How often does the market and competitive intelligence team get requests without any further background information why the stakeholder needs that particular information?

For instance: How many PC’s are there in Austria?

If you than ask: “why do you want to know this?” the response might very well be: “Just give me the data. I need it. Rather today than tomorrow”. (He thinks: it is not your business)

You feel down to a low level data provider, not being able to add any extra value.

Is that OK or not?

This is what I call in Competitive Intelligence “the taxi driver syndrome”.

“Can you please take me to Parklane, sir”.

What if the taxi driver turns around to you and asks: “Why do you want to go there?”

You are very likely to answer: “Thank you for your question, but that is not relevant. (or: that is not your business) Please take me there. Thank you.

The difference is that the driver does a one-off job for you and you don’t need any extra help. You know why you are going there.

However it would be different in the following situation.

You are on a business trip in a major city and there is nothing planned for this evening. So, you are looking for some entertainment. You may ask the driver to take you to Mainstreet.

Again, he will ask you: Why do you wanna go there?

This time you are open for his consultancy service.

“Thank you for asking, I am looking for some entertainment”.

The taxi driver can play an advisory role. “Are you looking for a show, you would like a concert, do you want to go to a restaurant, a nightclub, a sports event?”

And even one level deeper. Say, you want to go to a restaurant.

The taxi driver may suggest a nice Italian restaurant, a special Greek restaurant, an outstanding Sushi bar, a spicy Indian, a gastronomic French restaurant or just a delicious hamburger.

If the driver knows his city he can do an excellent job on top of driving quickly and safely.

And that will lead to more business for him, most probably with the same customer.

Can you pick me up after dinner and take me to a nice launch bar? He will do and because of his expertise he will surprise you.

That is what we want as Intelligence Professionals and that is what we have to do.

The good news is that it is all possible. Market Intelligence professionals should play a consultancy role and being seen as the trusted advisor to the internal stakeholders of a company.

It is much easier for Intelligence Professionals to build up that relationship with the stakeholders. It is not an one-off deal like a taxi-ride.

It comes down to asking the right questions and making the right suggestions.

Back to the question: How many PC’s are there in Austria?

Just answering may give the wrong information to the stakeholder. Which leads to disappointments and turning you into a person that is seen as nonprofessional. 

It would be easier if the stakeholder would explain the reason for the question. But this will only happen if there is a trusted relationship between the stakeholder and the Intelligence professional.

If that is not the case, it needs to be developed and that is primarily the task of Intelligence professional. As a real consultant to your stakeholder, you must find the need behind the need.

How many PC’s are there in Austria?

Why do you want to know this?

Just give me the data. I need it.

How to cope with this? There are several ways. Here are some…

First of all: Don’t start arguing. You can show already that you are a professional. You most probably have a good idea what the business reason is and you can anticipate on this. On the other hand you also know that there are many different types of PC’s.

So, just giving an answer to his question is not the right response. (There are 20 million PC in Austria.)

Why not doing the following?

”sure I can help you on this. If it is only the grand total number of PC’s we have it available in our database. Depending on what you want to do with the data, we can split the number up in several different groups.

- is it both the stand alone PC’s and the networked PC’s?

- Do you want the PC’s for professional business usages only or also the home PC’s.

- Do you want the number including all game PC’s?

- Should tablets be included?

- Should it be sorted by region or by industry, maybe by size-band?

- is it important for you to have the number of PC’s in rural area’s or only in the bigger cities?

- Would it be important for you combine the number of PC’s with any other data in order to do further correlation analysis and look at where we can optimize the business?

And we can even do more in terms of data collection and analysis to help you being even more successful than you are today.”

Also these questions (and there many, many more you can ask) will show that you understand intelligence and that you are here to support and add value.

The chance that your stakeholder will repeat that the reason for his question is not your business, is exceptionally low.

There are two main reactions to this: Great give me all you suggest. What do you reply? The following: if you want it all, it will take me about 4 to 6 weeks. Most often the stakeholder can not wait, and guess what,,… the conversation about what and why is relevant starts.

Or, better, the questions you have asked the stakeholder will trigger him.

So, most probably he will give you more background information. But even if he says: thank you for these questions, please leave out all household and game PC’s, I am basically only interested in the networked business PC’s, you have made big progress. The information that you will provide is much more to the point and as a consequence the stakeholder will use it for his business. He will see that it is relevant and will come back to you next time. With more specific questions and most probably he will give you (a little bit) background information.

