John received the prestigious Fellows Award in 1998 from the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) and its Meritorious Award, SCIP’s highest award in 2007. He has been a featured presenter at 10 SCIP Annual International Conferences.  John has presented competitive intelligence workshops, seminars and training sessions on 6 continents.Carolyn M. Vella founded The Helicon Group in 1980. The Helicon Group is a global competitive intelligence consulting, training and research firm.  Carolyn received the Meritorious Award in 2003 from SCIP, the highest honor SCIP bestows. The Helicon Group is the only firm with 2 Meritorious Award winners. Carolyn is also co-founder of SCIP’s Women’s Leadership Council.  Carolyn has written numerous articles on business and competitive intelligence topics for publications including Senior Exchange and Mergers & Acquisitions. She is co-author of eight books on competitive intelligence including Improved Business Planning Using Competitive Intelligence, and The Internet Age of Competitive Intelligence. Miss Vella has served as a member of the National Advisory Panels to VOLUNTEER, The National Center For Citizen Involvement

"A book for executives about conducting CI and proactively using intelligence to help make better decisions. ... This how-to manual is presented in clearly-written and carefully-organised text that explains the CI process step-by-step. ... This is a welcome addition to the growing subject literature on competitive intelligence. It is carefully planned and written, and it should serve intelligence practitioners well." (Dale Fehringer, Salus Journal, Vol. 3 (3), 2015) "In short, this book is an extremely detailed, cogent guide for any executive who will be asked to take on competitive intelligence as a competency, duty, or discrete role... Proactive Intelligence is a dense, well organized, concise tome for basically every concept you could possibly encounter in a traditional competitive intelligence role... From definitions of the specific kinds of intelligence - competitive, technical, strategic - to the variety of customers for CI - sales, R&D, product management, mergers & acquisitions - even to the legal and ethical challenges of the field, there really is every concept covered within these pages." (Eric Garland, ericgarland.co, June, 2012)

• What is Competitive Intelligence, and Why Should I Care About It?.- How Can I Get the Right Kind of Competitive Intelligence to Help Me in My Decision Making?.- Should I Try and Develop CI Myself? If So, When?.- What Do I Do with It Once I Have It?.- Useful Resources on Collecting, Analyzing and Using CI.

John received the prestigious Fellows Award in 1998 from the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) and its Meritorious Award, SCIP’s highest award in 2007. He has been a featured presenter at 10 SCIP Annual International Conferences.  John has presented competitive intelligence workshops, seminars and training sessions on 6 continents.Carolyn M. Vella founded The Helicon Group in 1980. The Helicon Group is a global competitive intelligence consulting, training and research firm.  Carolyn received the Meritorious Award in 2003 from SCIP, the highest honor SCIP bestows. The Helicon Group is the only firm with 2 Meritorious Award winners. Carolyn is also co-founder of SCIP’s Women’s Leadership Council.  Carolyn has written numerous articles on business and competitive intelligence topics for publications including Senior Exchange and Mergers & Acquisitions. She is co-author of eight books on competitive intelligence including Improved Business Planning Using Competitive Intelligence, and The Internet Age of Competitive Intelligence. Miss Vella has served as a member of the National Advisory Panels to VOLUNTEER, The National Center For Citizen Involvement

"A book for executives about conducting CI and proactively using intelligence to help make better decisions. ... This how-to manual is presented in clearly-written and carefully-organised text that explains the CI process step-by-step. ... This is a welcome addition to the growing subject literature on competitive intelligence. It is carefully planned and written, and it should serve intelligence practitioners well." (Dale Fehringer, Salus Journal, Vol. 3 (3), 2015) "In short, this book is an extremely detailed, cogent guide for any executive who will be asked to take on competitive intelligence as a competency, duty, or discrete role... Proactive Intelligence is a dense, well organized, concise tome for basically every concept you could possibly encounter in a traditional competitive intelligence role... From definitions of the specific kinds of intelligence - competitive, technical, strategic - to the variety of customers for CI - sales, R&D, product management, mergers & acquisitions - even to the legal and ethical challenges of the field, there really is every concept covered within these pages." (Eric Garland, ericgarland.co, June, 2012)

• What is Competitive Intelligence, and Why Should I Care About It?.- How Can I Get the Right Kind of Competitive Intelligence to Help Me in My Decision Making?.- Should I Try and Develop CI Myself? If So, When?.- What Do I Do with It Once I Have It?.- Useful Resources on Collecting, Analyzing and Using CI.