2007 Winter

Compton Presentation Systems: Linking the Traditions of the Past with the Opportunities of the Future

February 1, 2007

by: Dianna Brodine

Compton Presentation Systems has been a presence in the Chicago area since the 1930s, but it’s the more recent history that is making news these days. What was a struggling custom bindery has become a feel-good turnaround story for the entire industry.

Rising From the Ashes

“What we know about Compton’s early years is limited to the contents of a box marked ‘Compton Memorabilia’ sitting on top of our company safe.”

Binding is an old trade, with its roots in glue pots, hand-cut papers, and rough spines. Many of the binderies in this industry are old family businesses, passed down from one generation to the next. In the case of Compton, the name and the industry survive but the early connections have faded.

“From some early brochures we have, we know that Clarence H. Compton initially had a storefront on Chicago’s Northside as a dealer of sample cases, loose leaf binders, report covers, index tabs, sheet protectors, and advertising specialties,” explained Adam Sciortino, the current executive manager of Compton Presentation Systems. “This was back in the late 1930s and it appears that the company initially did no manufacturing, except for possibly adding personalization.”

The 1990s were a decade of rapid growth for the company. In 1995, Compton moved into its current 24,000 square foot facility, which was specifically built for the business. By this time, the company had fully transformed from a dealer of pre-fabricated products into a custom manufacturer, producing nearly all of the products it sold. Heavy investments were made in the plant and equipment, as well as in new products that had no proven market. Unfortunately the company over-extended itself and did not have sufficient resources to weather the business downturn of the early 2000s. Many binderies faced similar industry challenges after September 11th. Consequently, the company declared bankruptcy.

But forces were in play that conspired to bring Compton back from financial distress, like a phoenix rising from the ashes. A local businessman named Peter Fritzsche made the decision to pursue Compton, believing it had the potential to turn around. He made a commitment to bring the decades-old business back to what it had been before its overextension. EAC Industries purchased the assets of Compton from the bankruptcy trustee in May of 2002. EAC is a holding company that, under Fritzsches leadership as CEO, had bought and sold several businesses in graphics and other industries since the late 1970s. Sciortino, who is Fritzsche’s son-in-law, weighed in with insight into the results of that decision: “He may have underestimated the extent of the effort needed to turn the company around. It was a more challenging time in the industry than anticipated, and the business was more management-intensive than expected.” As a result, the turn around of Compton has been a gradual, steady process. Each year since the bankruptcy, the company has built on its base with organic growth and, in February 2006, the purchase of Midland Communications, based in Louisville, Ky. Fritzsche passed away in July 2006, but his vision for Compton’s revitalization lives on. Sciortino acts as the executive manager of Compton, and is joined by Peter’s son, Bartley Fritzsche, who became president of EAC after Peter’s unexpected passing.

The Outlandish, Unusual, and Interesting

“We have a reputation for the outlandish, unusual, and interesting; but there’s not enough business in the country to make a living out of it.”

Sciortino believes that Compton Presentation Systems is probably best known for high-quality and high-end packaging: items that use expensive materials, fancy decoration (including screen printing; foil stamping; deboss and emboss; offset printing on vinyl, paper, or poly; vinyl appliqué; vinyl flow mold; and other special techniques), slick design, special closure features, etc. The creative and unusual projects have paid off in gold and silvers. “Over the past 15 years, we’ve showcased these capabilities in dozens of industry award competitions,” said Sciortino. “We have walls covered with awards from the PIA, BIA, SGIA, and other industry groups.” Compton is obviously proud of these capabilities and achievements, and the recognition has undoubtedly resulted in new business for the company.

Sciortino acknowledged that the custom side of the business, in addition to bringing the company recognition for its speciality work, is also a chance for its creativity and customer service to shine. “The nature of our custom, make-to-order business is a mixture of creative effort on the pre-order side (when we generate ideas with clients and make samples), a good amount of education with clients to help them achieve their vision with something that can be produced within a budget, and attention to detail on the execution side of production. This all gets blended together on a daily basis.”

As appealing as the awards for specialty work are, the custom jobs are often short-run orders. “Work of this sort is not enough to keep the business humming,” explained Sciortino. “We live off a mixture of things, most of them more common. We are very competitive at short, medium, and long-run lengths of more common bread and butter binders, totes, and specialty boxes.”

