Over the past two decades technology has changed the way businesses are run. Okay, probably not the most earth-shattering news you’ve heard this week, fair enough. Before you click the back button, let me drill a little deeper into this obvious notion. The change in everyday business operations due to technology is obvious, but more importantly, the development of business concepts and putting those ideas into action has become a relatively short-term process. In 1975, Microsoft at 2,500 competitors, in 1992, they had 50,000. From 1994 to 1995 there was net growth of 108,000 additional business establishments-a product of 695,000 births and 587,000 deaths (up from only 337,000 births and deaths, combined, in 1975) (http://www.neweconomyindex.org). Stories of multi-million dollar empires no longer trace back to the toil and sweat of a garage invention or basement laboratory. They start at a desktop (or more often than not a lap top). In the tech-smart generation, a new company seems to pop up every other week.

I can assure you Block Buster™ did not foresee the all out onslaught Netflix™ would bring on their market share. I also think it’d be a fair assumption to say that music producers did not anticipate the massive drop in sales with the introduction of Napster™ and now iTunes™. Technology has leveled the playing field and exposed that the key to being on top isn’t a great marketing strategy (although that helps). The key is innovation! Look at the companies that have broken into markets and grabbed market share immediately. They all took ideas that seemed “good enough for now” and improved them. Netflix™ took the late fees and hassle of driving across town to the movie store out of renting. Itunes™ allows you to create a CD full of songs that you enjoy instead of paying $18.00 for a CD that you may only like four out of the sixteen available tracks.

This increased focus on innovation has led to a growth in the need for competitive intelligence. Wikipedia.com describes competitive intelligence as “researching the business environment a (usually private) firm operates in, in order to influence its emerging strategy for business development.” All companies today are now playing a market savvy game of “keeping up with the Joneses.” Finding new opportunities in markets or beating your competitors to the punch can make or break a business.

But the question is how do you get this information? I’d like to offer some quick tips to help you become more aware of what your competitors are up to.

Use blogs and forums to see what’s hot in your industry. Blogs and forums can be littered with consumer feedback about what they like or don’t like about your and your competitor’s services.

Use Different Search Engines to produce obtain different results. Altavista, AlltheWeb.com, Ask Jeeves, HotBot, LookSmart, just to name a few beyond Google and Yahoo.

Use company websites for information on upcoming events or news about your competitor. The preview of a new product or service they plan to launch or a seminar or event they plan to attend could have implications of future marketing and sales strategies.

Tag your searches with .pdf , .xls or .ppt to return power point, excel and PDF documents. This is especially valuable when searching company sites. You’ll be surprised what companies leave lying around.