Text outlines a competitive early warning system (CEW) as an externally focused, three-part system built on risk identification, risk monitoring, and management action. Provides detailed examples and clear parameters by which to measure CEW capabilities and shortcomings in a company.

Surprise is rarely a good thing in business. Unexpected developments range in their effects from inconvenient to disastrous. To avoid being blindsided, companies must develop a Competitive Early Warning system, or CEW, which combines strategic planning, competitive intelligence, and management action. Such systems let organizations manage risk more effectively and prevent "industry dissonance" -- when market realities outpace corporate strategies. Early Warning reveals how to:

* Change strategy to meet new realities

* Learn from the mistakes of others via the book's eye-opening stories * Avoid common tactics like benchmarking and using consultants, which may do more harm than good

* Tell executives what they need to know -- not what they want to hear

Surprise is rarely a good thing in business.

Unexpected developments range in their effects from inconvenient to disastrous. To avoid being blindsided, companies must develop a Competitive Early Warning system, or CEW, which combines strategic planning, competitive intelligence, and management action. Such systems let organizations manage risk more effectively and prevent "industry dissonance" -- when market realities outpace corporate strategies. Early Warning reveals how to:

* Change strategy to meet new realities

* Learn from the mistakes of others via the book's eye-opening stories * Avoid common tactics like benchmarking and using consultants, which may do more harm than good

* Tell executives what they need to know -- not what they want to hear



About the author:

Ben Gilad, considered the leading developer of competitive intelligence theory and practice in the United States, is the president of the Fuld-Gilad-Herring Academy of Competitive Intelligence in Cambridge, massachussets.