for Richard Telofski
. . . author of the ground-breaking book, Insidious Competition, The Battle for Meaning and the Corporate Image, that discovers the people and groups who redefine the meaning of your company’s image by using the ever-increasing power of social media. Learn who they are, what makes them tick, how they “compete” with your company, and what to do about them.
Expertise:
Education:
M.B.A. Marketing, Rider University
Professional History:
Current:
Previous:
- Principal Consultant – eBusiness Analysts
- President – The Becker Research Company, Inc.
- Senior Project Manager – New Jersey Economic Development Authority
- Lecturer – Georgian Court University & Monmouth University
Media Interviews:
- “Competitive Sleuth – Survival Guide,” U.S. 1 Newspaper (Princeton, NJ) – May 6, 1992, p.4
- “Intelligence Chief Prefers Research Over Spying,” The Courier Post (Cherry Hill, NJ) – May 24, 1992
- “Firm Digs Out Data on Clients’ Competition,” The Princeton Packet (Princeton, NJ) – June 2, 1992, p. B1
- “Competitive Intelligence Pro Digs for Packaging Secrets,” Shelf Presence Magazine – January 1994
- “Getting the Low-Down on Competition,” The Times (Trenton, NJ) – February 25, 1994, p. D1
- “We’re Afloat in Facts,” The Princeton Packet (Princeton, NJ) – November 13, 1996, p. 1
- “Conehenge,” Interviewed on WOND-AM, Pleasantville, NJ – June 26, 2004
- “Conehenge,” Interviewed on WCTC-AM, New Brunswick, NJ – November 19, 2004
- “Creating Art for a Masculine Audience,” The Cranbury Press (Cranbury, NJ) – January 7, 2005, p. 1
- “Pushing Local Business by Drawing on Nostalgia,” Bucks County Courier Times (Levittown, PA) – February 2, 2005, p. B1
- “Welcome to Conehenge,” The Princeton Packet (Princeton, NJ) – February 25, 2005, Lifestyle Section, p. 17A
- “Conehenge; The Story of Roger, the Jersey Schlub,” Commuter Week (Palisades Park, NJ) – March 7, 2005, p. 1
- “Former Corporate Drone Draws on Experiences,” The Home News Tribune (New Brunswick, NJ) – Saturday, March 19, 2005, p B1
- “Finding Inspiration in the Freezer Aisle,” The New York Times – Sunday, March 20, 2005, Arts & Entertainment, p. 10
- “Plainsboro Artist is Amused by New Jersey,” The Home News Tribune (New Brunswick, NJ) – Sunday, June 4, 2006, p. D6
- “The Success of the Schlub,” The Times (Trenton, NJ) – Sunday, October 15, 2006, p. E1
- “Conehenge,” Interviewed on WDVR-FM, Delaware Township, NJ – June 2006
- “Insidious Competition,” Interviewed on News 91.9, CKNI Radio, Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada – Tuesday, August 3, 2010 (Afternoon Drive Time). Listen to a clip from the interview by clicking here. (Clip courtesy of Rogers News 91.9. Used with permission.)
- “The Dark Side of Social Networks” Interviewed on “London in the Afternoon with Alan Coombs” on CJBK Radio, London, Ontario, Canada – Thursday, August 5, 2010 (Afternoon Drive Time). Listen to the interview by clicking here.
- “The Other Side of Social Media” Interviewed on “The Geoff Currier Show” on CJOB Radio, Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada – Tuesday, August 17, 2010 (Mid-Morning Show). Listen to the interview by clicking here. (Then, select August 17, 2010 – 10AM. Interview starts about 15 minutes in.)
- “The Dark Side of Social Media,” Interviewed on “The Morning Wake-Up Call” on WRHU-FM, Hempstead, New York – Thursday, August 19, 2010 (Morning Drive Time). Listen to the interview by clicking here. (Clip courtesy of WRHU. Used with permission.)
- “The Insidious Competitors in Social Media,” Interviewed on “Pete & Jan in the Afternoon” on WRJN, Racine, WI – Monday, August 23, 2010 (Mid-Day Show).
