krcoburn

ABSTRACT
In this text, I will discuss the topics of knowledge management and competitive intelligence. This discourse will explain the definition of knowledge management and how it is essential in CI programs. Also, I will cover the importance of these tools to stay informed in the information and communication field.

In the information and communication industry, things are changing every second of every day. Technology is rapidly changing and advancing. Within seconds organizations can be developed with developments in e-commerce and just as fast they can go out of business due to lack of research and preparation. As a leader, I think it is important to pay attention to your surroundings to stay ahead in this century. I believe that with the use of competitive intelligence programs and knowledge management, a leader can surpass their competitors.
Knowledge management can be defined as the transferring of ideas, information and concepts. Knowledge management can also be explained as the transferring of information. Deering states, “effective KM requires seeking diverse data about customers and competitor activities and capitalizing on these data” (Deering, 182). Deering’s perspective of knowledge management appears to come from a competitive intelligence angle. In other words using effective knowledge management skills to gain a competitive advantage.
Within her piece entitled, KM for competitive advantage: mining diverse sources for marketing intelligence, she speaks about the importance of competitive intelligence to an organization. She uniquely refers to her information as “data modeling and mining”(Deering, 182). With the use of human intelligence gathering, it has become easier to make an educated and well-planned decision.
It is becoming increasingly important to exploit the vast amount of knowledge that surrounds us everyday through mediums such as Internet and television. Within the information and communication field, competitive intelligence appears to be a necessity amongst organizations. “In uncertain economic times, a cogent understanding of all the environmental factors impinging on a business is essential to effective strategic positioning”, explains Wayne Rosenkrans, Director of intelligence affairs at AstraZeneca. Rosenkrans goes on to explain the importance of CI within organizations to stay ahead of their competitors and create effective strategies that will benefit the company in the log run. Within the piece, Sounding off CI, three CI professionals are interviewed and asked their opinions on the challenges, opportunities and the future of CI. All three professionals spoke about how CI is more important now than ever (Johnson, 2004, 24).
A consistent theme that I have seen throughout my research is the importance that is placed on establishing the goals and needs of the organization. Deering states, “company goals provide focus both for specific competitor and customer attributes, as well as for the level of the data integrity needed to support the planning time frame”(Deering, 183). The goals of the organization become critical when organizing information for competitive intelligence. The data requirements may shift depending on the time frame.
In Deering’s, KM for Competitive advantage: mining diverse sources for marketing intelligence, she discusses the different methods an organization might use to have the competitive advantage it needs to stay ahead in the telecommunications area. Since you may not know what competitors might do in advance a smart approach to CI, that Deering mentions, is to focus on customers’ reactions to potential offers. This type of data gathering can be overwhelming, but as Deering states, “effective KM requires seeking diverse data about customers and competitor activities and capitalizing on these data” (Deering, 182).
I observed this same method of data gathering while working at the company Best Buy, a worldwide electronics retail store. After researching their customers as well as competitors, they broke down their customers’ into four distinct groups by demographics. These groups are organized by age, sex and hypothesized income. After observing the buying habits of their customers they began to notice a distinct trend. Men over the age of 35 were primarily interested in making large purchases and applying for credit, such as televisions; whereas, young men in their twenties were primarily interested in smaller purchases, for example dvd’s and cd’s. This research and data gathering became critical when preparing specific company offers. As Harry Kolar, Director, Business Intelligence Strategies, of IBM states, “Companies need data to become and remain competitive” (Deering, 198).
Also, Best Buy as a company had learned, through observation of their competitors, that a company has to grow with their customers in order to be successful. For example, Best Buy’s competitor Circuit City has run their business as a commission centered sales. After observing the reactions of customers to this method, they noticed that customers began to have a lack of trust to the sales people in fear of being taken advantage of, and were in general not happy with their shopping experience. Due to this CI research, Best Buy does not pay employees based on commission and makes it their priority to make recommendations based on the customers need not on the amount of commission that will be received from the sale.

