Janet Simpson gazed at the stacks of paper on her desk. It was a little overwhelming to imagine that as the new Vice President of Strategy for the Bluesin Technology Company she was expected to recommend a growth strategy at the next Board of Directors meeting. After all, she had only been on the job for two months. Reflecting on the harried set of meetings, reports and discussions from the last eight weeks, Janet realized that the job was bigger than she thought. Nevertheless, she was determined to analyze the data, formulate a strategy and get the Board’s agreement. Early on, Janet decided to engage with Tim Sanders, a competitive intelligence consultant that she had worked with before.

Bob Sampson, VP of Product Strategy for the Nailen Witt Group, was feeling stress. After working late every night for the last two weeks, he was in early this morning. The quiet time for reflection he had hoped for was illusive as he found himself buried in email, presentation preparation and meetings. As if navigating all of the administrative details was not enough, his most important product line was not doing very well. Moreover, people were noticing. Bob’s boss had scheduled a meeting next week to hear the story of what Bob was going to do about it. Normally Bob welcomed such meetings because he prided himself in being prepared. This time, though, he did not know what he was going to say. His competitors really had him reeling. Maybe the new Competitive Intelligence team could help.

Bob Sampson, VP of Product Strategy for the Nailen Witt Group, was feeling stress. After working late every night for the last two weeks, he was in early this morning. The quiet time for reflection he had hoped for was illusive as he found himself buried in email, presentation preparation and meetings. As if navigating all of the administrative details was not enough, his most important product line was not doing very well. Moreover, people were noticing. Bob’s boss had scheduled a meeting next week to hear the story of what Bob was going to do about it. Normally Bob welcomed such meetings because he prided himself in being prepared. This time, though, he did not know what he was going to say. His competitors really had him reeling. Maybe the new Competitive Intelligence team could help.