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External Analysis Research

A guide to identifying secondary sources for conducting an analysis of the external environment as part of the strategic planning process.

The Intelligence Cycle

The intelligence cycle is often depicted as a multistep process. The following figure, from Fleisher and Bensoussan's book Business and Competitive Analysis (FT Press, 2007), shows data collection as the second step in this process. Therefore, before you start collecting data, you need to articulate your intelligence needs (or those of your client).

 

Generic Intelligence Cycle