1. Do you know your competitors and do you have up-to-date profiles of them?

2. Do you analyze your competitors' actions and plans? 

3. Are you up-to-date with emerging technologies in the field of your business and the features and benefits of these technologies? 

4. Are your employees aware of the benefits of business intelligence and market knowledge, and do they regularly report information relating to emerging technologies and competitors to management? 

5. Do you train your staff to continually gather and report information from your customers relating to their problems, product and service needs, and industry trends? 

6. Does your management team maintain a network of external industry contacts to help them gather and interpret business intelligence information? 

7. Is your business cognizant of new and pending government legislation and legislative trends that would impact your business? 

8. Before launching a new product, do you carry out formal market research and reviews to address issues such as competitiveness, market size, price points and barriers to entry of a competitor? 

9. Do you validate key competitive information with two or three independent sources before making significant business decisions? 

10. Do you develop quarterly and annual trade show, conference and industry meeting attendance plans that include the detailing of your business intelligence and information needs? 

11. Have you established a proprietary information protection plan to safeguard your company's private information and has your business clearly outlined its expectations in this regard to its employees? 

12. Do you inform your employees regularly about the legal aspects of obtaining market intelligence information and provide them with ethical guidelines with respect to gathering such information?