Competitive Intelligence analysis failure: Diagnosing individual level causes and implementing organisational level remedies.

It is anticipated that any Competitive Intelligence (CI) professional would want to perform the analysis task and execute their responsibilities successfully over time. Such competencies would normally come with added experience on the job, as should the ability to reduce the risk of failure by diagnosing potential pitfalls. This paper presents: a) a unique four-level hierarchical model of analysis failure; b) identification of common causes of failure at the individual level; c) ten key continua of CI analysis skills which we believe an analyst has to master to become competent in their work and d) guiding principles for an enlightened firm to follow if they wish to discharge their organisational level responsibility of reducing the potential for analysis failure. We believe that the issues raised in this paper are of significance and should ultimately contribute towards creating a more successful analysis function. This can only be of benefit to educators, practitioners and others who rely on skilful CI output to inform their decision making.