessary to adopt a disaggregated view of the firm, which Porter M. calls the value chain. Every firm is a collection of discrete activities performed to do business in its industry (value activities) The activities performed by a firm include such things as salespeople selling the product, service technicians performing repairs, scientist in the laboratory designing products or processes, and accountants keeping the books. Such activities are technologically and, in most cases, physically distinct. It is only at the level of these discrete activities, rather than the firm as a whole, that competitive advantage can be truly understood. But, new reality is to face the countries according velocity of scientific and technologic knowledge growing in different tendencies. What is immediately clear is the extensive planning and integration of research, after the need was established. People must assume a high level of personal responsibilities according education formed, so the most to require conventional ways, they must look for new and innovate ways to align the professional profile with future request.

Competition, Competitive Intelligence and Trends

In a recent research at the Academic centers, Catalonia revealed few organizations or institutions that teach competitive intelligence (as known as business intelligence technological watch…) and were found this type of courses the majority are on line, in spite of face courses existence, the period and cost depends the institution. 4.1 Strategy The development of strategies must involve all those who run the operations manual, administrative, sales, etc. that all development activities which do not have a purpose and will feedback on their experiences within and outside the organization. Competitive Intelligence calls this activity collect information from various sources. What should be clear is that the strategy should be based on the objectives of the organization, if any, the organization is reacting to what happens in the market which is the same as all the staff know the strategies of the organization. Following the strategy implemented, there should be an indicator to measure progress or regression over time vs. the objectives (Rojas, 2007). But, how must be the strategy to get the goals:  Define the subject. What want to produce the company to cover a necessity?  Prepare all to get the goal, like to evaluate capacities, to do internal analysis through the company environment  Do actions previously planned  Evaluation of the strategic result. As an important activity is sources information, formal or informal. We have graphics of primary and secondary information sources. It is important to provide differences between USA and Spain, where in USA have more importance at primary source because are not public, so it can give them a competitive advantage (Alvarez, 2009). So, give the priority to competitiveness in modern companies practitioners of competitive or strategic corporate intelligence need to come to terms with what business and competitive analysis is and how it works, and more importantly they need to be able to convert the wealth of available data and information into a valuable form for decision making and action. Conclusion, information must be converted in an intelligent product. The new risk of information online,(Douglas, 2008) when what could be a competitor, enters the web where you have a customization that allows consumers to select products offered and calculates the final price. Another option may be that a new employee, who recently resigned from the competition, discovers that still has access to information about sales and prices. All organizations collect and make use of some kind of information about their competitors and other organizations, (Crane, 2005) whether through market scanning, industry profiling, or simply debriefing of managers recruited from competitors. Indeed, such intelligence gathering activities are very much a standard aspect of conventional market research and competitor benchmarking, and make for effective competitive behavior. It could be argued, therefore, that any means of gathering information is acceptable in a competitive context. After all, competitors are typically seen as being in an ongoing, zero-sum battle with each other for customers, resources, and other rewards. Why should organizations accord their competitors any specific ethical claim when these are the very businesses that they are vying with for such rewards?

Competition, Competitive Intelligence and Trends

Industrial espionage (Crane, 2005)has become a significant and, in many ways, troubling aspect of contemporary business practice. It would seem that even companies with an ethical policy on intelligence gathering might accidentally encourage or even tacitly endorse questionable behaviors on the part of employees or contracted agents. In an increasingly knowledge based competitive environment, the incentives to overstep the mark in intelligence gathering have increased significantly, and with advances in information and communication technologies, the opportunities for doing so have multiplied accordingly. Moreover, the boundaries for defining acceptable practice have also become increasingly muddied, especially now that surveillance technologies and other spying tools and gadgets have become so easily available to companies. Even though the legal standards appear nuanced and complex, they can for the most part be captured in a few straightforward guidelines, the most important of which are: (Douglas, 2008) • Be honest and avoid making misrepresentations. • Honor contractual obligations. • Do not steal the trade secrets or other intellectual property of your competitors. Applying these rules in the internet era requires careful thought and diligence. Although the easy availability of information provides a tremendous resource for your company, the challenge is to gather that information in an ethical and legal manner, so as not to expose your company to unacceptable risk.