Try this and see how this works. If you are still not able to open the conversation to understand the need behind the need, than contact me. There are more ways to overcome this problem. I am also interested in learning what you do with this problem!

Good luck with your intelligence

 ————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Joost Drieman is owner of Marix International NV, a consultancy company specialized in Intelligence and Strategy. Joost had been director Market and Business Intelligence at Cisco. Before Cisco Joost had senior management positions at several high tech companies in Europe and the USA. He also did consultancy work for the EC, DG Infso.  In total over 25 years international experience in strategy, business development, intelligence and management.

He is visiting lecturer at some the business schools in Europe and the USA to teach market intelligence. Joost regularly speaks at conferences (SCIP, GIA, ICI, etc). He is a dynamic, charismatic presenter, interacts with the audience and has the ability to explain difficult topics in an easy understandable way, with a touch of humor. Together with the GIA, Joost developed several training workshops for Intelligence professionals, including Internal Consultative Skills, Internal Marketing, Megatrends, Presentation Skills, and more.

www.marix.be

Joost.drieman@marix.be

Out of the many examples, metaphors and analogies I am using in my keynote speeches and lectures there are a number analogies that come across as the most compelling. These clearly speak to the mind and show what I mean by added value of intelligence.

Eventually, the goal is to create a clear view of all the aspects of market by thorough research and analysis. The analyzed data will lead to a new understanding of the current and future situation. Understanding that, has an impact on the business: Vision, mission, strategy, planning, operations and decision-making.

The more an intelligence team is seen as trusted advisors (internal consultants) the better they can play this role.

But how clear are we in our answers?

The weather forecast.

Imagine you are planning your summer barbecue party coming Saturday. An outdoor event for which you have invited 75 of your very best friends. In other words a big party.

Beside all the planning and logistics to make it an unforgettable event you want to know one other detail: the weather forecast. Will it be blue-sky, sunshine and warm? Or raining and cold?

Market Intelligence people have the tendency to analyze the entire market, each and every detail and provide a deck of 80 slides with all they know.

So, the approach to the weather forecast done by a market intelligence professional will be like this:

He shows a map of your country or region and will say: let me explain: There is a high pressure area in the north, blowing eastwards with a speed of 18 knots. Current temperature there is 23 Celsius. Slightly west of that is a rain zone which moves further west in the coming 24 hours with a speed of 23 knots. This rain-zone is impacted by the low pressure area which moving to the north. (speed 10 knots) The pressure is only 960 milliBar, so don’t worry. The average temperature however is 14C at the moment. The thunderstorm currently active East of the lakes will drift slowly South and will influence the temperature on south side of the river. The high altitude jet stream wind will blow from west to east moving the high pressure (1100 milli bar) towards the islands on the south coast.

This data (not even information for many of us) is than often supported by radar images and charts of past patterns.

“On the radar screen it is obvious that the clouds will provide snow in the North, but only if the low pressure area will come closer in the coming 8 hours. And that will happen if the speed remain 56kts.” Continues the market intelligence profession. And it keeps on going. 80 slides!

You will look at him and ask again: Is there rain or sunshine in my backyard coming Saturday?

That is basically the only question you want to have answered.

The most weather forecasters understand that. They will tell you: Yes there will be sunshine, 27C coming Saturday. Than, beside that basic answer to the question, he or she will explain in simple terms why the sun will be shining. Supporting data and logic.

That is what Market Intelligence people need to do. Listen carefully to the questions and try to give that basic answer.

The question: will there be rain or sunshine is a binary question. The answer is yes or no. In market and competitive intelligence such a binary question will be followed by open questions to get a better understanding. But even for the weather forecast open questions should follow. How warm will it be? How strong is the wind? From what direction will the wind blow? Will it be a clear blue sky or will there be some scattered clouds? If so, when, how many? Etc.

Same for the intelligence. The first question may be: is there a market opportunity for my products? Or will the new competitor be a threat for my business?

The answer to the first question could be; Yes, there is a market opportunity.

And we will explain in simple terms why we have come to the conclusion that there will be an opportunity. Looking at the market trends (people see the need for the product and would like to buy it), economic drivers (there is money to buy, there is a clear business benefit for these products) and other parameters that could show the reason why there is a market opportunity.

