The forgotten source.
 
Dennis Emerson, Oregon Competitive Information Services, demerson@proaxis.com
 
 
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Summary:  CI information exists beyond the secondary information sources. Company employees can identify and contribute unique information on a competitor’s capabilities and intent when they are properly involved in the CI process. Dennis Emerson provides a real-life example of their value.
 
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Look around you
 
Everyone knows, or should know, that the foundation of being a successful CI professional is sources, sources, and sources. We use document sources, online database sources, and of course human sources. Human sources may, in fact, be the most important information source. Document and online databases are great for telling us what has already happened or are good for developing with some analysis a good judgment of a competitor’s intentions. They also help corroborate information we already have. But they can't get us into the mind of the CEO, the board room, or the R&D center. And lets face it, the chances of our  having a source in one of those areas is pretty remote. If we do, we most likely are behaving unethically or illegally.

But who says that the source has to be a competitor’s CEO, or director of marketing or any person ‘in the know’? What do you think the chances are that one of your fellow employees may know something that you don't know?

I think that the chances are pretty good.
 
Part of the CI cannon is that 80-90 percent of what a company needs to know about its competitive environment is located within that company. The information could be in an employee’s desk, file cabinet, computer hard-drive, the document archives (i.e. "the basement"), or the corporate information center. Based on my own experience this is a plausible assumption.
 
 
Right under your nose

Let me tell you a true story. I gave a presentation on CI to a mid-sized graphics design company. It was rather informal, more like a company retreat, and it was attended by all the company's employees, from the lowest ranke up to the CEO. I reviewed the basics of CI: what it is, what it isn't, how to do it, how not to do it, and why it should be done. The presentation was politely received, but did not catch the attention of a large portion of the group. So I decided to get them to interact.

I asked the group if any of them had actually spent any time thinking about their competitive environment. Only a couple of management employees raised their hand.  I then asked if anyone could identify who their direct competitors were. Again, the same management employees raised their hands. I varied the question to cover customers and suppliers. Same result.
 
I then asked if any of them had ever been briefed on what management considers to be their competitive environment. Had management identified those companies that can have the most direct impact upon the success or failure of their company? Nobody raised his or her hand.
 
THUD!
 
 
Get everyone involved  

I looked at the CEO with the kind of look that I use to get my kid’s knees shaking.  I asked him, "Do you spend time thinking about your competitive environment"? He said, "Yes, of course." "Do you have an organized effort with which to gather competitive information?" He answered, "Well, no, our competitive environment is rather small and local. There isn't much we can do when it comes to using secondary sources."
 
That made sense to me. Since secondary sources seem to be rather limited, I suggested that people could be a good source of competitive information.  He said, "I can't just call up my competitor and ask him out to play some golf, then start pumping him for information.” I thought to myself that he could if he knew about the art of elicitation. But realistically he was right. So I said, "It doesn't have to be the competitor’s CEO."
 
I had the CEO stand up and identify those companies (competitors, suppliers and customers) that he considered to be most important, and why they were important. I then asked the group what they thought about what the CEO had said.
 
A couple of hands went up and one of the employees said, "If had known that, I could have given you some information on company X. My wife's cousin used to work for them.  I hear that they had to take out a loan recently in order to make payroll."

THUD!

I have had other experiences similar to this. I have worked in an industry in which it seemed that everyone knew everyone else, where there is a lot of "cross-fertilization" of employees between competitors and other industry players. This situation happens in many industries.
 
As a former military intelligence professional I believe in ‘all source intelligence,’ bringing all intelligence assets to bear on a particular target. Otherwise we may be neglecting a potentially valuable competitive information source: the production worker, the grunt on the battlefield, the person who makes the widget that makes a company successful.
 
Everyone has a circle of friends and family.  And that circle overlaps other circles of other families and friends, and so on. Chances are that someone within your company knows someone that knows someone that works at company X.
 
So, it behooves the CI professional not only to interact with those in management circles (it is politically wise to do so) but also to get down to the floor and interact with the employees at all levels. Learn what they know; learn whom they know.
 
It is in the best interest of the CI professional, and the CEO that all employees know what the company's competitive environment is. The employees should be told the strengths, weakness, opportunities, and threats the company faces and the names of all other companies that have a direct impact on the success or failure of their company. This not only leads to more eyes and ears on the target, but also to a better understanding of the company's business environment as the employees better understand why certain decisions have to be made (e.g. layoffs, new hires, product lines shutting down). Employee involvement in your company’s CI effort helps create a more personal stake in the company's success. This in turn, leads to a more focused, motivated, involved, and productive workforce.
 
CI should involve everyone in the organization.

 
Background:
 
Dennis Emerson owns his own CI consulting business, Oregon Competitive Information Services, in Lebanon, Oregon.  He is the Oregon Chapter of SCIP Co-Coordinator, having established the chapter, along with Meei Lum, in  1999..  Dennis has been a member of SCIP since 1998 but has been doing CI work since 1980.   His experience is mostly with small to medium sized manufacturing companies. Dennis is also a retired US Air Force intelligence officer having worked in both human intelligence (HUMINT) and communications intelligence (COMINT).  He is married to Vicki, who is also his business partner.

 

Copyright 2002 Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals

SCIP.online, volume 1 number 11, June 18, 2002.