Personal Views
I believe that effective KM and CI are essential when competing in the information and communication field. Through my life experiences and research I have grown to understand that the need to know your customer is just as important as knowing your competition. To stay ahead in a field that is in a constant state of change is difficult. Yet, with an efficient CI program it becomes easier to make educated and well planned out decisions that may affect the life and longevity of your business.

Bibliography
Deering, B.J., KM for competitive advantage: mining diverse sources for
marketing intelligence.
Johnson, Arik. Sounding off on CI. KM World, Feb2004, Vol. 13 Issue 2,
p24-25, 2p.
Miller, H. Stephen & Prescott, E. John. (2001). Proven Strategies in Competitive
Intelligence: Lessons from the trenches. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

Posted by Kristina Coburn at 11:55 AM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Abstract
In this text I will discuss the definition of leadership, as other scholars as well as my own personal definition of the term. This discourse will cover the different theories on how leaders come to rise for example situational or environmental factors. This paper also discusses the importance of knowledge management and competitive intelligence in today’s fast paced world.

In the information and communication industry, things are changing every second of every day. Technology is rapidly changing and advancing. Within seconds organizations can be developed with developments in e-commerce and just as fast they can go out of business due to lack of research and preparation. As a leader, I think it is important to pay attention to your surroundings and understand your own leadership style to stay ahead in this century. I believe that with the use of competitive intelligence programs and knowledge management, a leader can surpass their competitors.
The topic of leadership is an extremely complex subject. Scholars for centuries have tried to define the term leadership but there is no correct answer. Ronald Reagan said, “Leadership is to grasp and hold a vision, that is the very essence of successful leadership”(Oxford University Press). Typically leadership has been defined by attributes or characteristics that or normally seen in specific examples of leaders. For example, charismatic, outgoing, and confident. As time has passed, the study of leadership has evolved to include the study of the followers and their relationship with the leaders. An example of this is Hollander’s notion of “idiosyncrasy credits” (Wren & Swatez, 1995, 246). Hollander viewed leadership as the followers viewing the leader’s actions in a way that fit their personal needs and expectations (New York Academy of Sciences, 2008).
Through my research I have come to believe that environment, the individuals surroundings, has an outstanding affect on leadership. I believe culture is an important factor in what makes an individual who they are. Culture influences communication, perspective, beliefs, work ethic and priorities. Miscommunication can cause confusion and mayhem in an intense environment (Coburn, 2008). Amanda Haskett, a graduate candidate for the Center for Information and Communication Sciences, states, "When working with a group, an effective leader takes into account the various cultures within the group, and inspires followers to look beyond cultural separations." (Haskett, 2008). It is the duty of the leader to create a solution that works best for his team with diverse backgrounds. Schein states, “If the group’s survival is threatened because elements of its culture have been maladapted, it is ultimately the function of leadership to recognize and do something about the situation” (Schein, 1995, 273).
A tool that I believe is essential for a good leader to understand is knowledge management. Knowledge management can be defined as the transferring of ideas, information and concepts. “Knowledge management and information networking can serve as effective tools to help us find valuable knowledge in a sea of information”, states Amanda Haskett (Haskett, 2008). So in short, knowledge management is directly related to the transferring of information. According to Jay Edwin Gillette, the word information can be defined as “a component of knowledge. It occupies a central position in a scale of knowledge phenomena to wisdom” (Gillette, 2000, Table 2). To delve into the subject a little further I believe since knowledge management relies on information, we must first learn to think clear thoughts. By thinking clear thoughts, to clarify we must be able to think clearly on our own. I believe that critical thinking is essential to knowledge management. It plays an important role in how we obtain our information, create opinions, establish perspectives, and create a base on how we know what we know as leaders and individuals (Coburn, 2008). In The Leader’s Companion, Wren states, “being critical thinkers entails a continual questioning of assumptions. People can never be in a state of complete critical development”(Wren, 1995, 381). As leaders we need to be able to distinguish our own individual beliefs from others, or knowing what we know and how we know it. “Leadership is heading into the wind with such knowledge of oneself and collaborative energy as to move others to follow”(Peters, 1987, 141). Without critical thinking we never learn to challenge others way of thinking, therefore never establishing our own unique personality. This type of individuality sets the leader apart from the crowd (Coburn, 2008). This similar concept can be found in Dr. Gillette’s dissertation on knowledge management, although he calls this concept “wisdom” rather than critical thinking. According to Dr. Gillette, “Wisdom is the ability to discern, to make judgments” (Gillette, 2000, 8).
Competitive Intelligence is an extremely broad field and the wisest of leaders understand that information is power. With globalization and the swift advancing of technology it is becoming more important than ever to take advantage of competitive intelligence methods. A competitive intelligence program can be explained as,
“A CI program can make a valuable contribution to decisions regarding strategic planning, mergers, and acquisitions, regulatory requirement for exporting to new markets, international market penetration, product launching, pricing, recruiting, in new countries, cultural settings, strategic alliances for distribution channels, research and development (R&D) activities, and much more” (Blenkhorn & Fleisher, 2005,18).
With the duties of the competitive intelligence program being so broad it is important to narrow a focus based on the individual organizations’ needs. In order to accomplish this, there needs to be involvement from upper-level management, or leaders, with the CI producers. It has been found that the involvement of leadership is important to the success of the CI program and the organization (Prescott & Miller, 2001, 3). Deepak Sivakumar, a Graduate candidate for the Center of Information and Communication Sciences, states, “A leader should not only be reactive but must be proactive” (Sivakumar, 2008). In other words a leader must not only be fast to make decisions but work steadily in the best interest of the company.
Through my research I have grown to understand that a good leader understands the value and utilizes knowledge management and competitive intelligence. I believe that leaders do not rise alone. Followers, culture and environment have a hand in creating that leader. I would have to agree with Hollander, I believe the leader gives its followers a voice and in turn the follower is searching for that individual that fulfills their expectations.

