GIA Launches Handbook of Market Intelligence for Pre-order

Online, August 23, 2011 (Newswire.com) - Global Intelligence Alliance (GIA) announces that the Handbook of Market Intelligence is now available for pre-order on Amazon.

This resource gives readers a step-by-step roadmap for establishing, conducting, and further developing market intelligence programs within an organization, turning market data into actionable insights. It is full of best practice advice based on hundreds of real-life international case studies, including companies such as ABB, Cisco Systems, Dunkin' Brands and Statoil. The material is backed up by extensive global survey data and provides readers with benchmark data on how intelligence programs are being organized, operated, and resourced worldwide. From the large amount of examples, the authors have distilled Six Key Success Factors for organizing future-oriented corporate intelligence programs.

Co-authors, Hans Hedin, Irmeli Hirvensalo and Markko Vaarnas collectively have decades of experience in market intelligence through their work at GIA, a global strategic market intelligence and advisory group with 11 offices around the world.

"The results of the Global Market Intelligence Survey 2011 by GIA revealed that only 10% of large companies currently run what can be called a world class Market Intelligence program. Many companies have high ambitions for their market intelligence programs but don't have a roadmap on how to get there. So we wrote this book to provide an umbrella view of the entire Market intelligence program - why set one up, whom to serve, how to do it, and how to assess the results. It is based on the collective experience of the authors, which has been based on years of consulting and advising international companies on how to improve their in-house market intelligence capabilities. It also helps answers typical questions from CEOs and boards on 'How are other companies conducting market Intelligence and how do we compare?' or 'Are we investing just enough or too little in market intelligence, in order to be world leading?'."

"In an interconnected world where boundaries between markets, industries and consumers evolve with increasing speed, this book provides a very useful and practical framework to guide the development of a Market Intelligence function that serves as a tool for competitive advantage. The use of multiple and diverse business cases helps to understand the implementation of key concepts and provides a set of practical lessons to facilitate this important journey for any organization," said Carlos Jose Fonseca, Senior Business Leader International Markets Strategy, MasterCard.

"We've used GIA's Key Success Factors framework as we've analyzed our own Intelligence function. It is a very easy way to allow your function to become self-aware, identify your gaps and then build your capabilities in an on-purpose fashion. The KSFs language of "Firefighters to Futurists" makes sense to people outside of an Intelligence function as well, helping your Intelligence function paint a picture of your impact to the organization," said Phil Britton, Market Intelligence Lead, Competitive Strategies Group, Best Buy.

Publisher of award-winning journals, encyclopedias, books, and online publications, Wiley, will be releasing the book globally in October 2011. For academic or professional reviewer copies, please contact Louise Campbell at locampbell(a)wiley.com or +01243 770674.

For more information about the book, please visit the Handbook of Market Intelligence website.

For other information, visit the www.globalintelligence.com or send an email to media(a)globalintelligence.com.