Intelligence for Strategic ImpactIntelligence for Strategic Impact

Michael Chender, CEO

?Consider….

How does your organization really find out what “it knows”

The corporate intelligence challenge

• In a highly competitive environment, accurate distribution of timely information and knowledge is key to:– Capturing windows of opportunity– Anticipating competitor threats

• Good unstructured data search and analytics are necessary, but no longer sufficient

The standard strategic intelligence model

• Centralized group collects and analyzes information

• Sent up the ladder to top executives

• Responds to specific requests in timely fashion

• Episodic looks at specific competitors or opportunities

What’s wrong with this picture?

• Out of phase with current competitive realities– is not effective in understanding complex, quickly-

changing situations• Only services a fraction of the users who

make decisions based on real-time competitive information

• Doesn’t draw on the greatest resource for information and intelligence - employees

• Doesn’t see events arising at the periphery of what’s being focused on

Rounding out the picture

Going Beyond the Myth of the Expert

• Complex situations need a diversity of viewpoints

• From any one perspective we see a sliver of the picture

Turning hindsight into foresight

• Looking at same things again and again

• Consistent patterns

• Early warning signals

• Connecting thedots

The random genius of the individual in a global enterprise…

• Information flows globally• That information is filtered

“locally,” absent a way to capture it

• Result: corporate eyes and ears are disconnected from the brain

A rich untapped resource

Early Warnings

Personal filters

The “gold” of critical information is in the high grade zone of real-time human intelligence

Why is this unrecognized?

• We all operate from mental models • Global vs local

If recognized, why is it untapped?

• It’s beyond our personal ability to store and recall

• Most companies are too busy dealing with the challenge of text-based information overload

• It’s a cultural as well as software challenge

Capturing human input in a useful way has been a pain

• What to capture? • Hard to maintain enthusiasm and deal with “black

hole” syndrome• Time-consuming and frustrating to find what you

need • Difficult to tie random comments to accurate alerts

for action across diverse groups

Blogging and wikis help somewhat, but they can also create more info overload

But greater pain is a good motivator for innovation

• “I could have told you that would never fly.”

• “How come we didn’t know about that?”

• “You mean we looked at that before?”

• “How the heck did that happen?”

Joining software and culture

• “We don’t share information” is usually experience with bad design

• Design needs to support – Extreme ease of use– Integration with work processes

• The user is already overloaded, and needs– Compelling reasons to participate– Visibility and value for the enterer

• Usage modeled at the top

..for knowledge to power competitive advantage in growth

Design keys:• Configure the system to the precise

information needs of the users• Make knowledge actionable for specific

growth-related business functions • Allow for true “early warning” alerts• Integrate human knowledge with structured

and unstructured data

The right software allows networked intelligence

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Michael Chendermchender@coemergence.comwww.coemergence.com