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About Us > Our Ethical Approach

About AWARE
Our Ethical Approach


AWARE follows a strict ethical code based on the ethical guidelines laid down by the Strategic and Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP).

In addition to the SCIP ethical code, the following principles are adhered to by AWARE and its associates:

AWARE will only engage in legal and ethical approaches to obtaining competitor information and will make no attempt to obtain information that has been classified as a trade secret. (Note that public domain information is not restricted to published information, but can also include information obtained through a variety of research approaches including interviews with competitor employees and employees working for competitor clients as well as others who have direct knowledge of the competitor. Information gathered during such interviews can be used so long as it is not flagged as confidential).

AWARE will always aim to protect client interests and reputation. We will thus not engage in any practices, which could, were they discovered, bring our client's name into disrepute. This includes, but is not limited to practices such as misrepresentation and lying, bribery, "dustbin searches", entrapment and other approaches, which AWARE views as unethical business practices.

In interviews or other direct contacts, AWARE will disclose all relevant information for the purpose of the interview, including the interviewer identity and contact details. However AWARE will never divulge client names or the ultimate research purpose without prior authority from the client.

AWARE will protect client confidentiality and will not use information gathered or learned in one project in any other project. In this context, AWARE recommends and encourages the signing of a confidentiality agreement with clients. This can either be the client's own agreement (if available), AWARE's standard contract or any variation agreed by both parties.

AWARE will always seek to avoid any conflict of interest between clients. As a result, AWARE works with only a single or limited subset of companies within an industry or industry sector and will either turn down work from competing companies of an existing client, or will ensure that the same associate does not work on both companies' projects where any conflict of interest could arise.

Books - Strategic and Competitive Analysis

Recommended Book

Strategic and Competitive Analysis
Strategic and Competitive Analysis: Methods and Techniques for Analyzing Business -
Craig S. Fleisher & Babette Bensoussan
Buy UK £ or US$

Read our review of this book

This book provides an excellent review of the most common techniques of competitive and strategic analysis - giving instructions on how to use each technique, when to use it, and each technique's pros and cons.

The book should be on every strategic planner and competitor analyst's "must have" list and is essential reading for business studies and MBA students. The book covers all the main analysis techniques:

  • the Boston Box
  • financial analysis,
  • Porter Analysis,
  • Value Chain Analysis,
  • Blindspot analysis,
  • SWOT analysis,
  • PEST analysis

and many more.

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For more recommendations visit our book selection.

 

Competitive Intelligence Training

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Finding Competitive Intelligence using Online Sources

AWARE consultants are experts at discovering competitor information online and have developed a market-leading course on Finding Competitive Intelligence using Online Sources. This course has been given as an in-house course to numerous companies across industries (IT, publishing, telecoms, chemicals....) and countries, as well as publicly at SCIP annual and European conferences, the London International Online Information Conferences and other similar events.

The workshop has received high praise for its unique approach to finding competitive intelligence on the Internet. The workshop - available as a half-day summary, full day or 2-day in-depth training course with extensive practical online sessions - teaches attendees how to find actionable competitive intelligence rather than just present a list of sources that quickly date. Like all AWARE's in-house training, the course can be customised to focus on industry or competitive area.

For more information on this workshop and how it can help you become a more effective Internet researcher check out our Competitive Intelligence Training and ask us about our courses on finding CI information.

 


Our services in competitive intelligence research, competitor analysis and CI training will help you integrate and use competitive and marketing intelligence in your business, strategic and marketing planning processes. Whether you need research, advice or training, our mission is to support our clients so that they achieve their growth objectives.

For the best UK & European competitive intelligence and competitor analysis services, contact us today.

AWARE Phone numbers: 0845 430 9125 (International: +44 20 8954 9121). Fax: 0845 430 9126 (International: +44 20 8954 2102)

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Last page / site update: Sunday, February 19, 2012

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