Consumer versus producer: Overcoming the disconnect between management and Competitive Intelligence
✍ Scribed by Douglas C. Bernhardt
- Publisher
- John Wiley and Sons
- Year
- 1999
- Weight
- 80 KB
- Volume
- 10
- Category
- Article
- ISSN
- 1058-0247
No coin nor oath required. For personal study only.
✦ Synopsis
The most overwhelming challenge faced by practitioners of competitive intelligence has little to do with the development of their professional skills. Although improving one's competence in the "tools and techniques" of intelligence collection and analysis (honing one's craft, so-to-speak) is, of course, essential, it is by no means sufficient for success. If CI professionals are to add value to organizational imperatives, if they and their "product" are to have measurable impact on executive decision-making, intelligence must become a central component of the users' decision-making processes. Competitive intelligence must, in short, make a material difference to the agendas of policy-makers. Without "buy in" on their part, CI is doomed to failure. Often, the very managers whose job it is to lead the intelligence initiative are not perceived as credible by the decision-makers they are tasked to serve. Intelligence that executives disagree with is ignored. In many instances, the CI team will concentrate on delivering what it assumes to be important, rather than focus on topics that are of real concern to their "customers." The outcome, or more accurately lack of outcome, is generally regarded as a "failure of intelligence." This article addresses some of the cultural and "political" hurdles that must be overcome, and the steps CI practitioners can take to ensure that intelligence becomes an indispensable management resource, fully integrated into the processes of strategic and operational decision-making.