Competitive Intelligence

In the news recently, there was an incident in which an airline used private investigators to get confidential flight information on a rival airline. The private investigators accomplished their objective by

A) Breaking into their website and
B) Going through the garbage of the rival’s senior executives

Is this an example of Competitive Intelligence?
No, the incident described is a case of industrial espionage. Hacking into a company’s website and taking documents from someone’s garbage is certainly not CI, and goes against the spirit and practice of the profession.
What could have be done to protect the company’s confidential information?
At the risk of sounding like I am blaming the victim, I say that every company is responsible for protecting and disposing of confidential information. In the Internet environment, maintaining a robust firewall is the responsibility of the IT department and each company must ensure that sufficient funds are provided to help the IT department to hire the right people and technology to do its job properly.
As for the disposal of documents containing confidential information, a company has to set the guidelines and provide and funds and technology to ensure that nothing is lost. There are contractors who provide document disposal services, but I am of the opinion that it is much safer if a company handles the job internally. This means purchasing shredders that reduce documents into confetti, not strips.
Why buy shredders that turn documents into confetti and not just strips of paper? Technology is the answer. There are professionals who, with the aid of specialized software, can scan strips of shredded documents and reconstruct important documents, thus revealing the plans of their competitors. Therefore, it is imperative that the proper equipment is purchased.
The disposal of confidential documents is not an issue that can be allowed to be sidetracked by budgetary concerns.
Finally, if an executive does bring confidential material to his/her place of residence, then standards should be set about their proper disposal.
Such documents must not be thrown out with regular garbage.
Either they should be burned or returned to the office to be properly destroyed.      

The issue of proving a CI unit’s value to a company has been an issue that has been a stumbling block for a long time. The response to your question can fill volumes and has been the subject of many articles, books and seminars. I will try to put in a few words some suggestions that are actionable.

1. Internal Agency Approach

Since many CI activities can be outsourced, the CI unit is actually an internal agency. And as CI manager you should obtain agreement with your internal clients on how to measure the value of the CI unit’s deliverables.

It is important that all internal clients sign off on how success is measured from the outset in order to avoid arguments later with regard to the validity of the measurements.

2. Behave as a Profit Centre

The first step is to take the initiative and have your unit behave like a profit centre, as opposed to a discretionary cost centre.

Since all profit centres have quarterly and annual objectives, the CI unit should have objectives as well. As CI Manager, you should set objectives with internal clients on a per-project basis. Have your internal clients fill out a project form indicating the reason(s) for a CI project, the set objectives of the project, how the project will help the company, who or what division will benefit from the results of the project, and set measurements of success for the project.

Also, the objectives of the CI unit should be aligned with the medium- and long-term objectives of the organization. The established corporate culture should be respected, or else the CI unit will run the risk of being considered a rogue group working against the interests of the organization.

In short, a CI unit should demonstrate value for each program or project.

3. Understand Value from the Client’s Point of View

As CI manager, you are an expert in CI and understand the value of the outputs you are producing. But don’t make the assumption that you and your clients will view the value of CI outputs in the same way.

Follow-up on all reports for feedback on the CI outputs. It is possible that the client may not have expressed his/her needs properly and thus the results were not what the client wanted. Garbage in, garbage out. Therefore, it is important to ask internal clients whether the CI unit is delivering the value that was intended. Is the value being measured correctly? Is communication of CI needs and CI results achieving the objectives set out at the outset?

Conducting regular customer satisfaction surveys will create a feedback loop to help the CI unit close performance gaps as perceived by internal clients. Remember that your internal clients are your partners in achieving a shared vision for success.

Conclusion

As CI Manager, it is your responsibility to continuously sell and justify the existence for the CI unit. Until the value of the unit has been proven measured over many projects, there will always be questions regarding the value of CI.

In short, as CI Manager you must:

• Use an internal agency approach to set the objectives and measurements for success with internal clients
• Promote the CI unit as a profit centre, or a business unit that will help other business units achieve profitability. For this, standards should be established to measure success or failure
• Understand success from your client’s point of view. The establishment of a feedback loop will allow you gauge satisfaction of your clients and make adjustments accordingly. Collaboration with internal clients is vital for the success of the CI unit.

Helpful Hint:

A collaborative approach with Internal Client will help the CI Manager gain visibility within an organization and strengthen the CI Unit’s credibility through the creation of established measurements for success.