The company manufactures turned edge products, heat-sealed vinyl products, paperboard products, rigid poly products, and the occasional acrylic or aluminum item. The items made using these methods include binders, menu and report covers, notepads, tote boxes, sales kits, product sample cases, educational tools, index tabs, and the occasional POP display.

For turned-edge work, Compton employs two automatic casemaking machines. Both casemakers handle typical binder sizes, but one also can handle smaller sizes, down to about 5″x 5″, and the other, which was added in late 2005, can process oversize boards. Compton also has a semi-automatic wrapping machine that is well suited for medium runs and multi-panel items. The handwork portions of jobs are completed by employees that Sciortino called, “an excellent crew of experienced crafts people.”

For vinyl products, Compton utilizes heatsealing turntables and a flow molding machine, which allow for highly unique vinyl designs to be molded into expanded vinyl. Other equipment includes diecutting, foil stamping, screen printing, sheeting, and riveting machines. Compton Presentation Systems currently has twenty-eight regular employees, and supplements the workforce with part time employees as needed.

New Sales Team Member: The Internet

“It’s become a helpful catalyst for conversation, generating more inbound phone calls.”

The services offered by Compton Presentation Systems are not necessarily unique in the industry, but Sciotino believes the company, “makes-to-order a wider range of information packaging and specialty packaging than most other firms that are in the make-to-order binder business. We’ve built up expertise in a fairly broad range of materials and production processes.”

For Compton (and many other companies), the challenge is not to create fine products, but to market those products effectively. The company is moving in new directions, using the Internet to expand its sales team. “We serve the commercial printing market, the graphic design/agency market, and the corporate market, in about equal measure,” explained Sciortino. “We sell throughout the U.S., but there is a concentration in Illinois and, since the acquisition of Midland, Kentucky and the surrounding states.” Compton sells to these markets with three dedicated sales people, and more recently with its Internet presence.

In the last quarter of 2006, Compton began experimenting with Internet advertising. The advertising is placed through various ad networks that target buyers in the company’s three core markets and Sciortino believes it’s paying off by generating phone calls from potential customers. Sciortino also admitted, however, that Internet advertising isn’t an instant sales solution. “There’s a learning curve when dealing with callers who don’t know anything about our company.”

The Internet advertising also is driving more traffic to the company’s web site. An extensive web site makeover has recently been completed. “We redesigned it to bring the look up to date and to make it a selling tool,” explained Sciortino. The “Product Portfolio” page contains extensive photos of samples to help potential customers see what can be possible and how it is accomplished. The “Case Studies” section is intended to showcase an interesting product and to help prospective clients better understand how Compton can help them solve their presentation challenges. More changes may be on the horizon, but the company will evaluate the present successes first. “We will be learning what the existing effort is doing for us and what the deficiencies are before making further changes,” said Sciortino.

Challenges in the Loose Leaf Market

“We need to grow by pursuing new markets and by capturing a larger share of the existing market.”

Compton’s roots may be in the loose leaf industry, but the company is keeping its options open for future growth. According to Sciortino, the loose-leaf industry is in the mature stage of the business life cycle and shrinking. “It’s a combination of things, but principally the computer and the Internet have supplanted the traditional styles of holding information. In addition, there are more economical means of binding so loose-leaf isn’t necessarily the cheaper option these days; binding is more efficient than it was twenty years ago.”

So if the loose leaf market is shrinking, where are the opportunities for Compton? Sciortino thinks the company is already moving in the right direction. “We have a variety of other forms of packaging that we do here – specialty heat-sealed items, turned edge packaging, and specialty rigid box and folding carton items, for example. We produce a fair amount of product that will ultimately be sold at retail, such as for the cosmetic industry and the educational market.”

As Sciortino correctly pointed out, the budget is often the determining factor in deciding which presentation material to use. “Certain industries are better able (and willing) to spend the money for an impressive piece. Medical devices, financial, pharmaceutical those industries have the marketing budgets to support high-end specialty packaging,” said Sciortino.

Building on Excellence

“We have been on a four-year growth trend. We intend to continue to grow organically and perhaps by additional acquisition.”

Adam Sciortino is continuing the turnaround of Compton Presentation Systems begun by his father-in-law. Organic growth will be supported by exceptional products, skilled staff, and an eye on the prospects for the industry. What is it about this company that promises so much for the future? Sciortino put it simply: “To boil it down to a few words, we offer superior quality, flexibility, and selection. The reason we are often thought of as ‘the place to go’ when a customer is looking for something special, or high-end, or hard for others to produce is that we are pretty good at combining several skills.” Those skills include working with clients in the concept phase to translate initial ideas into something that can realistically be manufactured within the client’s cost expectations; very high quality workmanship; and skill with a broad range of materials, common and uncommon decorating techniques, and a wide array of form factors.

