Does Business Have the Right Structure to Use Competitive Intelligence?

In the last post, I talked about the military and the reason that their intelligence organization generally is able to provide effective intelligence. In brief, professional, trained intelligence personnel support officers and field personnel with a sophisticated intelligence system.

The attention to intelligence is driven by the fact that lives are on the line. Understanding strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats, centers of gravity, etc… are not just “nice to know.”

As mentioned in the last blog, the military places so much emphasis on intelligence that it has its own department, outside of field operations. There are field agents and intelligence officers. The different intelligence ranks have access to every rank of fighting personnel.

It’s not all rosy and perfect, but one would be hard pressed to find another organization that matches the emphasis and effectiveness of intelligence in the military.

How does your business compare?

If you are like most, your company has invested in intelligence, but has not made a commitment to intelligence-based decisions. Communication is not as organized as it might be and the flow of information is not consistent.

A significant problem in business competitive intelligence is the fact that the intelligence staff usually resides somewhere in company other than near the decision makers. Now, for the sake of honesty, I’ll say that I have been very impressed with some of the corporate strategy groups with whom I have been associated and I am encouraged by the access which they are granted to the executive level. But these cases are far too rare.

If your business structure buries analysts and competitive intelligence professionals deep in the world of marketing, the likelihood of necessary intelligence making a difference in the company is very low.


What do you do about this?

Do you have it in your power to start an organizational change? Does your direct report have the ability to start the process?

Can you boil your intelligence down to a summary with recommendations that might be appreciated by a higher-level manager? What are your potential means of moving information to different people?

Who is your internal client? Who request intelligence? Who funds the intelligence? What do they want to know? How often do they want to know? What tangible benefits has your company realized through the use of your intelligence?

Start to formulate answers to these questions. Do so with the goal of convincing the next people up the org chart to give more visibility to your company’s competitive intelligence efforts. Show them what CI has to offer and how much is being lost with the current amount of emphasis.

These are the same techniques that 3rd-party vendors have to use to stay in business and they will work to some degree for you.

Thoughts? Let me know. (cdalley@primary-intel.com, 801-838-9600 x5050)