All Intelligence Briefings that have been published by Rodenberg Tillman & Associates can be found here.
“If generals can’t do without good intelligence, why do CEOs think they can?”This statement is one of my favorites. Be aware that the vast majority of companies do not have a strategic intelligence capability in place. Almost every company may be surprised by changing market conditions and disruption.
Nations and enterprises are in the business of managing a set of competencies and skills to achieve prosperity for the one and profit for the other. The Yearbook currently covers 63 countries and is based on 340 criteria grouped into four competitiveness factors: economic performance, government and business efficiency, and infrastructure.
In the previous post “How do we manage disruption?” we described how Nokia’s market position in 2010 was compared with a blazing oil platform leaving employees the choice of either jumping into the water even it was 100 meters deep and freezing cold, or staying on the rig and getting burned. In 1996, Intel’s Andy Grove of Intel published “Only the Paranoid Survive”.
How do we manage disruption? Or more importantly, how do we recognize its dynamics, anticipate its likely effects, develop and manage responses and sustain the necessary changes? Disruption can come in any number of forms. These include shifts in the dynamics of competitive advantage, technological breakthroughs, shifts in cost structure, new rivals entering markets from converging sectors, regulatory upheavals, economic downturns, idiosyncratic geopolitical and natural events, unforeseen internal company events, deregulation, re-regulation, and political turbulence.
Most decision-making in our organizations is still based on intuition and gut feeling. The aim of strategic competitive intelligence is critical thinking fueled by analysis and driven by perspectives over and above facts.Analysis is key and is a precondition for creating strategic intelligence. In analyzing data, we tend to discern patterns early, jump to conclusions, ignore contradictory information or take other mental shortcuts.
Strategy is about shaping the future. There is, however, no guarantee that the future will turn out the way you want. You can use strategy to figure out how to achieve your purpose and ambitions. You move between where you want to go (ends) and what you need to do to get there (means). A great strategy is the quickest route from means to ends to shape your future.
Do you recognize this statement? Think also about the Key Performance Indicators in your organizations, which are seen by management as essential tools telling them if their business is on target or veering off course. They are still, however, also tools for measurement. What should we think of these Key Predictive Indicators?
“The more threatening externalities become for a company, the more there is a need to have strategic intelligence in place. Every company faces a continuous flow of threatening externalities”This statement is clear to everybody. But to foresee those threatening externalities, companies need to be able to monitor them in a timely fashion. A couple of years ago, I gave presentations about the “Management of Insights” and the “Management of Foresight” at the Dutch National Marketing Insights Event.
Courage is necessary to make change possible. And intellectual courage is necessary to challenge conventional wisdom and the imagination of new possibilities. Leadership must refuse to accept limits or stop at industry boundaries. Lack of courage prevents positive change at all levels. Look at ineffective politicians who shift positions based on polling data, not on their convictions. Managers equivocate in response to new initiatives, observe struggles without support and without resources.
The word crisis refers to a decisive moment or turning-point, which the euro never seems to reach. The single currency’s complaint is more like a chronic illness that is neither serious enough to kill the patient nor weak enough to be easily cured.Employment in the public sector: Is this a new time-bomb?