And then? Most of the time it stops.

Stakeholders see your findings, they may study it, but the question is: what will they do with it? Do they understand the implications and impact of the findings.

Sometimes they don’t understand at all what the analysis tells, sometimes they have a vague idea what this data can do for them. Seldom they completely know what to do.

I am surprised that so often I got stakeholders looking at me with big question-marks in their eyes, saying: “Great report, but what would you recommend I do now?”

The famous: “Now what?” question comes to the table. What would be your answer, Mr. Intelligence?

“Well, that is up to you, I did the analysis, here are the results, so, please use it in the way you want it.

Why are we saying that? Because we presume that the stakeholder, a person in strategy, business development, sales management, should know what to do with the report.

I am sorry to say that you, as an intelligence professional, should not take that for granted.

This is to a certain extent because of the way these reports are written.  They are not clear and crisp enough, sometimes acumen are used that the stakeholder is not familiar with (TAM, SOW, etc).  And so, difficult to understand. Bur also the analysis does not include (by default) what actions stakeholders should or could take. Although we are convinced that the stakeholder is a professional that knows how to run his own business well.

I am a professional of my own body. Yes, I am! I know what to do to stay healthy. I do sports, make sure I have a right work-life balance (try to), take care of my food, no smoking and so on.

However, suddenly I don’t feel well, I go to the doctor and she recommends to have my blood tested.

The doctor takes a sample of my blood, which goes to the laboratories. There, great professionals analyse my blood and even better, they make a big report with all their findings. On sugar, cholesterol, hemoglobin and so on.

What do you think my question, as patient, would be when I see the report on my blood condition?

HDL:                                  85 mg/dL

LDL:                                 140 mg/dL

Triglyderides:                    1,6 mmo/L

Total serum iron:              75 µg/dL

And so on.

My question is: “So what”?

But even when it is more or less translated into more normal language like: your cholesterol is too high, your iron is low and your sugar level is high, I still will ask the question: “Now what”?

Because, although I try to keep my body in the best possible shape. I don’t know how to interpret the results of this blood test.

Therefore I need a doctor to explain what the results mean and what I can do to improve the condition of my body: e.g. less fat, no sugar, more green vegetables, more sports, stop smoking, etc. (you name it)

This is exactly the same with our stakeholders. We, as intelligence professionals,  we do the diagnoses, great analysis, make big reports (in power point) and give that to the stakeholder. It comes across as if we say: “Here are the findings and good luck!”

The stakeholder will look at the report, look back to you and say: “Now what”?

So, I believe that an intelligence professional should be both the analyst and the doctor, explaining what the findings mean and what could be done to improve the situation. Recommendation, just like your generalist will do to you.

In my experience, as director market and business intelligence, I have seen the appreciation from many stakeholders if you play the doctor and add recommendations on top of the explanation of your findings.

But, in order to do that, I think intelligence people need to become a consultant, a trusted advisor, just like your doctor.

Would you agree? Or do you have a different opinion?

Please let me know.

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 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

The carefully crafted image that famous brands spend years developing is painstakingly maintained through a combination of PR, marketing and sleek advertising. But such are the vagaries of public opinion, it can all be undone in the time it takes to publish a tweet. The important lesson for businesses to learn is that reputation is not something that can be manufactured and set in stone. It has to be sustained over time through ongoing engagement and interaction with customers. As Warren Buffet once said, “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you’ll do things differently.”

Of course, learning to do things differently is a challenge for companies who are trying to grapple with the unprecedented growth of social media. A recent report from Forrester showed that 86% of online US adults and 79% of European online adults engage with social media. It’s further estimated that over a billion tweets were posted every 5 days on Twitter in 2011. The rules of engagement have shifted permanently and companies must adapt or die. It’s no longer enough to sit back and rely on traditional media to act as a filter for news announcements. Traditional media is no longer in control of setting the agenda for public discourse and it is being displaced by a growing chorus of informed and engaged consumers. This non-linear media landscape has many benefits for companies, in terms of facilitating direct access to consumers, but the advantages (if not managed correctly) also carry an associated risk of reputational damage. It’s important for companies to mitigate this risk by adopting a social media engagement strategy which incorporates a three-pronged approach: anticipate potential threats, diffuse negative sentiment and amplify positive sentiment. Reputation is the most important intangible asset that a business has, but it also has a real subsequent impact on share price and profits. No company can afford to turn a blind eye to its reputation.

It’s difficult to anticipate all potential reputational threats and sometimes a crisis emerges out of nowhere and unleashes severe damage. Unless you’ve been living under a rock for the past few weeks you will be aware of the internet furore which almost cost Papa John’s its reputation as one of America’s favourite pizza chains. Papa John’s is the third largest pizza restaurant in the United States and has a presence in at least 30 other countries. On its website the restaurant chain proudly boasts about its ‘legendary customer service’. However, in just a few short minutes its entire reputation was compromised by the actions of one single employee. On January 7th a Papa John’s employee identified a customer as ‘lady chinky eyes’ on a sales receipt. After examining her receipt, the customer, Minhee Cho, posted an image of it on Twitter with the following tweet ‘“Hey @ PapaJohns just FYI my name isn’t ‘lady chinky eyes.” The image quickly went viral. Three hours after posting the offensive receipt on Twitter, the Huffington post blogged about the incident in an article headlined: ‘Lady Chinky Eyes’: Papa John’s Store Calls Woman Racial Slur In Receipt’. It took a further three hours for Papa John’s to respond to the incident and offer an apology. The spokesperson eventually reassured the public that the employee in question was being fired.

