(4.4) Which communication means for your MI practice?

To a big extend the success of a market intelligence role in your company will depend on the way it communicates its findings and insights. Should you choose for written documents sent to a limited number of key persons in the company? Or should you have a constant stream of information on a specific page of your intranet, with the possibility for employees to leave comments and stimulate discussions?

Much will in fact depend on your corporate culture, obviously. But it is important to keep in mind that, while some critical information will naturally be communicated with secrecy (and, hence, through confidential reports), other forms of information generated by market intelligence can only maximize their value if shared broadly throughout the organization.

Take competitive information as an example. As discussed in this book, virtually everyone in your company has an opinion on your competitors, often based on loose discussions they might have with friends or relatives. Wouldn't it be worthwhile to collect their opinions and information? Sharing competitive information on an internal, online tool would enable such discussions and information gathering. This can be done through the creation of a ‘blog-like’ forum on which your market intelligence resource can post findings and launch discussions about your competitive situation.

But, as said, not all the information generated by market intelligence is meant to be shared broadly. Some insights therefore need to be communicated through more protected means, in reports or in personal meetings for instance. In general, we could draw following picture of the optimal communication means for each of the market intelligence functions: