Competitive Intelligence for Business And Intercultural Communication

Information is the foundation of the contemporary world, being the most valuable capital the company holds. Information is a modern exchange currency. Through his power, she is the master of all fields of activity. Information is a fearsome weapon in the hands of people who know how to use it, and at the same time, it is also an attractive target for competitors through collection operations. Companies need to collect information efficiently and process it quickly, otherwise it disappear because of the aggressive competitive environment.

Many managers work with large amounts of data, not being trained to make a difference between data and information that adds value. Their decisions are based, as a rule, on some knowledge from previous experiences and much “intuition”. During stable periods, making decisions is much based on previous experience, as there are not many changes and the environment is relatively constant. In the meantime, during periods of great and dynamic transformation, past experience is no longer justified and decision- makers need relevant and quick information to help them make the best decisions. Tversky and Kahneman (1974) consider that decisions are often based on options related to the likelihood of occurrence. The role of these subjective probabilities is not insignificant because people tend to make decisions based on past experiences.

In “Knowledge Management in the Intelligence Enterprise”, Edward Waltz explains the transformations that he has gone through since the antiquity. Alvin and Heidi Toffler define the three waves of civilization and transition in the creation of value: the first wave – agrarian, until 1700, was based on the production of the earth; The second wave – industrial, between 1700 and 2000, was based on mass production of goods and the third wave was informational, after 2000, where production of goods and services is based on knowledge. We are in this third wave of civilization and transition and Toffler argues that in the future the focus will be on human knowledge, decision-making and influence. This idea is not new; since ancient times, people have been fascinated to find out what others think, how they think, and what decisions they take to be able to defend or attack. However, in this digital age, information and knowledge gain a special interest and great value because the level of human communication has reached unprecedented odds due to the unprecedented evolution of technology. Everything that surrounds us is information. Knowing how the human mind works can have different goals: from influencing decisions to improving life, through medical applications and devices. In this logic, we can say that the human mind is the last frontier of knowledge.