Category Archives: CI

The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals 2010 International Annual Conference & Exhibition will be held March 9 – 12 in Washington, DC.  Here are my top 11 reasons I’m looking forward to the conference…

11.  Welcoming my fellow CI professionals to my city.  Washington has much to offer from the well-known landmarks of the federal cIty to the neighborhood eateries known best by the locals.

10. Watching the back-channel discussion of the conference and programs with the #scip2010 hash tag on Twitter.

9. “The Death of the CI Professional: The Changing Paradigm for Competitive Intelligence Functions and Practitioners” with Ken Sawka of Outward Insights.  Our profession is most definitely at a crossroads, and I’m looking forward to hearing Ken’s analysis of our possible futures.

8. “Using Competitive Insights to Help Develop and Implement Corporate Strategy” with Dale Fehringer of Inkwell Productions and Melanie Wing of Whirlpool.  To remain relevant, CI professionals must raise our strategy game.

7. “Say It and Sit Down: The 20/20 Communication Technique” with Judy Leavitt of Rockwell Collins.  Intelligence that cannot be communicated is not intelligence, and we can always improve how we communicate.

6. “Numbers Gone Wild: Or, Precision In, Garbage Out” with Mark Chussil of Advanced Competitive Strategies.  Some CI customers will prefer the appearance of quantitative certainty, and it’s up to us to convey the reality and opportunity that comes from uncertainty and possibility.

5. “Right Brain Intelligence for a Left Brain World: New Approaches for Competitive Analysis” with Fred Wergeles.  How do we make intuitive insights relevant to detail-oriented, sensing types?

4. “Insights from the C-Suite – A Frank Discussion” with James Cornell, CMO of Prudential Retirement.  A rare, exciting opportunity to hear from a CI customer!!

3. The Top Takeaways Panel that will conclude the conference in which my fellow program committee members, the conference attendees and I will summarize our most important revelations from the conference sessions.

2. The synthesis of the best of the traditional SCIP conference and the Frost & Sullivan MindXChange to a program that is more than the sum of its parts.

1. The once-yearly opportunity to meet face-to-face with the enthusiastic intellect community of competitive intelligence professionals.  It’s one of my favorite times of the year.

2010 International Annual Conference & Exhibition (pdf)

Since I had posted previously that I was considering running for the SCIP Board of Directors I should provide a short update that I’ve decided not to stand for election. As you’ve no doubt noticed my writing for the blog has slowed significantly as of late, and that’s a consequence of my workload and other activities. With everything that’s going on professionally I don’t believe I have the cycles needed to give a SCIP Board position the attention the role and the organization deserves.

On the plus side… I am podcasting again. Hopefully I will be able to keep the new episodes of the Competitive Intelligence Podcast coming. In addition to my recent interview with Aric Johnson I have another interview recorded with a CI thought leader waiting to be edited and published.

The call for nominations has gone out for the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) Board of Directors. I’ve been asked if I would be willing to accept a nomination for the board.  Were I to decide to accept the nomination the election committee will approve a bevy of candidates on which the general membership will vote.  My inclination is to accept the nomination and make a run for the board.  For the readers of this blog familiar with SCIP, what do you believe are the most important issues to address in a campaign?  What do you think the boards’ top priorities should be?

Earlier this summer I wrote a letter to the current SCIP Board on the issues that I felt are the top priorities of the moment.  The main driver of this letter was to comment specifically on priorities for SCIP in the context of the pending investment by the Frost & Sullivan Institute.

To the Board of Directors and the professional staff of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals:

I am writing to you in response to board member Eric Glitman’s invitation to reach out to the SCIP board following the recent membership vote to support the SCIP – Frost & Sullivan Institute merger.  While I do not claim to speak for any others, I do know that in sentiment if not in detail I am of the same opinion of many other members of the society.  I welcome a frank and open discussion with the staff, board and membership at this time of challenge and opportunity.

Through the past five years I have been an active volunteer for SCIP, including as chapter chair, author, presenter, program committee member and conference vice-chair.  I hope that these activities have sufficiently established my “pro-SCIP” bona fides.  I have also spoken publicly in support of the SCIP – FSI merger in multiple venues public and private, voted in favor of the merger and am genuinely glad that the membership voted to support the merger.

Today I want to articulate the specific steps, strategies and options that I hope the board and staff will take at this time of opportunity.

I will be brief in this letter, and I am happy to discuss these ideas in detail with any member of the board or staff.  I welcome your response.

1.  In-depth analysis for all SCIP stakeholders and a clear articulation of the relevant value SCIP intends to deliver to each of these groups.  Practitioners, vendors and academics receive different value from membership and participation in the society, and SCIP’s strategic plan must recognize these distinct communities.

2.  Active engagement of the Competitive Intelligence and related communities through new media, including outreach to members via LinkedIn, Facebook, Ning and other social media.  All organizations that intend to engage communities today need to go to where those communities are.  The vast majority of the community WILL be understanding, forgive you if you make mistakes and admire thoughtful attempts to evolve.

3.  A coherent information technology (IT) infrastructure and governance strategy.  The potential from shared services and IT insight from FSI was the main reason I voted for this merger, and my expectations are very high here.  For starters SCIP’s board should develop an IT strategy in collaboration with the staff and qualified volunteer members (I humbly volunteer).  Some of my suggestions for consideration include preference for hosted solutions that avoid up-front capital investment, open data formats, open source and low-cost software, application programming interfaces (APIs) and solutions that offer clear migration frameworks and technology roadmaps.  The purpose of an IT strategy is to ensure the ability to deliver cost-effective flexibility for innovative revenue-generating offerings to members.

4.  Diversification of SCIP’s revenue model.  I am excited to hear about the possibility of a conference in Asia-Pacific.  This is a great first step to move the society away from reliance on the annual conference.  I strongly encourage SCIP’s board and members to lay out a diverse set of options to deliver member value and generate revenue for the society.  One option that leaps immediately to mind is certification, which is something I believe our profession sorely needs.

5.  Transparent governance, including publishing of minutes from Board of Directors meetings, open meetings that coincide with national conferences and regular participation by board members and senior SCIP staff in a variety of social networks and the SCIP blog.

I welcome any comments or questions in response to these suggestions.

Any member of the board or staff should feel free to e-mail or call me.

Sincerely,

August Jackson