Working with individuals
From Starting a Competitive Intelligence Function by the Competitive Intelligence Foundation you can read the entire chapter Harmonizing Competitive Intelligence, by Jens Thieme - Head of Global Market & Competitive Intelligence - here at MarkIntell.com.
You’ll step into many backyards – respect the “owners” integrity and create buy-in.
If this all sounds pretty logical and simple, well: it wasn’t. There were road blocks and potential killer criteria for many activities. The more careful preparation tries to address such issues the better the chances for success.
Depending on who is mandated this task to harmonize intelligence activities and depending on her/his experience, network strength and internal acceptance/reach - significant effort and time might have to be factored in when planning for any major change.
As mentioned before: harmonization of any business process will very likely impact various individuals and their work environment or at least some of their routines. You want to make sure to secure the buy-in of as many as possible of those impacted colleagues. Managing their expectations well will present you as a trusted expert and understanding colleague who respects their tasks and activities. Future benefit for these colleagues will likely generate enthusiasm on their part. Make clear what is needed from them as well to achieve these benefits.
For example a Business Development Manager who will be guided through a market analysis with straight forward tools and techniques plus simplified access to crucial marked studies will have to invest some time up-front. (S)he might help to identify market study locations on internal networks for consolidation or identify key intelligence topics on various routines and projects. This way the intelligence function could target these requirements much better. And here again: anything that proves valuable can be extended to all other units replacing fragmented approaches.
Don’t forget to celebrate successes and reward outstanding contributions. This, in turn, will support internal promotion of your efforts significantly if clear value for the business is transported with the message.
Hint: Always keep a positive attitude towards anyone who was previously involved in the intelligence activities. You don’t want to finger-point to anyone who might have worked very hard on something that was just not well enough structured or supported. Oftentimes colleagues are all too happy to join in to change something for the better if their past efforts are respected as opposed to be neglected or worse: slammed as a cause for the due change. Invite your colleague’s performance; you’ll be surprised of the energizing factor and the help for your own project.
From experience: any project that targets serious improvements across organizational boundaries tends to end up being much bigger as originally anticipated. After several first steps mandates might have to be adjusted and more, broader support to be established. It would be counter-productive to risk a significant bottom line impact for the organization just because some initial, smaller steps caused early failure or limitations. Consequently executive buy-in needs renewal when plans change or scopes broaden.
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Harmonizing Competitive Intelligence