Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals
Encyclopedia
The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) - (SCIP Changes Name to Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals) is a global nonprofit membership organization designed to enhance the skills of knowledge professionals in order to help their companies. Its mission is to enhance the success of its members through leadership, education, advocacy, and networking or "lean." It is one of the only global membership organizations in the field of competitive intelligence, and provides the field's only regularly published academic journal (Journal of Competitive Intelligence and Management, previously the Competitive Intelligence Review) amongst its publications as well as a large single annual gathering of CI stakeholders at its annual international meeting and exposition.

SCIP provides education and networking opportunities for business professionals working in the field of competitive intelligence — the legal and ethical collection and analysis of information regarding the capabilities, vulnerabilities, and intentions of business competitors. In other words, companies need "peripheral vision" which involves oblique impressions about what competitors are doing."

Members are made up of four primary constituencies, including but not limited to corporate practitioners, consultants, vendor/suppliers, and academics. Corporate practitioners make up the largest percentage of the four groups

It is governed by a member-elected board of directors who serve three-year terms. Joe Goldberg of Motorola
Motorola
Motorola, Inc. was an American multinational telecommunications company based in Schaumburg, Illinois, which was eventually divided into two independent public companies, Motorola Mobility and Motorola Solutions on January 4, 2011, after losing $4.3 billion from 2007 to 2009...

 is the 2008 President of the SCIP Board and Martha Gleason is the 2008 Vice President . It also has a staff of approximately ten association professionals, led by an executive director, who provide membership services, educational and networking administration, communication management, meetings services, among other services. The organization hosts a CI career board on its web site, as well as sponsors three regular publications, including the Competitive Intelligence Magazine (monthly, paper publication), SCIP Online (24x/yr via e-mailed distribution), and Journal of Competitive Intelligence and Management http://www.scip.org/08_jcim_ls.php (quarterly, digital publication, edited by Sheila Wrighthttp://www.dmu.ac.uk/faculties/business_and_law/business/marketing/mk_staff_sheilawright.jsp and Roberta Brody) .

SCIP currently has over two-dozen chapters in the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 and Canada, international chapters in Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...

 and Italy
Italy
Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, active international groups in Argentina
Argentina
Argentina , officially the Argentine Republic , is the second largest country in South America by land area, after Brazil. It is constituted as a federation of 23 provinces and an autonomous city, Buenos Aires...

, Brazil
Brazil
Brazil , officially the Federative Republic of Brazil , is the largest country in South America. It is the world's fifth largest country, both by geographical area and by population with over 192 million people...

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

, Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....

, and UK, among others, and individual members in more than 50 nations. SCIP has alliance partnerships with independent affiliate organizations in many countries. SCIP's membership has grown to more than 3,000 worldwide as of late 2007.

SCIP has been holding an annual meeting for over twenty years, as well as European summit meetings for over ten - the last being in Rome
Rome
Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

 (2008) and the next being in Amsterdam
Amsterdam
Amsterdam is the largest city and the capital of the Netherlands. The current position of Amsterdam as capital city of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is governed by the constitution of August 24, 1815 and its successors. Amsterdam has a population of 783,364 within city limits, an urban population...

. Its 2009 annual conference and exhibition was held in Chicago
Chicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...

 from April 22-24. Jim Collins, the top-selling author of Good to Great: Why Some Companies Make the Leap... and Others Don't, was this year's keynote speaker. SCIP offers a number of awards that recognize outstanding contributions across the field of competitive intelligence.

The association also annually honors individuals who provide outstanding contributions to the competitive intelligence community and field through four awards programs, namely the Meritorious Award, Fellows Award, Catalyst Award, and Faye Brill Service Award. The Society is currently working on developing a competitive intelligence body of knowledge, under the direction of Dr. John Prescott at the University of Pittsburgh
University of Pittsburgh
The University of Pittsburgh, commonly referred to as Pitt, is a state-related research university located in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. Founded as Pittsburgh Academy in 1787 on what was then the American frontier, Pitt is one of the oldest continuously chartered institutions of...

,with intended completion early in 2009 .

Historical development

In 1986 the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals was founded in the Washington, DC area through the efforts of a number of local and national intelligence practitioners. The earliest members of the association derived from the corporate community, academe, and public sector. It is currently headquartered in Alexandria, Virginia. In December 2005, through the efforts of Dr. Craig Fleisher
Craig Fleisher
Craig S. Fleisher is a researcher and author who has written or edited several important books in the field of business and competitive intelligence and analysis...

and the Society's then Executive Director Alexander Graham, SCIP founded the Competitive Intelligence Foundation (CIF) . The CI Foundation conducts and supports research on emerging issues and key trends that affect the practice of competitive intelligence and its ability to support key decision-makers and their organizations. The CI Foundation also makes existing and developing competitive intelligence knowledge visible, available, and relevant to the competitive intelligence practitioner through targeted publications including handbooks, studies, and survey reports. Dr. Fleisher served as the inaugural chair of the CIF, and has since been followed by Dr. Martha Matteo and Joe Goldberg. Martha Gleason chairs the CIF in 2008 .

On July 8th the SCIP (www.scip.org ) Board of Directors voted to officially change the 25-year-old non-profit organization`s name from "Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals" to "Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals". This modification reflects the developing evolution of the competitive intelligence (CI) profession to support executive decision-making and firmly acknowledges the relationship between competitive intelligence and strategy..

External links

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