Steve Lunsford

Introduction: Leadership, Competitive Information, and Knowledge Management

Leadership is a complicated concept to explain, but my concept of it involves two main components: the vision that a leader must have, and the organizational philosophies that they use. Another important element is how the manager differs from the leader, and this is an important distinction to make. All of these elements of leadership will be addressed along with making the differentiation between what it means to be a leader and what it means to be a manager.

The other two parts that will be addressed will be competitive intelligence and knowledge management, which play key roles in the evolving role of the leader in our changing world. Competitive intelligence is simply the use of
information that is gathered about what you rivals may be doing on virtually any scale, ranging from a local to global level. This is an important consideration when it comes to the way that information is gathered. Knowledge management is how that information is utilized and put to work for the good of the organization which is being lead.
Leadership: Vision for the Long Run

Marshall Sashkin wrote an essay titled, “Visionary Leadership” that, in my opinion does a outstanding job of outlining one of the primary traits of a leader. A leader has one particular trait that seems to almost always make him stand out in that role in my perspective. Vision is that trait and in order for a leader to succeed he or she really needs to have a good thought towards where the group is being lead. (Sashkin, 1989, pp. 402-403)

One of Sashkin’s major ideas is “Visioning,” involves a constant consideration the long term strategy of any initiative of which they are in charge of. For the visionary leader, there are four primary skills: expressing, explaining, extending, and expanding the vision in order to generate the results for the long term goal.
The second component is the “Implementing the Vision Organizationally:” leaders guiding and tailoring the culture of the group to accomplish the task that they seek. This can be accomplished through a number of tactics, but must reiterate the vision that the leader has for the organization and provide reason behind goals and policies that might be implemented along the way to the vision. (Sashkin, 1989, p.406)

The Importance of Culture: Organizational Leadership

Results Based Leadership by Dave Ulrich, examines the role of the leader in shaping the organizational culture of an organization. The culture of an organization plays a crucial role in the success of an organization, and it is essential that the leadership takes measures to address this important portion. One of the key points that stand out in the chapter, “Organizational Leadership” is the idea that the ultimate gauge of success of a leader is fostering a culture that allows the individuals to perform as a group to produce results that exceed the sum of their parts. Ulrich examines four major capabilities that are important to organizational culture in an organization: Learning, Speed, Boundarylessness, and Accountability. (Ulrich, 1999, p. 82)

These major capabilities that foster healthy organizational culture are all four important, but the ones that most stand out are the Boundarylessness and Accountability portions. Boundarylessness means that people are not simply bound to the areas for which they were originally hired or for the role they were assigned to. This concept means that these individuals are able to have impact and use the skills that they might have to be useful in other areas. This not only allows the organizational culture to thrive through the full use of people’s skill sets, but allows the company to grow in both culture and productivity. This occurs when people are given the capacity to do what they are talented in. Accountability stands out because it extends beyond the reach of just the normal hierarchy, but people regardless of their rank, offer support through accountability in order to help everyone be more productive.

Differentiating the Leader from the Manager

In my view, leadership first involves the differentiation between the ideas of management and leadership. At first glance, these two may appear to be the same, but in all actuality are quite different. In the table pictured below, several of the differences as I view them are outlined for the sake of comparison.

Leadership Management
Vision-Driven Task-Driven
Followers Inspired by Vision Followers inspired by Obligation
Focused on Long Term Focused on Short Term
Leads People Accomplishes Tasks

Moving on from the concept of what differentiates the leader from the manager; next let’s take a look at a model that examines how the two apply to each other, situations and the people who might fill one or both of these roles. Refer to the following figure that illustrates how a person’s personal set of skills might vary or overlap based on a situation.

Each circle can vary in size and location based on the situation which each might be used. The circles might also be larger or smaller based on the individual that the graph might represent. In most situations, the circles are not the same size as the capabilities and personality traits of a leader are not very similar to those of a manager. In some situations and individuals, the circles will overlap where both the different skills are used together to both guide a situation and accomplish a task; one may overshadow the other depending upon the person or circumstances. In situations or people where the circles do not overlap or one of the circles may hardly exist, progress may become stunted should the role of either manager or leader be complemented by a person with the opposite set of skills.