Compton Presentation Systems has been successful in linking the great traditions of binding’s past with the techniques, equipment, and customer service required to take bold steps into the future of loose leaf.

Bindery Layout Advantages and Benefits

February 1, 2007

by Brad Emerson

Creating layout concepts for bindery shop floors is one of the greatest opportunities for improving quality, operator efficiency, changeover time and planning for future machine expansions or upgrades.

Advantages to Efficient Shop Floor Layouts

1. Improving Quality

How many times has a bindery manager brainstormed ways to increase the frequency with which personnel perform quality control checks? New floor layouts are the perfect opportunity to reduce the footsteps/effort required to QC products while keeping key personnel at or near their primary workstations. As an extra benefit, a positive morale windfall can occur when key personnel realize their managers are considering the footsteps/effort required in a given shift to make as many good books as possible.

2. Operator Efficiency

Revising machine-manning requirements by looking at the current product mix also can be factored into new floor layouts. A bindery that does short runs may benefit from having an operator that can change over a three knife trimmer/mailtable while another operator is changing the binder or stitcher over to the next job. A shop that does very long runs, or has been able to schedule similar size work to lines, can bring primary operator work stations to within a few steps of each other to reduce redundant personnel.

3. Changeover Time

Once the personnel who work in a layout are taken into consideration, the next advantage can be found in the number of pallets or carts/modules of material that can be staged for subsequent machine changeovers. It did not take long after the installation and start-up of the first automated servo perfect binder in the USA to know that material handling would still play a major role in quick changeovers. While a non-automated machine’s mechanical makeready can be eliminated if scheduling permits the same or similar format jobs to be scheduled behind one another, the physics of moving loads in and out does not go away, even with servo motors, JDF, CIP4, streamfeeders, or bundle loaders. Many efficient binderies take material staging to another level by planning for enough space to keep material near the machine for 16-24 hours of production. This additional product staging can protect a bindery’s overall production backlog when job problems occur and a subsequent job on the schedule can be moved up and made ready quickly.

4. Planning for Expansion

Planning for future machine expansions and upgrades can pay huge dividends when the time is taken to factor in floor space. A quick survey of the customers’ wish lists, bindery personnel input, sales reps, and CSRs for future services such as drilling, inkjet addressing, poly wrapping, semi or fully automatic cartoning, and palletizing also can help bring the bindery’s future into focus.

Considering Layout Concepts

In each layout, it must be determined where the unfinished product enters the bindery and where finished products leave. Machine configuration comes next. Typically, the greatest layout opportunity/variable is the conveyor transfer between the adhesive binder, three-knife trimmer, buffer system, inline hardcover, and poly or cartoning equipment, so careful consideration should be given to this capital expense. The all-inclusive packages from new equipment manufacturers will typically include a conveyor transfer with proprietary components and electrical cabinets that local electricians and mechanics cannot easily troubleshoot. End users considering a domestic conveyor solution with domestic components can benefit with reduced capital expense and gain the ability to service (fix your own bindery) with local mechanics or electricians.

Do your homework when tower conveyors have been placed into a layout concept. While the mesmerizing spiral of books can catch people’s attention, often the initial cost is higher, while tower floorspace savings over waterfall and multi-tier concepts is minimal. In addition, the increased maintenance downtime required for removing stretched chain, the high-end speed limitations, the difficulty with book shingling, and the lack of book access with required OSHA or CE guarding in place can make strong arguments for staying with conventional conveyor components.

Buffer systems technology has evolved quite well in recent years. In the last 50 years, the only technology available to keep a line producing books with feeder faults has been the reject gate (or escape gate) on stitchers, gatherers, and inserters. Now, the buffer system has opened up a whole new profit center, depending on a given plant’s product mix and unit cost. With plc logic, book diversion, stacker, slip torque conveyors, and bookblock feeders, upstream and downstream equipment can continue to run for a few minutes while faults are addressed.

New equipment manufacturers may provide layout assistance with no initial cost. The downside is that these layout concepts can be focused narrowly on the manufacturer’s interest to market complete equipment packages, rather than making end users as competitive as possible with minimal capital expense, and proper consideration for an end user’s product mix.

