Course detail

Competitive Intelligence

FP-ciPAcad. year: 2026/2027

The course Competitive Intelligence provides students with the basic knowledge necessary to understand how to correctly and legally obtain the necessary information from a competitive environment, how to evaluate it well in order to add value to this information and thereby gain intelligence when this intelligence is a good basis for strategic decision making. of the top management of the company.
It represents a compendium of knowledge necessary to perform the function of Competitive Intelligence process manager or company managers in general at all levels of management.

Language of instruction

Czech

Number of ECTS credits

5

Assignment to study programme types

Bachelor's

Mode of study

Not applicable.

Entry knowledge

Not applicable.

Rules for evaluation and completion of the course

Credit requirements:
a) Active participation in exercises - evaluated by the teacher
b) Recognized seminar paper.
The work will be evaluated 0 - 100 points. To be able to acknowledge the seminar paper it is necessary to obtain at least 65 points. The points correspond to the level of difficulty of solving the individual steps of the seminar work as follows (in parentheses the minimum number of points to be achieved for each step) is stated:
Step 1 - 10 points (7 points)
Step 2 - 5 points (3 points)
Step 3 - 20 points (10 points)
Step 4 - 10 points (7 points)
Step 5 - 50 points (35 points)
Step 6 - 5 points (3 points)
The minimum number of points required for each step must always be earned! Failure to achieve the prescribed minimum score in any of the steps will result in the seminar paper not being recognized as a whole, even if the final score is 65 or more. If plagiarism is detected, no credit will be granted.
Test requirements:
The exam has a written form. Only those students who have a credit in IS can participate.
The exam consists of three open theoretical questions, the time for answering is 30 minutes. Rating:
a) Correct identification of the problem
b) The way and extent of problem solving with emphasis on its explanation.
The answer to each question is evaluated separately. The resulting evaluation is given by the arithmetic mean. The exam is classified on the ECTS scale. Incorrect and illegible answers are considered unsatisfactory.
Checking the results of independent work on assigned tasks.

Aims

The aim is to enable students to understand the issues of Competitive Intelligence processes needed to obtain information about the competitive environment and to provide students with the knowledge for their legal acquisition with their subsequent evaluation.
Furthermore, students must understand how to approach the issue of the quality of information needed to obtain background information for strategic decisions of top management, including identification and subsequent analysis of misinformation.
Knowledge
Knowledge of modern approaches and methods of legally obtaining information about a competing company, competitive environment, including the creation of added value necessary for intelligence. Basics of intelligence analysis of acquired information. Analysis of competitive hypotheses, check of key assumptions, time analysis, patent analysis. Software tools used in Competitive Intelligence. Basic forms of organization of the Competitive Intelligence process in a company. Knowing the most common causes of Competitive Intelligence failure.
Skills
Ability to correctly analyze the examined problem, propose a thought model of the problem, identify the information gap, perform intelligence analysis of the information obtained. To create a basis for strategic decision-making by predicting probable hypotheses. They will acquire basic approaches to the protection of business secrets of the company.
Competence
The listener will have competencies of the Competitive Intelligence Process Manager

Study aids

Not applicable.

Prerequisites and corequisites

Not applicable.

Basic literature

BARTES, F. Competitive Intelligence. Skriptum. VUT v Brně, Fakulta podnikatelská. Brno: Akademické nakladatelství CERM, s. r o., 2012. 217 s. ISBN 978-80-214-4613-7.
BARTES, F. Competitive Intelligence. Základ pro strategické rozhodování. Ostrava: KEY Publishing, 2012. 317 s. ISBN 978-80-7418-113-9.
BIRD, G. 2015. Competitive Intelligence: How To legally Steal Your Competitoŕs Secrets And Increase market Share Almost Overnight. ISBN 978-1-51700-167-4.
VELLA, C. M. and McGONAGLE, J. J. 2017. Competitive Intelligence Rescue: Getting It Right. Santa Barbara: Praeger. ISBN 978-1-1440-85160-5.

Recommended reading

BAZZELL, M. 2018. Open Source Intelligence Techniques: Resources for Searching and Analyzing Online. Sixth ed. Y. Varallo. ISBN 978-1-98420-157-7.
NELKE, M. and Ch. Häkansson. 2015. Competitive Intelligence for Information Profesionals. New York: Chandos Publishing. ISBN 978-0-081-00206-3.

Classification of course in study plans

  • Programme BAK-MIn Bachelor's 2 year of study, winter semester, elective

Type of course unit

 

Lecture

26 hours, optionally

Teacher / Lecturer

Exercise

13 hours, compulsory

Teacher / Lecturer