As a panelist I wanted to provide some feedback on this extert talk where we focused on the global aspect of CI.

All panelists introduced their individual situation which and the challenges we all face in a global setup.

From local sources that need to be globalized and brought into global context and attribute to the global strategies to control of complex global CI projects and whetehr there are providers that are global enough and more was discussed at this expert round.

It was interesting to learn about many similarities between the companies represented by the (ABB, SAP, Ciba, Alstrom, Strategie & Innovazione).

Clear drivers for true global impact and success have been identified as integrated processes like business plans and marketing programs that are globally managed, global systems and tools such as CRM and process driven intelligence databases (especially when they include intelligence project management components) and strong leadership plus management buy-in.

Starting a bit slow the discussions became quite active throughout, centering around managebility of global teams and functions in CI.

It would ne neat for any additional idea and key success factor for true global CI to be posted here.

Expert Talks: Global Competitive Intelligence

Being given the honour to facilitate the expert talks on the highly multifaceted topic “Global Competitive Intelligence” in Bad Nauheim in November I would like to summarize some additional issues I got from the discussion and its preparation.

As Jens Thieme put it already in his comment it started with all panellists introducing themselves and their individual situation and then an agile discussion came up involving the audience. Unfortunately time was running and so we scratched the surface of many aspects only in the time frame of only 45 minutes.

As the facilitator I had collected some “initial statements” already prior to the discussion via phone and email. Not all topics and ideas have been addressed explicitly in the discussion, so I am hoping the following aspects might be helpful to highlight some further challenges of Global CI and possible ways to counter them.

The five experts statements circled around:

1. Business plan templates & process embedment
2. It´s about cultures, languages and learning
3. Defining Global CI and standards. Local presence and career options
4. The real challenge is fragmentation
5. Demonstrate the CI benefits to users, improve processes,tools and coordination

I think this is indeed a good collection of expertise and a fruitful basis for further discussions. At this occasion I would like to thank the participants from ABB, SAP, Ciba, Alstom, Strategie & Innovazione for their well-reflected input again. (n.b.: I decided not to mention the authors’ names or companies per statement as this was probably not meant for publication originally).

ad 1. Business plan templates & process embedment

a) Planning is boring & time consuming! -> Wrong!

Create and use business plan templates !!

- Promote common language and goals (create excitement if impact and importance are understood)

- Provide structured frameset (save a boatload of time)

- Focus on accepted techniques and standards (feels right, doesn't it?)

b) Processes are for uncreative people! -> Wrong again!

Make use of Process embedment !!

- Don't make waves, ride the ones that are here already (if THAT's not creative...)

- Global business is not a wild flower garden - you want to maximize yield again and again

- Starting from scratch always means a new, full invoice every time (recycle sources and
resources means efficiency and negotiation power)

ad 2. It´s about cultures, languages and learning

My initial statement is in reality a sum of few things to be successful when working on global CI projects, involving different cultures and languages:

a) Listen to the local colleagues/partners: they know the market and piece by piece they'll transfer you their knowledge. So you'll Learn.

b) Adapt your planned methodology according to the local colleagues/partners (localize your approach) and be flexible. You'll be more Effective.

c) Exchange results among the local experts and be open minded. Believe in Teamwork.

d) Build relationships beside completing projects. You'll create Trust.

Ad 3. Defining Global CI and standards. Local presence and career options

The topic “Global CI” can be considered from a analyst´s point of view. However, there is more to it. Input form a manager's perspective:

a) The differing ways in which a 'global CI' function can operate. Could be
- a function supporting one primary market (perhaps the EU) with lower-cost resources elsewhere in the world,
- or a global CI function could be a 'confederation' of CI professionals within a global business, each supporting either a global or regional client set.

b) Cultural ramifications of a global organization. It's important to address the 'small things' in order to run the global organization successfully. This may include everything from agreeing on common standards for spelling and numerical representations (labour vs. labor; 100.000,00 vs 100,000.00 and so on) to knowing why your German colleagues have a bank holiday on 3 October. :-)

c) The importance of being there. When we built up the global CI organization at my former company we had a few opportunities to build travel funds into our budget request, and these proved to be essential for the quality of our work.

d) Career path for global CI practitioners in the organization. What is the career path for each of your people individually in their home countries? Is their current CI job the terminal CI position they can hold, or do they have options within the intelligence community?

Ad 4. The real challenge is fragmentation

The tougher challenge faced by intelligence activities in our company is fragmentation rather than the geographic spread.

My company is very diverse and split in several different businesses, with very different intelligence needs and knowledge.

The global presence itself is not a source of problems, but a tremendous benefit. It allows us to take advantage of our presence in each country and obtain high quality, tailor-made intelligence seen through the eyes of our company - which is an incredible advantage over external intelligence providers.

The key challenges are to locate the silos in which the knowledge is located and to activate the people.

For the same reason, in highly decentralized and heterogeneous organizations such as my company, it is more common to suffer the symptoms of lack of market data than from excess of data. Until a company has not switched from the first to the second, mass intelligence tools can add very limited value.

5. Demonstrate the CI benefits to the users, improve processes, tools and coordination

a) First the requirements of the potential users have been identified, who then also started to understand the benefits they could gain from such an internal service.

b) Growing expectations from the user community are now forcing the M.I.(Market Intelligence) team to come up with improved processes and tools. Currently the supply of M.I. services meets the expectations, regarding market, customer and competitor information. With the further development of our IT-landscape, especially in the areas of integrated global marketing and sales tools (e.g. CRM) new opportunities in data management and functional enhancements appear.

c) An additional challenge is the extreme geographical distribution of the service business, that requires strong efforts in coordinating and harmonizing global processes and tools for the sake of a global common identity and overall efficiency.