Communication

The greatest proportion of Competitive Intelligence (CI) practice in the pharmaceutical industry is located within the R&D function (Halliday et al 1992). This paper reports on the results of an empirical study into the infrastructure of competitive intelligence practice within the industry. The study analyses and reports on the results from data and views gathered via questionnaire which addressed the questions of attitudes towards CI, methods of gathering CI, practitioner background, and problem areas.

This paper identifies the five commonly accepted and applied standards required for a particular activity to be termed as a legitimate profession. The background to the use of standards to denote professionalism is identified and discussed. These are then applied to the current situation enjoyed by today's CI profession in a corporate environment. CI is measured against each of the five standards and is awarded a pass on one, a bare pass on one other, and a fail against the remaining three. A comprehensive list of ...