With strong opinions and wry humor, world-recognized expert Benjamin Gilad reveals how to anticipate and react to early signs of trouble.

Surprise is rarely a good thing in business. Unexpected developments range in their effects from inconvenient to disastrous. To avoid being blindsided, companies must develop a Competitive Early Warning system, or CEW, which combines strategic planning, competitive intelligence, and management action.

Such systems let organizations manage risk more effectively and prevent "industry dissonance" -- when market realities outpace corporate strategies. Early Warning reveals how to:

• Change strategy to meet new realities
• Learn from the mistakes of others via the book's eye-opening stories
• Avoid common tactics like benchmarking and using consultants, which may do more harm than good
• Tell executives what they need to know -- not what they want to hear

Each chapter ends with a Manager's Checklist of key points, and the book includes numerous charts, tables, and tools.

Ben GILAD (Kfar Saba, Israel) is president of the Fuld-Gilad-Herring Academy of Competitive Intelligence. He has trained the majority of CI managers at Fortune 500 companies. He has been interviewed by "The New York Times, BusinessWeek, The Wall Street Journal," and others.