K is a kitchen and bathroom design and installation company which currently has showrooms in one region only of Country T. The company has enjoyed considerable success since it was established five years ago, using high quality products and computer-aided design methods. This has now encouraged K Company to target other regions of Country T where it hopes to open more showrooms.

Explain what would be involved in K Company gathering competitive intelligence information, making reference to the type of information that is required and the different sources that could be used.

The overriding purpose of gathering competitor intelligence is to justify the specific competitive advantage of rival organisations. This would help K Company in developing a better understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of its potential competitors and to help predict competitor behaviour were it to follow by with its plans to open up showrooms in other parts of the country. 

Having identified which part of the country to concentrate on, the first step would needs K Company to make a choice on which competitors it should collect information about. This could be based on which of its competitors it perceives as posing the biggest threat. This is likely to contain both local businesses and other larger "chains" like K Company itself.