5 Global Trends (GT) Fifteen years ago, few predicted the profound impact of the revolution in information technology. Looking ahead another 15 years, the world will encounter more quantum leaps in information technology (IT) and in other areas of science and technology. The continuing diffusion of information technology and new applications of biotechnology will be at the crest of the wave. IT will be the major building block for international commerce and for empowering non state actors. Most experts agree that the IT revolution represents the most significant global transformation since the Industrial Revolution beginning in the mid-eighteenth century (Tenet, 2000). Now, we show some of global trends. GT2015 is not a traditional intelligence product based on classic intelligence sources, methods and procedure, it was a work assisted by experts from intelligence agencies and offices (Tenet, 2000). Science and Technology  The integration —or fusion—of continuing revolutions in information technology, biotechnology, materials science, and nanotechnology will generate a dramatic increase in investment in technology, which will further stimulate innovation within the more advanced countries.  Older technologies will continue lateral "sidewise development" into new markets and applications through 2015, benefiting US allies and adversaries around the world who are interested in acquiring early generation ballistic missile and weapons of mass destruction (WMD) technologies.

Competition, Competitive Intelligence and Trends 





Biotechnology will drive medical breakthroughs that will enable the world's wealthiest people to improve their health and increase their longevity dramatically. At the same time, genetically modified crops will offer the potential to improve nutrition among the world's one billion malnourished people. Breakthroughs in materials technology will generate widely available products that are multi-functional, environmentally safe, longer lasting, and easily adapted to particular consumer requirements. Disaffected states, terrorists, proliferators, narcotraffickers, and organized criminals will take advantage of the new high-speed information environment and other advances in technology to integrate their illegal activities and compound their threat to stability and security around the world.

GT 2015 includes a more careful examination of the likely role of science and technology as a driver of global developments. In addition to the growing significance of information technology, biotechnology and other technologies carry much more weight in the present assessment. Provides a more complete discussion of natural resources including food, water, energy, and the environment. It discusses, for example, the over three billion individuals who will be living in water-stressed regions from North China to Africa and the implications for conflict. The linkage between energy availability, price, and distribution is more thoroughly explored. The effectiveness of technology management is fundamentally influenced by the quality of observations made about current and future technology trends (Aguilar, 1967; Ansoff, 1975). Accordingly technology intelligence the acquisition and assessment of information on technological trends, is one of the core processes of technology management. The challenge for the future is the development of models capable of: a) increasing capacity for analysis of R&D-intensive sectors; b) having a greater focus on simulation and modeling; c) forming collaborative networks; d) datamining with increasing application to R&D, with generation of knowledge maps. For this, the concepts of Competitive Intelligence (CI), Knowledge Management (KM) and Technological Foresight (TF), seen in a synergistic fashion are extremely important as support for the strategy of prospecting. In proposing a strategy model for prospecting R&D intensive sectors, an important element is an understanding of the existing synergies between Intelligence Competitive, knowledge Management and Technological Foresight (Canongia C. 2006) in regard, like to vision, objectives, principal methods, points of departure and goals and techniques. The strategic areas in science and technology obviously include Biotechnology, Environmental Management, nanotechnology, New materials, Environmental Restoration, Information Technology and Communication, Science Knowledge, but Today, a more open model of innovation is developing; one that relies on access to knowledge originating from outside traditional public or private sector boundaries. Research and development is becoming more internationally mobile; industry-science relationships are globalizing; and new global players are emerging, challenging OECD economies to remain competitive. New models to share intellectual property rights –

Competition, Competitive Intelligence and Trends such as patent pools and other collaborative mechanisms – and new technology based strategic alliances are developing on an unprecedented scale. Non technological innovation is also becoming ever more important, especially in services. And innovation is being ―democratized‖ so that users of goods and services – both firms and individual consumers – are increasingly contributing to innovation. Advances in science and technology will pose national security challenges of uncertain character and scale (Tenet, 2000) 



Increasing reliance on computer networks is making critical US infrastructures more attractive as targets. Computer network operations today offer new options for attacking the United States within its traditional continental sanctuary— potentially anonymously and with selective effects. Nevertheless, we do not know how quickly or effectively such adversaries as terrorists or disaffected states will develop the tradecraft to use cyber warfare tools and technology, or, in fact, whether cyber warfare will ever evolve into a decisive combat arm. Rapid advances and diffusion of biotechnology, nanotechnology, and the materials sciences, moreover, will add to the capabilities of our competition to engage in biological warfare or bio-terrorism. (Tenet, 2000)