While in the end bindery personnel can always live with the layout constraints and limitations of less imaginative or motivated bindery man-agers, the technology to make proper layouts and “fight the good fight” against foreign competition is more simple than ever. With proper use of today’s web meeting Internet sites, end users can review numerous layout concepts online, and even exchange mouse control to completely interact with layout specialists.

Brad Emerson is the general manager of fixyourownbindery.com, a company specializing in consultation, turnkey used equipment, automation, equipment fabrication, and training. Emerson’s bindery background includes bindery supervision, as well as marketing and consultation with a global bindery equipment leader. For more information, comments, questions, or criticism, please e-mail brad@fixyourownbindery.com.

Custom-made Turned Edge Binders: Judging a Book by Its Cover

February 1, 2007

by: Brad Emerson

It isn’t easy being a custom-made three-ring binder. You rely on the tastes of a total stranger, usually a graphic designer, to somehow make you look good. Then another stranger gets involved just to put you together. Your edges and corners must be true, your backside must look as good as your front, your spine must retain perfect posture, and if that’s not enough – your insides must stay bright and shiny. If all of these things come together properly, you may be cloned again and again. If not, you may be recycled into copier paper or a garden hose or thrown on a scrapheap – alone and forgotten.

And you thought you had stress.

There is a plethora of custom ring binder styles from which a customer can choose today: heat sealed vinyl binders, diecut and scored polyplastic binders, corrugated binderseven alu-minum binders. All can be customized to satisfy a particular presentation need, each filling a niche.

I would, however, speak of yet another style: the turned edge binder.

Artful Production

Custom loose leaf houses are consistently called upon to bring someone else’s creative concept to life. There are no hard and fast rules to manufacturing turned edge binders to someone’s creative specification, other than the Big Five: glues, cover wrap materials, graphic decoration, binders board, and ring mechanisms. Some custom binder manufacturers specialize in large high speed runs of thousands while others specialize in smaller, shorter runs of less then a hundred. And of course, there are manufacturers who fill all of the cracks and gaps between. Regardless of their size, however, all manufacturers share a common process for manufacture, and that process is referred to as “Turned Edge”.

The manufacture of a turned edge binder is essentially the art of case making. Edition binderies and book binderies marry case made (or turned edge) covers with a book block, whereas custom loose leaf manufacturers marry their case made covers with liners, pockets, and ring mechanisms. It is normally up to the ring binder buyer to add his or her own loose leaf text block at his location, or request that the custom loose leaf manufacturer do it before the binders are packaged for shipping.

Simply put, a turned edge binder is made by applying a thin layer of glue to the underside of a book wrap, and mounting it to binders board (chipboard) by turning the edges of the book wrap over the outside perimeter of the binders board. This “case” is then passed through a smoothing press or hand boned to complete adhesion. After drying, the wrapped and turned case is lined with a glued liner sheet or sheets. The binder case is made.

The ring mechanisms are mounted to the spines or back covers (depending on ring shape and customer preference), boxed, palletized, and shipped.

Sounds easy, doesn’t it? So does jumping on a Brahma Bull and lasting a mere eight seconds. What happens when the glue doesn’t set, or the board warps, or the foil doesn’t hot stamp properly on the front cover, or the customer wants a specially shaped pocket you’ve never produced before? And the binders are due next week? Or tomorrow? Good grief Charlie Brown!

Fortunately, there is a deep bench of intelligent, experienced turned edge manufacturers available for you to call on. Some of these companies are relatively new, while some have been the backbones (pun intended) of the industry for decades. All, however, have a staff that has learned the art of turned edge by being trained by a mentor – with a little trial and error thrown in along the way. The skill sets necessary to succeed aren’t available “off the shelf”. One must learn it, work at it, and pass it on.

Before the ever prolific vinyl binder caught on, and the RF technology necessary to heat seal them was developed, there were turned edge binders. Prior to the 1960s, ring binders were case made with canvas- or buckram-wrapped book coverings. We remember them as a standard issue blue or green. They were heavy, chunky binders made for archival and filing purposes.

In the 1980s, as the personal computer was introduced and the resulting need for software forged an entirely new set of consumer products, turned edge binders began to return to popularity. As adhesives were improved and developed, new book cloth and binder wrap materials became available, making turned edge a viable competitor to all other styles of loose leaf covers.

Please Be Tacky!

