Strategic Intelligence

In a Corporate Strategy Board report published in August 2000 – Strategic Intelligence: Providing Critical Information for Strategic Decisions – the authors found that strategic intelligence “operates based on distinct principles.” These include:

1. “Strategic intelligence should support senior decision makers in their capacity as strategists.”

2. “Strategic intelligence should monitor and analyse the issues that matter to [the firm’s] strategy.”

3. “Strategic intelligence should be coordinated in the corporate centre.”

Although these principles are, in theory, well known to competitive intelligence professionals everywhere, in light of the chequered performance of so many corporate icons over the past 18 months I suggest we should be asking ourselves the following questions:

· In practice, how effective are most corporate intelligence units in providing senior management with ‘product’, or deliverables that make a real difference to strategic thinking and action? However elegant or robust the underlying analysis may be, if intelligence is ignored or discounted by decision makers it’s of no value whatsoever.

· Are competitive intelligence analysts routinely focusing on issues of strategic consequence to the organization? Who makes the ‘call’ regarding where intelligence analysts should be concentrating their efforts? Ideally, topics, or ‘targets’ of interest should emerge from ongoing dialogue between end-user decision makers and intelligence staff.

· Does the intelligence function represent a centrally coordinated, fully integrated discipline within the company? If it doesn’t, the company will always risk falling prey to “predictable surprises.” The recent implosion of the world economy, and ten years ago the 9/11 tragedy serve as powerful reminders of what can go wrong when intelligence teams and management alike fail to separate and decipher the ‘signals from the noise’.

Strategic intelligence is not an optional extra. Indeed, however competent a company may be in finance, human resources, manufacturing, marketing, and technology development, if it fails to recognize the increasingly complex dynamics and potential impact of the forces at play in its external environment it is unlikely to achieve or sustain real strategic success.