Competitive Intelligence: Proactive Adjustment to the Changing Business Landscape

The challenge of globalization and competitive intelligence plays an integral role in the adjustment that must be made in businesses worldwide in order to transition to the worldwide marketplace. Challenges abound, and to not embrace this trend and address it directly, is an unsound way (to say the least), to handle the changes that a business that wishes to engage in the emerging and increasingly prevalent global marketplace. (Fleshier, 2005, pp. 45-46)
Five primary reasons that global competitive intelligence is important are addressed in this chapter of Fleshier’s book. The first, “Sensitivity,” addresses the fact that when dealing with the global marketplace, a business must be aware and cater to the various norms that might be faced in other cultures, such as economics, and various policy or law issues that may pose problems in various other questions. The second, “Frustration,” addresses the fact that many businesses will be immobilized by the sheer magnitude of the task of gathering the competitive intelligence. “Preparedness” deals with the level of readiness that businesses have to deal with the challenges that intelligence on a global scale presents. The fourth, “Unfamiliarity,” states that businesses have a hesitancy to deal with international business, particularly when they have lack of familiarity that exists in these situations. The final reason challenge that competitive intelligence presents in the global marketplace is “Resource Investment,” and this addresses the hesitation that companies have to put funds into securing the intelligence that they need to be competitive in that situation. Addressing these various hesitancies that businesses might face when dealing with globalization can make the difference between success and failure internationally. (Fleshier, 2005, p. 5)

Knowledge Management: Utilizing Informational Assets Effectively

The essay “Information is Knowledge in Motion”: Practical Framework for Understanding Knowledge Management by Jay Gillette deals with the topic of knowledge management. This essay deals with the use of knowledge and how it is transferred and utilized. (Gillette, 1999)

Gillette goes into detail on the topic of Knowledge Management, addressing the topic thoroughly, but the most useful part of this essay, in the context of culture, and leadership, is the model, “Information in a Scale of Knowledge” found in Table 2. This model describes a hierarchy of the stages of knowledge, how it comes to be starting from phenomena, and evolving through various stages on its way to wisdom. (Gillette, 1999, p. Table 2)

Gillette begins with phenomena, which is a representation of something that we see or “perceive”: essentially an observation of something that we may not have previously been aware of. Moving to the next level, facts, we take these phenomena and bring them to actual information in the form of an actual statement of the fact which we have observed. Facts are translated into data which essentially are the collecting and recording of the factual information related to the phenomena. Information is, in turn, the data transformed and understood, to form a useful idea. That information is then translated into understanding which basically means that one understands the information and is thereby able to apply this to a situation. Finally, the understanding can be transformed to wisdom; Gillette states, “Wisdom guides understanding. Understanding informs wisdom.” (Gillette, 1999, pp. 6-8)
Dr. B.J. Deering provides another look at knowledge management as it specifically relates to gathering of competitive intelligence and the concept of planning a longer term strategy for compiling knowledge and drawing conclusions from it.
Plans for the long term must build around intelligence and knowledge that has been gathered. In the case of a newer business, data must be gained from a number of informal sources as they do not have an existing base of knowledge from running a business. While it is not as useful as information gathered from actually doing business, it is clearly a better strategy than moving forward with no research. Existing businesses have the advantage of experience when it comes to the use of information as it is gathered through actual experience providing a history that might indicate trends over the long term that could be anticipated. (Deering, 2001, pp. 183-184)
What this means to the leader is that age in which they lead is key to their success in their role. To not consider the value of knowledge and how it is used, in our era, in the information age, is to fail as a leader.

Conclusion: Leading the Way with Knowledge

Ultimately, the question must be asked, “what does leadership, competitive intelligence, and knowledge management have to do with each other and how are they interrelated?” Leadership is what governs the direction of today’s business world, they will ultimately determine how the outcome of those organizations which they lead. In order to be effective, they must embrace the value of knowledge and how it is gathered (competitive intelligence) and how it is utilized (knowledge management). The combination of these three concepts can have a major influence on the success of a leader and will, by default, determine the resulting success of the organization which he leads.

In conclusion, Leif Edvinsson said, “Of central importance is the changing nature of competitive advantage – not based on market position, size, and power as in times past, but on the incorporation of knowledge into all of an organizations activities.” (Edvinsson, 2002)These words could not be truer in today’s marketplace, and underscore the importance that knowledge has in today’s business world.

Works Cited
Deering, B. (2001). KM for comeptitive advantage: mining diverse sources for marketing intelligence. In R. B. and, Knowledge Management Strategy and Technology (pp. 182-199). Artech House Publishers.
Edvinsson, L. (2002). Corporate Logintiude: Discover Your True Position in the Knowlege Economy. Financial Times Pretence Hall.
Fleshier, D. L. (2005). Competitive Intelligence and Global Business. Conneticut: Praeger Publishers.
Gillette, J. (1999). Information is Knowlege in Motion: A Practical Framework for Understanding Knowlege Management. Muncie, IN.
Sashkin, M. (1989). Visionary Leadership. The Perspective from Education . New York, New York: The Westview Press.
Ulrich, D. (1999). Organization Results. In D. Ulrich, Results Based Leadership (pp. 83-105). Boston : Harvard Business School Press.