Some industriesʹ climb towards higher value‐added products (Jourdan, 2006) depends critically on research and development, strong intellectual property rights and design‐led innovation. Companies spend large amounts of money developing new products which achieve dominance through superior design elements and trademarked branding or proprietary elements. Business intelligence delivers crucial information regarding the environment within which companies must develop such products. In fact, tendencies starts with an unstable world, the growth of telecommunications, more emphasis on education, partnerships between businesses, environmental concern, and auto control systems will replace the human mind, the aviation and manufacturing systems. -many cases, there are institutions, Universities, Technological Centre doing research about this issues It said it was easy to recognize an innovative company, not knowing that these are companies who carry out their activities in the Competitive Intelligence. According with National Intelligence Council (NIC), in population trends, the world in 2015 will be populated by some 7.2 billion people, up from 6.1 billion in the year 2000 (International Program Center). Nowadays we are: 6,772,733,390 (July 11, 2009).

Competition, Competitive Intelligence and Trends

6. Conclusions With this paper, we show above method of competitive intelligence, we cover areas of interest, both in innovation and technology trends in order to make decisions based on information collected earlier. This type of analysis also shows us opportunities and threats to consider and take action. Furthermore, competitive intelligence gives us tools to apply in different areas. It seems evident as governments become aware of the investment should be done in science and technology to conduct research on R & D; this implies that the educational innovations must also perform on demand environment. With that will strengthen the development of universities and research. All economic activities are part of the competitive environment and if there is no information in time to take decisions and actions, the acceleration of technology has no pity or intention to go back at the time in order to give second chances. Economic activity place more emphasis on the selection of strategic partners as alliances or joint venture, so It is inevitable that companies may be surprised by the emergence of new technologies, products, competitors or methods, but the activities in a systematic way of CI. Academic institutions and companies should make an effort to spread the Competitive Intelligence and learn to be more competitive, so what we need to encourage the continuous formation and perhaps countries choose to invest in R & D and patent statistics give an indication on innovation of the people that will be reflected in new products, services, methodologies, markets. As Competitive Intelligence is a systematic discipline, will help to make better decisions, formulate strategies and be an opportunity to identify the incremental or radical innovations. Estimating the population for 2015, we would be able to imagine the way to go in both ways, knowledge and in experiences of life, where there will be diverse technologies that will continually being improved due to increasingly global competition and especially within the most developed countries. We know that future students will have to face challenges increasingly difficult to achieve in order to be able to get a good job and with it to have an acceptable way of life, for which the job skills of every worker will be multitask. Another important point to mention is that researches are carried out to use renewable energy to help reduce the excessive use of natural resources, pollute less, etc., taking into account the population increase, the merger will be a power option future in the middle of this century should acquire a significant role at the moment to offer a safe solution, reliable and sustainable response to the world's energy needs.

