Competitive intelligence challenges faced by South African pharmaceutical companies

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this article is to determine the current situation regarding the South African pharmaceutical industry’s competitive intelligence (CI) capacity. Questionnaires were send to senior managers in the industry. Respondents confirmed that CI is used on a continuous basis in strategic decision-making while the majority of respondents acknowledged a partial CI portfolio in the industry. Staff attending conferences and was the most popular primary source and trade literature the most popular secondary source. Blind-spot analysis is seldom used as an analysis method and this is a concern, as it is part of the analysis toolkit necessary to glean intelligence.