Intelligence for Survival
Intelligence for Survival
Dr. Jay E. Gillette, a Ball State University professor in the Center of Information and Communication Sciences, explains in his leadership course: in the military the word “intelligence” means information. The military has a goal of gathering as much intelligence as possible. Intelligence is basically what puts anyone in a competitive advantage. The more a person knows and has intelligence meaning information, the more he or she is in a competitive advantage. The military uses intelligence to put them ahead of their enemies, ahead of other nations in general.
Business use of Intelligence
The military gathers intelligence in order to plan and forecast necessary strategies for the future. The military’s goal is to be ahead of the game. Being ahead of the game is the goal of any organization. Today, businesses all over the world are competing heavily. Businesses have become and are becoming more global as the information and communication technology (ICT) industry progresses.
Gathering of intelligence depends on the knowledge management deployment and practice of the organization. The sooner a business can gather and use intelligence in its strategic decision planning, the better the chance of its survival in the industry. According to David L. Blenkhorn and Craig S. Fleisher, the editors of the book Competitive Intelligence and Global Business:
Just as the military uses intelligence for its survival, so do businesses and specifically the leaders of these businesses, use the proper intelligence to survive in this global economy. The successful leaders are those who practice and apply competitive intelligence in order to be ahead of their competition. They use intelligence to forecast and produce the best strategic plan for their organization. According to Dr. Gillette in his 2007 leadership seminar “A good leader is one who does strategic planning that proves successful.”
Strategic Intelligence
Competitive intelligence requires strategic intelligence. Dr. Jay Edwin Gillette explains in his article Strategy Development for the Information Economy: A Practical Guide to Coordinated Action through Time issued in the Annual Review of Communication, Vol. 59 in 2006, that strategic planning “is a set of inputs and management processes” which include strategic intelligence. Strategic intelligence according to Dr. Gillette is performed using the following actions: environmental scanning, situational analysis, and S W T O (Strengths; Weaknesses; Threats; Opportunities) analysis.
Environmental Scanning & Situational Analysis
Businesses should go into depth analyzing each and every one of these actions. In the area of environmental scanning, a business should be aware of its surroundings. People in the organization should be aware, with eyes open to gather information that is useful. “The challenge is to select, filter, and organize information from your global operating environment” (Gillette, 2006, p. 10). Dr. Gillette explains that this scanning of the environment should include the following dynamic areas: economic, technical, cultural/social, and political/legal. A similar list to Dr. Gillette’s environmental scanning dynamic areas is Sheinin’s list of intelligence criteria that affect the decision environment. He explains that the decision environments of companies are dependent on the following intelligence criteria: sociological, educational, economic policies and standards, political, and geographic (Blenkhorn & Fleisher, 2005, p. 63).
For a company to consider competing in a market it should evaluate these environmental conditions of the market in both a narrow and wide/global scale. A company should use situational analysis which is “a close-up of the environmental scan” (Gillette, 2006, p. 11). A company should look at itself externally; it should see where it fits in, where it is positioned in the market. A company should ask itself: What are the external situations affecting our company? (Gillette, 2006, p. 11).
S W T O Analysis
SWTO analysis is one that businesses are usually familiar with. However, many might know the SWTO as SWOT. Dr. Gillette explains that he prefers to call this analysis as “SWOT” for the following reason:
It’s important to start with an inventory of our strengths, then weigh our weaknesses…from our weaknesses we have a clear view of threats to ourselves and our organization, and we can see where our strengths give us encouragement and protection…after an honest inventory of the previous elements, we can reckon our opportunities fairly and with confidence.
Dr. Gillette also explains that ending “with an emphasis on threats” is “defensive thinking” and that ending with an emphasis on opportunities is “calling for offensive thinking.” (2006, p. 11).
Forecasting
The ability to predict the future especially in the ICT industry is what makes a leading ICT company successful. Forecasting is essential for any business. Businesses that use competitive intelligence are the ones who are much more able to better forecast their survival and the future products that their consumers need or want. A company’s life cycle goes through what is known as the S Curve, in that S Curve a company reaches its growth and then goes to a mature stage, however, it is important for companies to improve their products and become more innovative to survive: “product innovation & improvement should become the prime concern of market participants as they move from growth to mature markets” (Shaw, 2001, p. 127).
Forecasting however, is not an easy task, nonetheless, there are tools that can help with forecasting such as the S Curve Analysis and the Scenario Analysis (Blenkhorn & Fleisher, 2005, p. 258). Companies in the ICT industry are particularly concerned with competitive technology intelligence (CTI). They seek to understand and know technology trends and discoveries through the use of analytical techniques of CTI:
• Technology Prospecting: involves monitoring new technology developments.
• Technology Scouting: “identifying trends and business opportunities offered by various technologies”
• Patent Analysis: “identifying trends and patterns in patent data”
• Bibliometrics: “counting the number of time a certain technology is cited in various publications.”
• Technology Forecasting: “performing extrapolative analysis of current technologies”
• Scenario Analysis : “performing non-extrapolative analysis of future technologies”
• S Curve Analysis: “taking a rigorous approach to determining the limits of current technologies and the optimal time to “jump” to a new technology”
(Blenkhorn & Fleisher, 2005, p. 257-258).
Conclusion
Competitive Intelligence is that each company needs to succeed in its economy. One must know the various ways of collecting relevant intelligence. Competitive intelligence produces strategic intelligence that can lead to the success of a company. Leaders in general should use competitive intelligence for the betterment their organizational strategic planning. Forecasting is an essential way to survive in a market. ICT companies in particular should use different ICT forecasting analysis techniques to survive in the industry.
References
Blenkhorn, D. L., & Fleisher, C. S., (2005). Competitive intelligence and global business. Westport, CT: Praeger.
Shaw, J. K. (2001). Telecommunications deregulation and the information economy (2nd ed.). Norwood, MA: Artech House Inc.
Gillette, J. E., (2006). Strategy development for the information economy: A practical guide to coordinated action through time. Annual Review of Communication (59).