Competitive Intelligence – do you really know?
A sometimes tongue in
cheek look at Information Survival Skills & Value Driven Personal Knowledge
Management as a solution…
by
Albert Cruywagen -
CE of quantumiii Consultants
To “know”
is the
raison d’être
for the existence of almost all
competitive intelligence
activities. Of course CI professionals need to know certain specifics in a
specific format – nevertheless – we want to “know”… In CI terms to “know”
also presupposes the gathering and systematic reworking of information in
order to gain required “knowledge”.
|
Knowledge
and Successful Economies
“The
successful economies of the future will excel at generating and
disseminating knowledge, and commercially exploiting it.”
Tony Blair
(1953–) British Prime Minister -
Lecture to the Fabian
Society,
London |
Does IT provide the
solution?
In scrutinising the
concept to “know” it becomes clear that it is dangerous for CI
professionals – if not downright silly – to expect too much from automated
(primarily IT driven) systems and to neglect the capacity of people to
provide exactly the “knowledge” they want. In CI people are the competitive
advantage.
Consider the following
two extracts from Microsoft’s 2000 Encarta World English Dictionary
focussing on the importance of “human presence” in the world of knowledge:
|
Know –
verb :-
-
hold information in the mind:
to have information firmly in the mind or committed to
memory
-
be certain about something:
to believe firmly in the truth or certainty of something
-
comprehend something:
to have a thorough understanding of something through
experience or study
-
recognise differences:
to be able to perceive the differences or distinctions
between things or people.
|
|
|
|
Knowledge –
noun :-
-
information in mind:
general awareness or possession of information, facts,
ideas, truths, or principles
-
specific information:
clear awareness or explicit information, for example of a
situation or fact
-
all that can be known:
all the information, facts, truths, and principles learned
throughout time.
|
Our people – our
greatest asset?
From the above it
ought to be clear that people – human beings – are the only creatures able
to “know” and to deal with knowledge and to add value through their complex
involvement with and in knowledge. People (we!) are the competitive
advantage and not the impressive arrays of computers and technological
wizardry we have become so dependant on.
Managing knowledge and
adding value through human involvement (also referred to as knowledge work)
has – especially for the committed CI professional – a severe downside which
impacts heavily on our ability and sometimes even willingness to be involved
with knowledge: information (knowledge?) overload.
|
Information
Overload
“An immense and ever-increasing wealth of
knowledge is scattered about the world today; knowledge that
would probably suffice to solve all the mighty difficulties of
our age, but it is dispersed and unorganized. We need a sort of
mental clearinghouse: a depot where knowledge and ideas
are received, sorted, summarized, digested, clarified and
compared.”
H.G.
Wells,
The Brain: Organization of the Modern World, 1940 |
The Impact of
Information Overload
Consider the
following: In five years the amount of knowledge that exists now will
double. This amount will continue to double every five years! And then – to
add insult to injury - we never use 80% of the information we keep…
A solution?
The solution lies not
with the computers and impressive gadgetry as is so often argued but with
deploying a special set of tools (sic!) called ISS (Information Survival
Skills)
In managing
information overload it is essential to focus on the following:
·
Develop the ability to decode
propaganda and demythologise the highly commercialised and entertainment
based culture.
·
Polite psychologists and sociologists
call it “resistance to enculturation”.
·
Ernest Hemmingway had a less elegant
term – he called it “crap detecting”.
The question
however remains: How?
To start with one
should run a test on the following assumptions commonly used in all kinds of
arguments today:
·
The Internet will change everything
and everybody.
·
Eventually, all human beings will be
connected.
·
People will have to learn a completely
new way of thinking.
Under no
circumstances can these assumptions be true unconditionally.
Non-digital Skills
In working in a knowledge world – despite
commonly argued assumptions such as the above, it is becoming increasingly
clear that non-digital skills still rule! (Sic
transit gloria mundi…)
These non-digital
skills are:
·
Interpersonal effectiveness
·
Filtering: the ability to see through
the clutter
·
Propaganda resistance
·
Breadth of knowledge
·
Tolerance for ambiguity
·
Intellectual courage
And the future?
Without promising to
be a cure-all, a very promising set of solutions are to be found in the
concept of Value Driven Personal Knowledge Management.
The approach of
quantumiii towards Value Driven Personal Knowledge Management differs from
most in that the firm does not proclaim or prefer to use any single
methodology or model – life in the fast lane does not permit this!
quantumiii even uses Value Driven Personal Knowledge Management as a vehicle to
achieve sustainable results in executive coaching!
(Read the quantumiii view:
Value Driven Personal Knowledge Management in
Executive Coaching)
Decision-making and
leadership must be viewed as a specific form of knowledge management and
knowledge application. Decisions are made based on information and the
interpretation thereof – thus on the basis of acquired and “developing or
evolving” knowledge.
The “quality” of this
knowledge impacts heavily on the quality of decisions and leadership. Useful
and accountable knowledge does not merely “happen”. Nor is it gathered by
trusting the opinions of friends or the media.
The creative leader
has to develop a personal method/style of dedicated knowledge acquisition
and evaluation. This results in more than cursory knowledge as we proceed
towards the innate dimensions of human existence.
Really useful
knowledge is “created” only when we succeed in bringing it into context with
the essence and deeper dimensions characterising human life; with those
hidden dreams and expectations, which often have more influence on behaviour
than logic alone.
These deeper forces
form the values of value driven personal knowledge management.
In an extremely
diverse society such as the South African society, it is imperative to steer
clear of even the notion of decisions made and leadership exerted based on
superficial knowledge.
We have to thoroughly
consider the theory and practice of value driven knowledge management at the
personal level – especially with regard to the question how the knowledge of
the values of the diversity of cultures in Southern Africa can assist us in
realising our new future by making positive decisions.
quantumiii
e-mail:
q3@quantum3.co.za
quantumiii and CI
- quantumiii Consultants
provide clients with turn-key CI consulting services.
quantumiii’s involvement in
Knowledge Management in general and Personal Knowledge Management (PKM) in
particular, combined with a notable interest and involvement in intelligence
and counterintelligence makes for a keen interest in the field of
Competitive Intelligence and Business Counter Intelligence. The motto of
quantumiii - "Your competitive leadership advantage..." necessitates client
focussed knowledge of, involvement and interest in most knowledge related
disciplines.
Read about: The
reason for quantumiii's success...
