Craig Fleisher

Craig S. Fleisher is a scholar, advisor and author who has written or edited several important books in the field of business and competitive intelligence and analysis. Before becoming Dean of the Business School at the College of Coastal Georgia, he was awarded two endowed research chair positions while a Professor of Business (Strategy & Environment) at the Odette School of Business, University of Windsor, Ontario, Canada. His research addresses phenomena in the areas of business and competitive intelligence, corporate public affairs (government relations and lobbying), and performance management and measurement. Since 2011 Dr. Fleisher has served as Chief Learning Officer of Aurora WDC.

Fleisher received his PhD in Business from the Katz Graduate School of Business, University of Pittsburgh, his MBA in Human Resource Management and Marketing from the Owen Graduate School of Management, Vanderbilt University, and BSBA in Finance, Insurance and Real Estate from the University of Florida. He also held positions in mortgage banking management, real estate appraisal, and management consulting at various points in his career. After getting his PhD, he took an appointment at the University of Calgary as Associate Professor in the Policy and Environment area, spent nearly a decade in various professorial and program leadership roles at the School of Business and Economics at Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo, Ontario, and was at the University of Windsor in endowed chair position for nearly a decade, following a couple of years in decanal positions at the University of New Brunswick. He serves as a Docent of the Institute of Business Information Management and Logistics at Tampere University of Technology (Finland), is a member of the graduate faculty for the Executive MScom at the Università della Svizzera italiana in Lugano, Switzerland, has also served as a visiting professor or scholar at the University of Sydney (Australia), De Montfort University (Leicester, UK), University of Western Sydney¨and University of Waikato (Hamilton, New Zealand).

He is considered an expert in the business or competitive intelligence and analysis area based on the number of cited pieces (see Google Scholar for the most current citation counts of his work) he has written or the level of sales his writings have achieved, as well as in the area of corporate public affairs where his books have been positively reviewed or named as best-sellers by leading associations and groups in the field. He was globally recognized for his lifetime contributions to the field of competitive intelligence by being named the Meritorious award winner and Fellow of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (Alexandria, Virginia, USA), and his efforts in graduate teaching led him to be named one of Canada’s top MBA professors by Canadian Business Magazine in 2006. He has been interviewed about his expertise and research by leading media outlets for magazines, narrow-cast web publications, newspaper, radio and television in a variety of countries, most notably Australia, Canada, and the USA.

Fleisher’s academic research primarily focuses on two distinct areas of business activity, business and competitive intelligence, and corporate public affairs. Fleisher’s dissertation was in the area of measuring public affairs performance, and his research on public affairs benchmarking, performance measurement, and management is among the most cited according to Google Scholar in this field. His two books on these topics, published in 1995 and 1998 by the Public Affairs Council which is headquartered in Washington, DC were recognized as the Council’s best-sellers at their time. He has also published the 31 chapter large Handbook of Public Affairs (Sage, 2005) with his colleague Phil Harris from University of Chester, United Kingdom.

Since 2000, Fleisher is well known for his work in the area of business and competitive intelligence, particularly in pushing for the professionalization of the field. He has published 3 edited volumes with his Wilfrid Laurier University Marketing professorial colleague David Blenkhorn, those being Managing Frontiers in Competitive Intelligence in 2001 (Quorum Books, an imprint of the Greenwood Publishing Group), Controversies in Competitive Intelligence published in 2003 by Praeger Publishers, and Global Business and Competitive Intelligence in 2005 by Praeger Publishers.

Winner of the international Strategy and Competitive Intelligence Professional's Meritorious Award for his lifetime contributions to the field of competitive intelligence, he may be best known for his two books looking at analysis methods used by consultants and practitioners in applied strategy. This included Strategic and Competitive Analysis with his colleague and fellow Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals Meritorious award winner Babette Bensoussan Babette Bensoussan, Prentice Hall, 2003) and Business and Competitive Analysis also with Bensoussan, FT Press, 2007), and "Analysis without Paralysis". These books provided background and application information for over 50 separate methods of understanding business phenomena and competition, ranging from popular methods like SWOT analysis, financial ratio & statement analysis, critical success factor analysis, issue analysis, and S-curves to less popular but no less important methods including business model analysis, linchpin analysis, and alternative competing hypotheses. These books also address competitor analysis.

In addition to his work in academia, Fleisher has served as President of the Board of Directors of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (Alexandria, Virginia, USA), inaugural chair of the Competitive Intelligence Foundation (Washington, DC) - an organization that he also founded and helped launch with then SCIP Executive Director Alexander Graham, President of the Canadian Council for Public Affairs Advancement, Editor of the Journal of Competitive Intelligence and Management, Associate Editor of the Journal of Public Affairs published by John Wiley & Sons, and on the editorial boards of the International Journal of Technology Intelligence and Planning (Inderscience Publishers), Asia Pacific Public Relations Journal, South African Journal of Information Management, Competitive Intelligence Review, Public Affairs, and SCIP Online. He is also a long-time contributor to the Academy of Management’s Social Issues in Management division, a founding member of the International Association of Business and Society, a life member of the International Association of Business Communicators, an academic board member of the European Centre for Public Affairs, and a 2007 Canadian award-winning faculty advisor for the Golden Key International Honour Society.

Fleisher also speaks globally on his research, having been to over two score different countries in a variety of roles ranging from key-noting conferences and meetings to serving as an authoritative panel member. He regularly shares his research and expertise to corporate groups, executive audiences, professional and trade associations, as well as government departments and officials.

Fleisher is the author of ten books and more than one hundred peer-reviewed academic articles in various journals or academic serials. The following bibliography lists a few of his recent publications:

• Bensoussan, Babette, and Craig S. Fleisher (2013). Analysis without Paralysis: 2nd Edition, London: FT Press.
• Bensoussan, Babette, and Craig S. Fleisher (2009). Financial Times Guides: Analysis for Managers - Effective Planning Tools and Techniques, London: FT Press.
• Fleisher, Craig S., and Babette E. Bensoussan, (2007). Business and Competitive Analysis: Effective Application of New and Classic Methods, London: FT Press.
• Harris, Phil, and Craig S. Fleisher (2005). Handbook of Public Affairs, London: SAGE.
• Blenkhorn, David, and Craig S. Fleisher (2005). Competitive Intelligence and Global Business, Westport, CT: Praeger Publishers.
• Fleisher, Craig S., and Babette E. Bensoussan, (2003). Strategic and Competitive Analysis: Methods and Approaches to Analyzing Business Competition (also translations published in Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and an international edition), Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.
• Fleisher, Craig S. (1997). Assessing, Managing and Maximizing Public Affairs Performance, Washington, DC: Public Affairs Council.
• Fleisher, Craig S. (1995). Public Affairs Benchmarking, Washington, DC: Public Affairs Council.