- “Insidiously Competitive Social Media,” Interviewed on “Mercer County Close-Up” on WZBN-TV, Trenton, NJ – Wednesday, September 1, 2010. Watch the interview. (Clip used with permission.)
- “Social Media: The Deadliest Corporate Enemy,” The Toronto Sun – Tuesday, September 21, 2010.
- “How to Protect Your Business from Terrible Taggers and Mommy Bloggers,” ITBusiness.ca -Tuesday, September 21, 2010.
- “Why Social Media Could Be the Biggest Enemy of Your Business,” Central Valley Business Times, Monday, October 11, 2010. Listen to interview by clicking here.
- “Terrorists . . . Pirates . . . and Mommies!,” AffiliatePortalSite.com, Monday, November 15, 2010. Listen to interview by clicking here.
- “Double Agent – Recognizing Your Real Competition,” TrendPOV.com, Friday, January 7, 2011, Watch the interview by clicking here.
Quoted/Referenced In:
- “Plagiarism: What It Is and How To Avoid It,” June 2002
- Bottom Line Competitive Intelligence, September 2002
- “Survey: Financial Planners See Blogging as an Effective Marketing Tool,” Financial Planner Home, May 29, 2008
- “Financial Planner Blogs an Effective Marketing Tool : New Survey,” Real Lawyers Have Blogs, May 30, 2008
- “American Financial Planners Suffer an Opportunity Cost, Says Study by Kahuna Content,” June 11, 2008
- “6 Essential Reasons Why You Need a Chiropractic Blog,” April 22, 2009
- “Irregular Competition: the Newest Threat,” Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals
- “BP’s Oiled Pelicans: ‘They Look Like Dead Angels in the Sand,’ ” The Huffington Post, July 24, 2010
- “Killer Campaigns.” TubesCodeContent.com, October 11, 2010.
- “Pranksters Deal Out Corporate Headaches,” FoxBusiness.com, October 22, 2010.
- “Why Your Business Needs a Community Manager,” ITBusiness.ca, October 25, 2010.
- “5 eCompetitive Intelligence Assessment Points For Facebook Pages,” Intelegia, August 15, 2011
- “Finally – Real Journalism on NGOs,” NoFrakkingConsensus.com, December 14, 2011
- “Finally - Real Journalism on NGOs,” Men’s News Daily, December 14, 2011
- “Filthy Lucre: Greenpeace Rewards Executives at Expense of Rank & File,” JunkScience.com, December 23, 2011
Books Published:
Fast Food for E-Business Marketers
High Street Press, 1999, 100 pages, ISBN 0-9674442-0-9 (Currently out-of-print)
Written at the dawn of the Internet meets business age, Fast Food for eBusiness Marketers gets to the heart of understanding the applications of the Internet to business pursuits. This book is written for beginners and intermediates alike.
Based on the ten concepts that make ebusiness fly, I set out rules by which marketers can navigate and profit. Short, punchy, and to-the-point, Fast Food for eBusiness Marketers gets to the nitty-gritty so that businesses of all sizes can use its information to drive their ebusiness or ecommerce efforts.
A quick read for anyone wanting to learn more about doing business on the Internet. Gather knowledge about how, why, where, and when the Internet works best in your business and learn about who is affected by it.
Currently out-of-print. Watch for updates.
Dangerous Competition, Issues in eCompetitive Intelligence
iUniverse, 2001, 160 pages, ISBN 0-595-17692-5, US$16.95 (paperback)
Using a punchy and take-no-prisoners style to look at the process of evaluating a business competitor at the dawn of the 21st century, Dangerous Competition blazes new ground and, in its journey, awakens the reader as to what truly makes a competitor dangerous here in the electronic age.
Concentrating not on the “physical corporation” but rather on the “virtual competitor,” Dangerous Competition examines the issues critical to the analysis of intelligence obtained about an ebusiness competitor. Rather than simply looking at the competitive intelligence retrieval process, a place where so many books have gone before, Dangerous Competition takes a different road and tells the reader what they should be looking for in the ebusiness competitor, what it means, and why it makes that competitor dangerous.
Still so relevant in today’s Web 2.0 world.
Available at Amazon.com. Click here.