But than the underlying (open) questions will pop up:

-       How big is that opportunity?

-       For which market?

-       When will the market take of?

-       How to sell this? Go to market models?

-       Etc.

I will write about that in my next article.

Good luck with your intelligence.

————————————————————————————————————- 

About the author.

Joost Drieman is director Market and Business Intelligence at Cisco Systems, Inc. since January 2006.

Before Cisco Joost had senior management positions at several high tech companies in Europe and the USA. He also did consultancy work for the EC, DG Infso.  In total over 25 years international experience in strategy, business development, intelligence and management.

Joost represents Cisco as trustee at the Marketing Science Institute (USA) and is member of: European Marketing Academics, Esomar, Institute for Study of Business Markets (USA) and European Institute for Advanced Studies in Management. 

He is visiting lecturer at some the business schools in Europe and the USA to teach market intelligence. Currently he does research on the ROI of Market Intelligence.

Joost regularly speaks at conferences. He is a dynamic, charismatic presenter, interacts with the audience and has the ability to explain difficult topics in an easy understandable way, with a touch of humor.

Education:

BSc in electronics (NL), MBA in strategy (magna cum laude) from UAMS (B), Management at the Institute of Business Science (NL), Corporate Strategy at Harvard (USA), Market Intelligence, Wisconsin University, (USA), Data modeling, analysis and statistics, SAS (USA)

Finally, he is married to Ann with 3 children and has resided in Belgium since 1989.

January 2010, it is time for good resolutions! One of these might be to share best practices with your peers and learn what is happening at the moment in the competitive intelligence world. To help you achieve that goal, Markintell has updated the event section of the web site with 10 CI events to watch out for. We have picked up only the major ones. Please feel free to add others for the benefit of the Markintell community! Find below -and also in the events section of Markintell Website- the 10 selected events: 

January 2010

• When: 10-13 Jan 2010
• Organizer: Frost & Sullivan
• Event: 17th Annual Competitive Intelligence 2010: A Frost & Sullivan Executive MindXchange. Strategic Competitive Insights to Propel Profit and Growth
• Location: Richmond
• Country: Canada
• Link: http://www.tsnn.com/profile.asp?EventID=19262&CatID=30&partner=techweb

• When: Wednesday 27 and Thursday 28 January 2010
• Organizer: VIB Pharma
• Event: Competitive Intelligence in Pharma
• Location: Nice
• Country: France
• Link: http://www.ciinpharma-events.com/

 February 2010:

• When: Friday 26 February 2010
• Organizer: Prediction Market Cluster
• Event: Collective Intelligence Summit: Leading Enterprise Social Media and Prediction Markets
• Location: Seattle
• Country: USA
• Link: http://pmcluster.com/Prediction%20Markets/SEA10.htm

 March 2010:

• When: March 9-12, 2010
• Organizer: SCIP
• Event: SCIP 2010 International Conference
• Location: Washington DC
• Country: USA
• Link: http://www.scip.org/content.cfm?itemnumber=9065

• When: March 17th & 18th, 2010
• Organizer: Reed Expositions
• Event: Documation 2010
• Location: Paris
• Country: France
• Link: http://www.documation.fr/site/GB,C1361,I1093.htm

 September 2010:

• When: September 21-22, 2010
• Organizer: Pharma CI
• Event: Pharma CI Conference & Exhibition
• Location: Sheraton Parsippany Hotel, New Jersey
• Country: USA
• Link: http://www.pharmaciconference.com/

 October 2010:

• When: fall of 2010
• Organizer: SCIP
• Event: Asian CI Summit
• Location: Kula Lumpur
• Country: Malaysia
• Link: http://www.scipblog.org/?p=47

 November 2010:

• When: November 16-18, 2010
• Organizer: KM World
• Event: KM World 2010
• Location: Renaissance Hotel, Washington DC
• Country: USA
• Link: http://kmworldblog.com/2009/11/kmw2010-in-dc-nov-16-18/

 Fall of 2010:

•  When: fall of 2010
• Organizer: SCIP
• Event: Latin American CI Summit
• Location: not defined
• Country: not defined
• Link: http://www.scipblog.org/?p=47

• When: fall of 2010
• Organizer: SCIP
• Event: European CI Summit
• Location: not defined
• Country: not defined
• Link: http://www.scipblog.org/?p=47