“Competitive intelligence is a process of gathering data, creating information and making decisions. Management accountants are trained to gather data, assimilate data into information and make decisions based upon information, frequently with their management counterparts.” – Justify the statements.

The above statement is related to the Role of Management Accountant in Competitive Intelligence. Competitive intelligence may also be viewed as a competitiveness audit, a concept that management accountants are familiar with. Management accountants‘ training and experience make them well-suited to the requirements of the competitive intelligence process. Management accountants may be actively involved in introducing a competitive intelligence process in several ways:
(i) Identifying the need for a new or improved competitive intelligence process;
(ii) Educating top management and other senior managers about that need;
(iii) Developing a plan along with cross-functional team members for designing, developing and implementing the new, improved competitive intelligence practice, including its underlying architectures;
(iv) Identifying the appropriate tools and techniques for conducting competitor analysis;
(v) Providing financial input, analysis and expertise to the competitive intelligence effort;
(vi) Contributing to and using competitive intelligence in target costing;
(vii) Ensuring that the competitive intelligence efforts are tied to the firm‘s goals, strategies, objectives and internal processes, as appropriate; and,
(viii) Continually assessing the new, improved competitive intelligence process and its implications for the organization and continually improving the process.