One payoff of gathering competitive intelligence about rivals' strategies, their financial performance, their competitive strengths and weaknesses, the actions and plans they have announced, and the thinking and leadership styles of their executives is improved ability to

determine which rivals have the best strategies and what elements of their strategies really need to be copied and implemented.

determine which strategic group the company needs to be in$.$

determine the best strategy for the company to employ.

predict whether competitive pressures are likely to weaken, remain unchanged, or intensify in the months and years just ahead.

reduce the risk of being caught napping by the surprise moves of rivals and suffering a damaging loss of sales and profits.