The turned edge, or case making process is a wet process. No tapes or dry adhesives can efficiently do a proper job. Most manufacturers use a hot protein, or hide glue (yes, THAT kind of hidemoo!), to mount the outside binder sheets to the binders board, and a white cold glue to mount the liners to the inside of the cases. There are many exceptions to this of course, but hide glue is generally perceived to run cleaner in high speed case making equipment and frankly, small producers like the ease of clean up it provides as well. Hide glue is the traditional bookbinders glue.

White cold glues are made of vinyl-based products, have a high water content, and adhere to almost anything. This is important for a custom house always under the gun with tight scheduling. Being able to adhere to almost anything takes the unpredictability out of gluing liners over the turned edges of the diverse amount of binder wrap materials available today. A liner sheet that has been glued with white glue will most assuredly mount over the various turned edge surfaces and adhere smoothly over the binders board as well. Good, good, good.

A glue’s “open time”- the time from glue application to glue tackiness to glue set up – is of paramount importance. Hide glue can be finessed into increasing or decreasing its open time more readily than white glue by adding or holding off on water in the glue chamber. White glues can be fine-tuned to a lesser degree, and some custom loose leaf manufacturers have become so adept at using white glues that they don’t use hot hide glues at all. Sometimes the glue manufacturers can produce a glue for a particular application or machine as well.

If the open time is not well considered, the turned edges on the case will curl and pull up or encourage the entire board to warp. The faster your equipment, the more important this element of production becomes. It is expensive and inefficient to run through several hundred cases only to discover an adhesion problem. Bad, bad, bad.

Judging a Book by Its Cover

As a method for customized loose leaf binder construction, the turned edge style is quite versatile. The outside covers and spines can be wrapped with a dizzying array of materials: bonded leathers, traditional fiber or book cloth, resin coated or resin impregnated book wrap papers, silky fabrics, and imitation leathers. There are digitally and offset printed litho label paper stocks that are film laminated over the printed side of the wrap sheet, and there are materials used as binder wraps that can be categorized only as “other”: kraft paper, crepe paper, uncoated printing papers, and man-made synthetic papers to name a few.

The outside material to be used on any particular project is typically driven by a graphic design “want” and a functional “need”. Uncoated kraft paper may make for a terrific raw-looking binder, but only if it’s to be used a few times and then put on a shelf. Uncoated papers, of any kind, do not hold up well in the field and weren’t designed to be glued and wrapped over binder cases. Uncoated papers can be employed if its discussed, and customers are able to manage their functional expectations.

Traditional book cloth wraps and book wrap papers can be screenprinted, foil stamped or debossed for elegant simple presentations. These materials are used by designers when the texture and overall look of the book wrap is crucial to the design. Sometimes they are agreed upon by consensus between the designer and the manufacturer after field use is considered. What the designer wants may not work with the functional need the binder will require.

The digital or offset printed litho label binder wraps are used when only a full color or precise graphic reproduction is necessary. Digital presses are great for smaller quantities, affording full-color graphics on turned edge binders – at a competitive price point not available even five years ago. There are sheet size limitations on many (but not all) of these presses, requiring the binder manufacturer to be creative in satisfying his customer’s needs. A full color digitally printed front and back cover can each fit onto a press sheet of its own, while the spines can be over glued with a complementary book cloth, thereby completing the case wrap in what is sometimes referred to as half-binding.

Four color process offset printing is the norm for longer runs and larger sized cases. The printing (as on the digital sheets) can bleed off the edge, but because offset presses can deliver larger size press sheets, graphics can be placed efficiently over the entire binder case. The liners can be included on the same press sheet if a matching, or graphically enhanced liner, is specified.

Board is Not Boring

The binders board used in a particular production run is usually tied to the size of the case being made. The larger the case ordered, say a 2-3″ capacity ring binder, the heavier the binders board should be, up to 120 pt. or more. The typical 1″ or 1 1/2″ turned edge binder case is usually made with 80 or 100 point board.

An extremely popular turned edge binder technique today is the creased spine. Powerful creasing machines allow the custom loose leaf house to wrap only one piece of binders board instead of the traditional three pieces (front, back, and spine), which increases production speeds. After the boards are wrapped and lined, the spines are creased into place. Customers usually can choose between flat spines (two creases) or rounded spines (multi creases). Not only does a creased spine provide terrific durability and stability to a binder case, but it offers another creative tool for a graphic designer to employ.

But Wait, There’s More!