This incident operates as a stark reminder to businesses that they need to be more reactive when their reputation is under threat. The considerable delay in responding to the issue meant that a storm of protest was allowed to develop. Once Papa John’s responded to the incident in a clear, unequivocal statement, the online backlash dissipated. It is vital that companies engage at the earliest stage to counter negative commentary and put forward a statement outlining what steps the company has taken to address the issue. By failing to act swiftly companies risk escalating the problem and inflicting long term reputational damage. .

For information about Digimind’s Social Media Engagement Solution go to www.digimind.com

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

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.

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

Indeed knowledge managers definitely have an inward view about their function although they seem to agree outside data or web data would benefit their company knowledge repository. As a matter of fact, many knowledge managers I discussed with, know intelligence practitioners within their firm and have been discussing some solutions to aggregate outside data with internal data.

I noticed a similar shift couple of years ago when few business intelligence managers mentioned they consider competitive intelligence as a part of their discipline.

As a result, the intelligence vocabulary gets richer although a little fuzzier. Maybe you’ve noticed some expressions including sales intelligence, biotech intelligence, technical intelligence, customer intelligence not to mention market intelligence.

What is your opinion on that topic, how do you define your discipline today and how do you envision it will evolve over time?

Chris.

The first keynote speaker, Stephane Garelli, Director of the world competitiveness center, gave a well documented opening speech using his unique voice and a good sense of humour  to present the way the economic world is evolving and what the future holds. It was a fascinating moment for the audience. We had a break from our day jobs to be engaged  and have a better understanding of the current financial crisis and the impact the developed ,emerging markets and of the developing countries.Garelli mentioned the mandatory increase  in taxes on both individuals and the corporate world. The impact of the Asian boom on our daily consumptions habits, for example the production of one kilo of meat requires 15,000 litres of water? With an explosion of the Asian demand for meat in the next 20 years, it is likely that governments from the developed countries will need to regulate their own consumption to avoid water shortage.

Peter Richardson, Nokia’s Head of Strategic Intelligence, gave a very good presentation about market intelligence activities within his company. Peter explained that the main issue for companies like Nokia is not to identify the common trends concerning consumer’s habits, but really to forecast the pace at which they will impact our daily lives. The major trends like web social medias or tactile interfaces have been identified very early.However, Nokia did not understand how fast they would penetrate the market and how radically they change consumer’s behaviour. It is a difficult challenge, for leading brands, to anticipate the radical changes brought by new players breaking the usual market rules i.e. Apple with iphone, Google with web based apps.

Another speaker I enjoyed was Joost Drieman, Cisco’s Market and Business Intelligence Europe director. Joost Drieman is a brilliant professional with incredible communication skills. What captured my attention was his“don’t look at the competition” message. He explained it is much more important to understand consumer’s needs in order to create new markets than monitoring the daily moves of the competition. He stated that Cisco became a world leader, by focusing on customer satisfaction and providing innovative ideas, instead of copying existing ones. There’s a discussion about this subject going on Ning CI platform (see here), don’t hesitate to express your viewpoint on this subject matter. Joost Drieman provided information on how he manages his team, assisting them to become an internal McKinsey. MI people are asked to avoid basic answers to incoming demands, but rather provide valuable insight and high-level analysis, sometimes leading to unanswered problems. “Don’t just be good, be excellent” is the rallying cry of M. Drieman, who definitely sets the standard of market intelligence at the highest level.

A lot of valuable speakers brought their ideas to the table, like Daphne TOMLINSON from Siemens Building technologies CI team, Arik JOHNSON from Aurora WDC or Christian FREY from SIKA. It’s real food for thought for all CI and MI practitioners. Congratulations to all of them who decided to share their best practices. If you want to suggest a city for the next SCIP Europe meeting, please send an email to the Scip team.

We can’t wait for the next highly informative, educative and entertaining forum.
I will leave you with great words of Alvin Toffler : The illiterate of the 21st century will not be those who cannot read and write, but those who cannot learn, unlearn, and relearn.
 

Over the past couple of years you have come to know me as the founder and owner of Markintell.com, a regular speaker at SCIP and SCIA events, publisher of various intelligence related works and (some of you at least) a CI colleague and friend.

With a very recent career change I have decided to transfer Markintell.com into the hands of a very professional, traditional and well embedded CI solutions provider - Digimind. I was just not in the position to contribute enough anymore as my private live and career options shifted quite substantially (incl. relocation, new industry and job position).

Sad and nostalgic at first, both the personal changes and the new ownership for Markintell.com excite me now very much as you, the user, will be served much better from now on with valuable, frequent content and I can concentrate entirely on the new field.

As a member of the Board of Directors of SCIP I will still remain well connected with CI and continue to serve the global CI community. Especially within my function as SCIP’s Chairman of the International Advisory Committee (IAC).

Please feel free to follow me on the established business networks, contact me in any regard (both via www.thie.me) and receive my gratitude for having been an excellent audience to me on Markintell.com.

Finally, please continue to support the new owner of the site with ideas, suggestions, contributions and challenges to the site will continue to grow along your needs as CI professionals.

My best wishes for your future both personally and professionally, Jens Thieme (www.thie.me)

“Intelligence education is currently provided through a variety of programs, institutions, and degrees. This list focuses on those educational institutions that offer courses, certificates, certification and degrees in competitive intelligence or intelligence analysis as of September 2009. The primary criteria for inclusion is that the organization provides accredited intelligence training in information or analysis. Preference is given to organizations with an .edu designation (US) or are recognized institutions of higher education….” - writes Bonnie Hohof of SCIP in her summary.

This updated list will also be discussed at the Swiss Competitive Intelligence Association’s (SCIA) 2009 Education Day September 29 in Zurich.

Maybe this example can be picked up and further developed in other countries? Competitive Intelligence as a government supported entity reaching out to other economies shows clearly the growing importance of CI in Europe.