Intelligence 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 the dots

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 Product Development Business Development Research & Development Sales & Marketing Strategic Planning Knowledge Repository Corporate Business Unit Business Unit Business Unit Business Unit Business Unit

Michael Chender