About August Jackson

Thank you for visiting my blog.  This is where I’ve captured some of my thoughts about competitive intelligence, strategy, information technology and consumer electronics.  The overall theme here is anticipating disruption and opportunity that emerging technologies make possible.  These are the topics that interest me intensely, and I suspect they interest you also.  I hope you’ll take some time to look through the entries here and share your own thoughts.

Here are three things that I invite you to do if you would like to keep up with the latest news and topics that I’m tracking:

1. Subscribe to this blog’s RSS feed by clicking here.
2. Follow me on Twitter.  On Twitter I am @8of12.  I post to Twitter several times a day.
3. Subscribe to my podcast The Competitive Intelligence Podcast here.

Here are a few of the posts that I think illustrate the best this blog has to offer:

• Scenario Analysis of The Telecommunications Industry
• How to Ask for Recommendations on LinkedIn
• I Love My MiFi
• Bruce Bueno de Mesquita On Predicting Decision-Maker Actions
• Moving CI from Information-Driven Inquiry to Decision-Support Consultancy
• Your Competitor Doesn’t Always Look Like You
• Medical Outsourcing

If you like these blog entries and topics, you may also enjoy these presentations:

• “Scenario Analysis: Planning for Uncertain Futures”
• “Cast a Wide Research Net and Save Time with RSS”
• “Using the Internet to Research Private Companies “
• “Anticipating Competitive Threats to Global Growth Strategies”
• “Social Network Analysis for Competitive Intelligence Insight”

 

I have been quoted in the media:

August Jackson, a market intelligence analyst at Ernst Young (formerly at Verizon), says he wants his co-workers to talk up their work, just not “specifically what they’re working on today.” But he’s more than happy to take advantage of those making this mistake at other companies. He steadfastly follows competitors’ executives and employees on Twitter and LinkedIn. “And I’m really happy that Google+ recently added a search function,” he adds.

“The Spy Who Liked Me,” Forbes 02 November 2011

You can reveal hidden pages by doing Google searches such as: “filetype: doc site: companyname,” says August Jackson, a senior competitive intelligence analyst for Ernst & Young in McLean, Va. http://www.ey.com/ Change the file type to .pdf, .xls, or .ppt to turn up data or presentations. “It’s surprising how many companies put this information up and think, ‘If I don’t link to it, no one will find it,’” Jackson says. You also can view the site’s source code to see the meta-tags or key words being used to optimize its position in searches.

“12 Ways to (Legally) Spy on Your Competitors,” Entrepreneur 18 November 2011.

Contact August

E-mail: august at augustjackson dot net

Twitter: http://www.twitter.com/8of12

LinkedIn

Professional Biography

August Jackson is a competitive intelligence and strategy professional who focuses on the role of information and data as the basis for competitive advantage. He is an Associate Director of Strategic Market Intelligence at Ernst & Young LLP.

Prior to joining Ernst & Young August spent over 10 years in the telecommunications industry at marketing and competitive intelligence roles with Verizon, British Telecom and AT&T’s Concert joint venture. He has also worked with government agencies to help them apply commercial intelligence methods and technology to government intelligence challenges.

Jackson cofounded Mosi Systems in 2010 to help organizations improve insight and foresight using cutting edge technologies to organize and analyze data and information.

He blogs at http://augustjackson.net and also produces the Competitive Intelligence Podcast which can be found at http://www.cipodcast.com. August can be reached by e-mail at august@augustjackson.net and you can follow him on Twitter @8of12.

August received his B.A. in International Affairs from The George Washington University and his MBA from the University of Maryland. He resides in Sterling, Virginia.