Rating: 
Summary: Excellent!! Highly Recommended
Review: If this is the FIRST book you read on Competitive Intelligence - it is not that bad; It covers much ground at a fast pace. However, if you have read any of the other books out on CI (Fuld's CI Blue Monster, or even Michael Porter's On Competition) this book is rehashed material that is too elementary to gain any sort of knowledge to furtherer your CI knowledge base. I commend the authors for a good start - but was hoping for much more detail.
Rating: 
Summary: If you want to know more about CI - buy other books!
Review: If this is the FIRST book you read on Competitive Intelligence - it is not that bad; It covers much ground at a fast pace. However, if you have read any of the other books out on CI (Fuld's CI Blue Monster, or even Michael Porter's On Competition) this book is rehashed material that is too elementary to gain any sort of knowledge to furtherer your CI knowledge base. I commend the authors for a good start - but was hoping for much more detail.
Rating:
Summary: Becoming a participant in the Intelligence Age
Review: Kahaner discusses how to collect and make information into useful intelligence. He discusses the kinds of people you might be working with in this endeavor and why. If you are going to make it in the age of intelligence, you are going to have to be able to provide others with useful intelligence. Kahaner tells you how.I agree with the other reviewers, this book is a must read.
Rating:
Summary: This book delivers the goods!
Review: Kahaner's book is the definitive guide to Competitive Intelligence. It explains how to do, why you should do it and what happens if you don't. Companies large and small can benefit from its lessons. Don't read it at your peril.
Rating: 
Summary: Still not the definitive CI book.The best of the pack so far
Review: Larry Kahaner has produced a book that touches almost all of the bases and provides a good primer to begin one's CI education. Part 1 held out the promise of a quality text but this standard fell somewhat in the middle stages of the book when he discussed the practicalities of the Intelligence Cycle. He finished strongly however and has produced a good base from which others can carry the CI 'flame' forward. I liked the use of the case studies, which were relevant, topical and illuminated the points that Larry was trying to make. To my mind the coverage of both the Directive and Processing phases of the Intelligence Cycle were quite 'thin'. I felt that, as these two phases are the most difficult to establish, they needed further elaboration, and were a little 'underdone'. More could have been said about establishing a focused and responsive Directive Phase with listed common negotiation points and a schematic of feedback loops and process designs between CI 'customers' and CI professionals. Likewise the Processing Phase was fairly lightweight with only the hoary old SWOT analysis and a little on Pattern analysis and War-gaming given as typical analysis tools. Little was said about practical information and intelligence handling, logging, collation tools, or how to use the emerging range of analysis IT tools such as Netmap or Watson to name but a few. The potential blind alley of 'Data Warehousing' and the operational use of Meta-data, database pruning policy, and a host of other key topics were missing from the book. At least Larry mentioned OPSEC, which I was heartened to see and for that I am willing to overlook some of the other weaknesses in the book. I found the discussion of 'foreign' CI development well done as were the arguments justifying the corporate costs of CI. There was a little US flag waving towards the end of the book, however most non-Americans will forgive this I am sure. In all a good basic beginning with which to establish one's CI education. Value for money and a book that I would recommend to any CI library.
Rating:
Summary: Not as earth-shattering as other reviews suggest
Review: Perhaps the CI field and available information on this topic have matured substantially in the years since this book was written. Although it is a good basic introductory text for those without a knowledge-base in this area, the contents aren't as mind-blowing as other reviewers suggest. If you've touched on the BI/CI fields and have already read some information (eg through the SCIP site, CIA site or other CI providers) you might not gain a lot by reading this book. Additionally, the book's closing is somewhat weak talking about how wonderful an information/intelligence-rich future society will be and how organisations will quickly react to intelligence gleaned from secondary sources such as newspapers (!)
Rating:
Summary: Best Book
Review: The best book I have read in a year. Starting from the first chapter, I was thinking, I made a very good choice by getting this book. Very highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: The best book about competitive intelligence
Review: The discipline of competitive intelligence is new and confusing, but Kahaner makes it easy to understand. His real life examples are excellent and his writing is clear and crisp. After reading this book, our managers were able to institute some of his how-to ideas and it has saved us money. I highly recommend this book to anyone who wants to understand what competitive intelligence is all about.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent!! Highly Recommended
Review: This book covers a lot of ground and does it well. Kahaner makes the sometimes hard to understand world of CI easy and attainable. I was able to turn his concepts into real positive change for my company.
Rating:
Summary: Very Good Primer On CI
Review: This book covers a wide range of topics and is extremely helpful for the professional manager to understand, adopt and apply competitive intelligence practices to support their business plans. The professional CI practitioner may find this book to be a bit light.
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