Competition, Competitive Intelligence and Trends

References Álvarez, A. (2009) Comparaciones entre USA, España y Francia. Inteligencia Competitiva en Argentina, América Latina, España y Portugal. Álvarez, P. (2008) Formación técnica para ser competitivos. Available at: Accessed February, 2009. Arilla, Cristina (2009) Vigilancia, prospectiva y protección: las grandes olvidadas de la gestión de la innovación. ASCAMM. Benavides Velasco, Carlos A. (2006) Inteligencia competitiva, prospectiva e innovación. Boletín ICE Económico No. 2896. Bijker, W.E, Hughes, T.P. & Pinch, T.J. (Eds). (1987). The Social Construction of Technological Systems. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Camaras.org (2008) Perspectivas 2009 Europa y España. Available at: . Accessed March, 2009. Canongia, C. (2007) Synergy between Competitive Intelligence (CI), Knowledge Management (KM) and Technological Foresight (TF) as a strategic model of prospecting – The use of biotechnology in the development of drugs against breast cancer. Biotechnology Advances. Elsevier 25. 57-74. Comai, A. and Tena Millá, J. (2003) Competencias y Habilidades para la Inteligencia Competitiva. PUZZLE Revista Hispana de la Inteligencia Competitiva -Año 2, Ed. No. 4 March-April. Crane, A. (2005) In the company of spies: When competitive intelligence gathering becomes industrial espionage. Business Horizons. Elsevier 48, 233-240. Douglas, F., Curtis and Janet Carter. (2008) Competitive Intelligence in the Internet Era: Legal and Ethical Considerations. Competitive Intelligence. Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals Vol. 11 No. 2 March/April. Pag. 9 – 12. Ericsson and Charness, N. (1997). Cognitive and developmental factors in expert performance. In: P.J. Feltovich, K.M. Ford and R.R. Hoffman, Editors, Expertise in Context: Human and Machine, The MIT Press, Menlo Park, CA. Fehringer, D., Hohhof, B., and Johnson, Ted. (2006) State of the Art: Competitive Intelligence. Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals. www.scip.org Research Report 2005-2006. Gilad, Benjamin; Gila Tamar. (1988). Business Intelligence System: A New Tool for Competitive Advantage. Grandjean, N., Charpiot, B., Pena C.A., Peitsch, M.C.(2005) Competitive intelligence and patent analysis in drugs discovery Mining the competitive knowledge bases and patents. Knowledge management. Drugs Discovery Today: Technologies. Elsevier. Vol.2 No. 3. Jourdan, Zack; Rainer Kelly, Marshall Thomas E. (2008) Business Intelligence: An Analysis of the Literature. Department of Management, College of Business, Auburn University, Auburn, Alabama, USA. Information Systems Management, Vol. 25, Issue 2 March 2008, pages 121-131. Lee, J. A (2007) Malaysian perspective on politics, society and economics. Innovation in Education. June. Available at: Accessed April, 2009

Competition, Competitive Intelligence and Trends

León, P. (2003) Perspectiva Tecnológica y Científica para este siglo XXI. Director Ejecutivo del Centro Nacional de Alta Tecnología (CENAT), Dr. Francisco Chang Díaz. [email protected]. Available at: Accessed May 2009. Lichtenthaler, E.(2005) The choice of technology intelligence methods in multinationals: towards a contingency approach. International Journal Technology Management, Vol. 32, No. ¾. Kotler, P., Armstrong, G., Brown, L., and Adam, S. (2006) Marketing, 7th Ed. Pearson Education Australia/Prentice–Hall. Montes, F.J.L., Moreno, A.R. and Fernandez, L.M.M. (2004) Assessing the organizational climate and contractual relationship for perceptions of support for innovation, Int J Manpow 25 (2) (2004), pp. 167–180. Full Text via CrossRef. OCDE Annual Report 2008. Available at: < http://www.oecd.org/.> Accessed May, 2009. Oslo Manual: Guidelines for Collecting and Interpreting Innovation Data, Third edition (2005) Pettit, R. (2008) Learning from Winners: How Research Drove a New Model for the Automotive Industry. Journal of Advertising Research, Vol. 48, Issue 4. Porter, M. (1986) Competitions in Global Industries. Ed. Harvard Business Scholl. Rodriguez, M., Valdez A., Garza, R. Monitoring trends. Research evaluation, vol. 11 No. 3, December 2002. Rodríguez, M., Mora, Magaly., Güemes, David., Valls, Jaume (2008). An Approach to Integrate Quality Function Deployment with Competitive Technical Intelligence: Application on a New Food Product. International Journal of Information Science for Decision Making Vol 1, No. 34. Rojas, Germán (2007). Cómo desarrollar adecuadamente las estrategias. The paradigm commitment. Making strategy happen fast. Saldaña, José Alberto., Lastres Orlando., Soria Manuel (2008). Estructura e Indicadores de Innovación y Gestión Tecnológica en Organizaciones no orientadas al mercado. CIINDET 2008. 6° Congreso Internacional en Innovación y Desarrollo Tecnológico, Cuernavaca, Morelos., México. Science and engineering indicators 2008. Global trends in higher education in S&E. Educational Attainment. Available at: Accessed June, 2009. Talento para el futuro. Claves para generar empleo competitivo en Europa. Available at: Accessed May, 2009. Tenet, George (2000). Global Trends 2015: A Dialogue About the Future With Non government Experts.Nationa Intelligence Council. Waldeck, Roger (2008). Search and price competition. Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization; May. Vol. 66 Issue 2, p347-357, 11p