A well made turned edge binder is a pleasure to behold. Not only can a turned edge binder be graphically designed to include multiple layers of decoration, but it can be fitted with eyelets, printed metal labels can be riveted onto the covers or spine, and finger rings can be added for easy removal from a book shelf. Turned edge binders can be made with a combination of materials, such as a laminated litho label front and back cover and a spine over glued with a bonded leather. Pockets can be face glued into the covers, and CD/DVD slots can be diecut and integrated into the inside covers. Turned edge binders can be made to hold any sized text or document, and can be done so in any quantity efficiently.

They can be dignified and elegant and made to look at home in the finest libraries, or they can be colorful and sassy and used for one presentation only. The turned edge binder is versatile, durable, and

Keep Your Eye on the Competition

February 1, 2007

by: Richard Ensman

Hear the term “competitor intelligence,” and you may visualize sinister activities like industrial espionage, electronic eavesdropping, and other shadowy phenomena that smack of poor ethics or illegality.

Typical competitor intelligence gathering techniques, however, are not at all like this. Rather, they’re based on common-sense research principles, and usually involve public information available to any wise business person willing to seek it out.

Competitor intelligence is far from a luxury and, at times, may even be a critical ingredient of business success today. Think about it: only through knowledge of your competitors’ products, market penetration, and strategic strengths can you effectively position your own products and services in the marketplace.

Analyzing the Competition: What to Look For

The secret to effective competitor analysis is to identify exactly what you need to know, and zero in on that data crisply and efficiently. Then, you can use that information to help achieve your own business objectives. Here are some common questions you might answer through a competition analysis:

What are the unique selling propositions of my competitors? What can they do that I can’t?
What are my competitors’ customer service capabilities?
Where are the gaps and weaknesses in my competitors’ business operations? How can I turn these into competitive strengths of my own?
How do my competitors’ prices fare in relation to mine? Do prices vary from season to season? What discount programs do they make available?
What key marketing strategies do my competitors pursue? Do they tend to focus on particular segments of the buying population?
What is the quality of my competitors’ products? Do customers perceive this level of quality?
How do my competitors perceive me?
How would I describe the financial posture of my chief competitors? Can I estimate their profit margins? Are their behind-the-scenes operations more or less efficient than mine? Are competitors’ costs being soaked up in some way?
What distribution channels do my competitors use? Who are the middlemen? How fast is distribution?
Who supplies my competitors? What unique financial arrangements do my competitors have with suppliers?
What is my competitor’s market share? Is it going up or down? Why?
What is my competitors’ vision of the future? Does it include expansion plans?

Searching for Answers

Now, you have a list of things you want to know about the competition. How do you find the answers? An amazing variety of information about your competitors is available at your fingertips right now. As a simple starting point, know your trade. This means reading industry and local business publications (which may cover your competitors) and listening to competitor scuttlebutt in your community.

To continue your investigation, begin to inspect your competitors’ advertising in both consumer and trade media. You’ll learn about their product line and capabilities. At trade shows, stop by the booths of your competitors. They’ll be putting their best foot forward here. Pick up their literature and observe their product displays. And if you notice that your competitor is making a presentation at a trade meeting, don’t miss the opportunity to attend.

Go a step further and conduct a formal competition survey. Call or write your competitors, requesting product and pricing information. Observe the speed and nature of the responses you receive, and the content of any ensuing contacts your competitors make. A step further still: consider a service analysis, using a “mystery shopper” or “mystery customer.” This shopper, a trained employee or consultant, can visit or call competitors with pointed questions about product quality, delivery, past performance, or specific issues youre concerned about. The answers will often reveal information about your competitors’ philosophy, product performance, and market strategies.

At times, you may need to gather in-depth qualitative information on your competitors. This is the type of information you can obtain only by talking with other people. Make a list of questions you’re trying to answer: questions about new product lines, weaknesses in the market, or service response, for instance. Pose those questions to your peers, or to the peers of your friends and colleagues in other industries. Next, move to your suppliers, who may have extensive information about your competitors. And don’t hesitate to take the opportunity to chat with prospective employees about their experiences with your competitors.

As you ponder all these business intelligence opportunities, remember that you need not – and should not – pursue all of them. The secret is to identify a select few intelligence-gathering strategies that you can call your own. Work those strategies into your day-to-day routine – say, by making it a point to ask a competitor-related question or two of a visiting sales rep or spending time gathering competitor information from the Internet once a month. The result: you’ll learn how to stay a step or two ahead of your competition and you’ll learn more about your own hidden business potential as well.