Conehenge, The Story of a Jersey Schlub
Kahuna Content, 2006, 185 pages, ISBN 0-967-4442-1-7, US$18.95
In this work, I called upon my business experience to take a fun look at the trials and tribulations of commerce. Using a comic strip format, readers of Conehenge will learn about Roger Kruger, an ordinary New Jersey guy who, after 20 years of unending daily nonsense in a huge company, turns from “corporate dweebness” and gets in touch with his “Inner Roger” to start his own small business. That small business is a magazine which Roger names “Conehenge.” The strips chronicle Roger’s path through everyday small business insanity and his quest in making a semi-honest buck.
Available at Comixpress.com. Click here.
Insidious Competition, The Battle for Meaning and the Corporate Image
iUniverse, 2010, 396 pages, ISBN 9781450229104, List Prices: US$26.95 (paperback), US$36.95 (hard cover), US$9.99 (Kindle)
Social media presents a threat like one never known to business before. Social media are the 21st century gossip factories; it’s the modern day equivalent of “back fence chit chat.” Social media are today’s coffee clotch discussion, but these discussions are on speed.
Web 2.0 enables ordinary people to talk about and trash your brand image in ways you can’t even imagine. And Web 2.0 affords less-than-ordinary people the opportunity to co-opt your brand image for purposes of their own agenda, e.g., irregular competitors.
Insidious Competition is the only book of its kind to point out that “atypical competitor” who can damage your company’s reputation without leaving a trace; leaving you to figure what went wrong and how you are going to fix it.
Visit the book site at www.InsidiousCompetition.com. Available at Amazon.com, BarnesAndNoble.com, or via your favorite bookstore.
Publicly Available Professional Studies Authored:
- The “Back Blog” Brief, How American Chiropractors Use Blogs to Converse with Patients & Prospective Patients, The Kahuna Content Company, Inc., May 2008
- The ROI of Hotel Blog Marketing, The Kahuna Content Company, Inc. June 2008
- The “Future Value” Blog Brief, How American Financial Planners Use Blogs to Converse with Clients & Prospective Clients, The Kahuna Content Company, Inc., June 2008
A Sampling of Articles Published:
- “Total Quality Management & Competitor Intelligence,” HAPPI Magazine, October 1994, p. 84.
- “Competitor Intelligence in Context,” Soap/Cosmetics/Chemical Specialties Magazine, January 1993, p. 46
- “Competitor Intelligence in the Household & Personal Products Industries,” HAPPI Magazine, July 1992, p. 144
- “Development of the International Service Market Opportunity Index,” by Richard Telofski & Joe Kim, Quantity and Quality in Economic Research: Studies in Applied Business Research, Vol. 4, August 1997
- “Blogging As a New Marketing Tool,” Chiropractic Economics, August 2008, p. 60
- “Social Media Protest Campaign Reveals Greenpeace Weaknesses,” NGO Watch, American Enterprise Institute, April 2010
- “The Silent Killers in Social Media Never Die,” Minneapolis/St. Paul Business Journal, July 9, 2010
- “Social Media Criticism Will Never Die,” Providence Business Journal (Providence, Rhode Island), September 20, 2010.
- “Don’t Play Games with an Irregular Competitor,” PR Week, Tuesday, June 1, 2011.
- “Of Greenpeace, Democracy, and Fishing,” Fish Info & Services Ltd., FIS.com, November 12, 2011
- Marshall, Alasdair James; Telofski, Richard; Ojiako, Udechukwu; and Chipulu, Max (2011) An Examination of ‘Irregular Competition’ Between Corporations and NGOs. Voluntas International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations (doi:10.1007/s11266-011-9205-5) (In Press)
- “Anti-Capitalists Unlikely to Compliment Capitalists,” Canada Free Press, January 17, 2012
- “It’s Not About Canadianism; It’s About Capitalism,” The Daily Capitalist, January 25, 2012
Recent Speaking and Panel Participation:
- “More Than Friending: Social Media & Communication in Business and Education,” panelist at The Future of Communication, 10th Annual Symposium, Baruch College, City University of New York, Friday, April 30, 2010. (see the video – click here)
- Vocus Webinar, “What to Do About Reality Benders, Friendlies, and Nasties,” Thursday, May 19, 2011.





