January 6, 2005

Hire Boston

Competitive intelligence ensures claims check out

By Naomi R. Kooker - Journal Staff
He doesn't slink around in a trench coat, but David Carpe, principal and founder of Clew LLC in Lexington, a firm that specializes in competitive intelligence, likens his field to investigative reporting.

Carpe also says it's a tool being used more and more in hiring executives.

"It's about corporate strategy." says Carpe, who started his company three years ago. "Especially in an intellectual-property-intensive (environment). A lot of your brilliance comes from the people, their know-how and their market savvy."

What he's seeing is a war for talent, and that war is being waged with a weapon: competitive intelligence - the way in which information is gathered at a level that goes deeper than most traditional executive searches.

"People are paying more attention to qualitative stuff they used to disregard," says Carpe, noting that companies don't take it on trust anymore that a flawless resume of honorable pedigree are the only things that get you in the door. "People are saying, OK we do want that No. 1 player, but we want to go a little deeper. Fact check everything."

Carpe is one of many practicing CI agents and a member of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals. He conducts his primary research by telephone, engaging unsolicited references on the telephone in a manner that doesn't overtly discuss his client, but essentially does bring him or her or it (the company) up.

"They know who I am," he says. "But they don't know who the client is."

He says the advantages of CI are twofold: It goes deeper than traditional recruiting checks, and it digs up personality traits that may not otherwise come through in interviewing a candidate or his or her former employer or listed references.

Betsey Dalbeck, a senior consultants for Mage, LLC, a Needham-based business advisory group for entrepreneurs, says there are two things companies always need to know: What's happening with their competition, and what's happening with their customers. CI, she says, is simply "having your finger on the pulse."

The trick is to know the source of the information. Is it reliable or trustworthy. Carpe says it's important to cull different sources to find corroboration; then you're onto something.

Kate MacKinnon, corporate communications manager of Tweeter Home Entertainment Group Inc. (Nasdaq:TWTR) in Canton, says its basic "competitive intelligence" strategy involves shopping the competition at least once a week. It's the store manager's responsibility to know the competitors within a Tweeter territory, she says.

"We want to make sure we know the products they're selling, if they are having sales, marking anything down or having any promotions," says MacKinnon.

Another reason they keep track is for customers. If an item sold at Tweeter is listed with a cheaper price in a paper within 30 days of purchase, Tweeter, through its automatic price-protection program, will reimburse the customer with the difference in price.