KEY POSITION OF COMPETITIVE INTELLIGENCE IN THE PRESENT STRATEGIC DECISION MAKING OF COMPANIES

The purpose of this paper is to identify present problems of application of Competitive Intelligence methods in strategic decision making of companies in the conditions of rapidly changing competitive environment. We defined the term Competitive Intelligence theoretically and described its functions and the process of transformation of data into information, knowledge and intelligence report. The aim of this paper is to point to limits of information systems of companies which often focus on evaluation of past and present facts. Today, strategic thinking requires processing of related data that are necessary to evaluate the potential of company's growth or early warning about sudden development trends in competition markets. In conclusion, we summarized predicative approaches that shift Competitive Intelligence more towards the centre of strategic management of companies.