Bibliography
Blenkhorn, David L. & Fleisher, S. Craig. (2005). Competitive Intelligence and
Global Business.
Coburn, Kristina. (2008). Knowledge Management and Critical Thinking.
Retrieved from
http://www.cicsworld.org/blogs/krcoburn/2008/03/knowledge_mgt.html#mo
re on April 1, 2008.
Coburn, Kristina. (2008). Looking Further into Leadership. Retrieved from
http://www.cicsworld.org/blogs/krcoburn/2008/03/knowledge_mgt.html#more on April 1, 2008.
Gillette, Jay. (2000). “Information Knowledge in Motion”: A Practical Framework
for Understanding Knowledge Management.
Haskett, Amanda. (2008). Knowledge Management. Retrieved on April 1, 2008
from http://www.cicsworld.org.
Leadership Perspectives: Influence, Inclusion, and Idiosyncrasy Credit. (2008).
The New York Academy of Sciences. Retrieved on February 4, 2008 from
http://www.nyas.org/events.
Miller, H. Stephen & Prescott, E. John. (2001). Proven Strategies in Competitive
Intelligence: Lessons from the trenches. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Oxford University Press. Leadership Quotes. Retrieved on January 19, 2008
from http://www.oup.com.
Peters, Tom. (1987). Thriving on Chaos. New York, N.Y.: Alfred A. Knopf, Inc.
Savikumar, Deepak. (2008), CICS seminar.
Schein, Edgar. (1995). Defining Organizational Culture. In The Leaders
Companion (pp.271-281). New York, N.Y. The Free Press.
Swatez, J. Marc & Wren, Thomas J. (1995). The Historical and Contemporary
Contexts of Leadership: A Conceptual Model. In The Leaders Companion
(pp.245-252). New York, N.Y. The Free Press.
Wren, J. Thomas. (1995). The Leader’s Companion: Insights on Leadership
Through the Ages. New York, N.Y. The Free Press.

Posted by Kristina Coburn at 04:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

ABSTRACT
This discussion covers the definition of competitive intelligence and other scholars’ opinions on the topic. This piece touches briefly on the numerous roles and responsibilities of a competitive intelligence producer. Also, we will discuss the role that knowledge management takes within developing intelligence and some common problems for the CI users and CI producers. It will also cover the importance in narrowing the scope and responsibilities of the competitive intelligence producer in order to address the organizations intelligence needs.

