PurposeSouth Africa as a country continues to rank low in the world of competitiveness. It is the aim of this paper to focus on the need for South African organisations to perceive competitive intelligence (CI) as one of the most important tools to improve their competitiveness through a systematic, practical approach to make the CI cycle worthwhile, especially through skills development. The paper intends to identify the skills CI professionals in South Africa need in order to conduct the CI process in organisations effectively, thereby improving the country's competitive position.Design/methodology/approachThe research for the paper is based on an extensive review of literature to identify the skills needed by CI professionals. A survey was conducted, by questionnaire, among organisations in South Africa with existing CI units in which the respondents had to identify the skills they deemed necessary for the CI professional to run the CI process effectively.FindingsFindings suggested that the majority of respondents were 40 years and older, in the top structure of larger organisations and had been using CI for longer than five years. The overwhelming result is that there are skills inequalities between what skills respondents view as crucial and those that rated highest in their self‐evaluation. Skills identified as most important include, among others, networking, research skills and analytical abilities.Research limitations/implicationsCI in South Africa is still in its infancy and in 2008 no professional CI groups existed. As a result, there is no recognised list of practising South African CI professionals available in South Africa. For this reason the respondent database consists of attendees of CI courses, workshops and seminars held by the Department of Information and Knowledge Management at the University of Johannesburg.Practical implicationsThe research indicated that where CI had been established in certain organisations for at least five years, it did not reflect positively overall on South Africa's current competitive situation. Where there is a systematic CI approach, however, problem‐solving is easier to address and negatives could be turned around. With this in mind and a proper “buy‐in” into skills development, it will have a very positive outcome for all the organisations that wish to improve their competitiveness.Originality/valueFor a country such as South Africa (and other developing countries) this research is of extreme importance as the country is facing a serious shortage of skills. Skills development of CI professionals can create a strategic advantage for the country and increase South Africa's competitiveness.

Total Productive Manufacturing (TPM) also addresses planned maintenance as well as autonomous maintenance that determine the maintenance requirement of machines in their operating context. This paper focuses on the effect of an integrated human resource strategy on Total Productive Manufacturing (TPM) and assesses how the combination of the two can increase a firm's productivity. Some results of a South African manufacturing case study company in a unique environment are presented. The main conclusion reached in this paper is that when innovative human resources practices are applied properly, they will promote total machine system efficiency and hence increase the productivity of the company.As result TPM that does not normally focus on HR is taken to a higher level, whereby the additional human factor is taken into consideration. It suggests that operators should be nurtured and be well trained as part of the TPM focus, because they are the ones who are operating those machines with intimate knowledge. The limited research presented here as part of a doctoral thesis highlights some element of human resources practice that can be applied to enable operators to be efficient and productive as part of the TPM machine system.