What is Competitive Intelligence?
Due to globalization and the rapid advancing of technology, it is becoming more important than ever to research methods of competitive intelligence. A Competitive Intelligence program can be described as,
“A CI program can make a valuable contribution to decisions regarding strategic planning, mergers, and acquisitions, regulatory requirement for exporting to new markets, international market penetration, product launching, pricing, recruiting, in new countries, cultural settings, strategic alliances for distribution channels, research and development (R&D) activities, and much more” (Blenkhorn & Fleisher, 2005,18).
The responsibilities and duties of a competitive intelligence program are extremely broad and almost overwhelming. In order to concentrate and manage resources wisely, the competitive intelligence producer must address the organizations intelligence needs.

Leadership Involvement
From my research on Competitive Intelligence I have learned that involvement from leadership is a significant factor in the success of the CI program and the organization. Prescott and Miller discuss this in a recent study conducted with the American Productivity and Quality Center. This study revealed that upper level management support is significant when establishing a Competitive Intelligence program (Prescott & Miller, 2001, 3).
The involvement of top management or organization leaders is also seen within the KIT (Key Intelligence Topics) process, also known as competitive intelligence needs. KITs are used to better understand the needs of the clients and to organize the role and goals of the CI program. With such a large definition of competitive intelligence and what the job entails, it is highly recommended that the CI professional receive direction of the CI needs of the organization from senior management. “Identifying and prioritizing an organization’s critical CI needs and then focusing on delivering actionable intelligence to meet those needs is critical for both the success of the CI program and for the success of the organization” (Prescott & Miller, 2001, 18).
This identifying and prioritizing the focus of the CI needs involves “interactive dialogue between the CI professionals and key decision-makers of the organization” (Blenkhorn & Fleisher, 2005, 18). During this interactive dialogue, also known as KITs interviews, the goal is to identify key strategic issues where intelligence can add value to decision making (Blenkhorn & Fleisher, 2005, 18). Once again, this is another situation where communication is critical. By better communicating and establishing a focus the better the CI results. Interviews are maintained throughout the process to “refine the user’s needs and keep communication channels open” (Blenkhorn & Fleisher, 2005, 19).

Intelligence Issues
I think Sue Myburgh describes Competitive Intelligence best in her statement, “CI is about mining information sources and using appropriate analytical techniques to put this information together-information becomes intelligence only after it has been analyzed”(Myburgh, 2004, 48). This has been an important issue for users of competitive intelligence involving the credibility or lack of research in intelligence. Prescott and Miller touch on this when discussing the issues between CI users and CI producers. Within this text it explains that the information received is too shallow, meaning that the depth of the research possibly did not go beyond information presented by the media or by competitors. Also, the credibility of the information is questioned due to the possible inexperience of the researcher (Prescott & Miller, 2001, 47).
I consider this a knowledge management issue. Knowledge management is the transferring of ideas, information and concepts. The credibility of the intelligence is jeopardized because the researcher has not achieved a level of wisdom. According to Jay Edwin Gillette, wisdom can be achieved through personal experience. This level of knowledge is considered the highest level of understanding (Gillette, 2000, Table 2). In other words, if the information has not been thoroughly analyzed, how can it be considered intelligence?

Personal Views
Through my research I have found that a profound importance is placed on knowledge management and communication in the field of competitive intelligence. These tools are the building blocks in establishing the intelligence needs of an organization. To successfully assess a business’ needs there must be accurate communication between the leaders within that organization and the CI producers. Also, information or knowledge must be accurately analyzed before it is considered intelligence.

Bibliography
Blenkhorn, David L. & Fleisher, S. Craig. (2005). Competitive Intelligence and
Global Business.
Gillette, Jay. (2000). “Information Knowledge in Motion”: A Practical Framework
for Understanding Knowledge Management.
Miller, H. Stephen & Prescott, E. John. (2001). Proven Strategies in Competitive
Intelligence: Lessons from the trenches. New York: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Myburgh, Sue. (2004). Competitive Intelligence. The Information Management
Journal; Mar/Apr2004, Vol. 38 Issue 2, p46-55.

Posted by Kristina Coburn at 07:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)