Wednesday, September 9, 2009
CI - Misrepresentation and SM
ISET: Intentional schizophrenia enabling technology. SM is a goldmine for potential misrepresentation. I wonder how many false profiles are on Linkedin, Facebook, Twitter, etc. Just like: How many posts on Edmunds are from employees of car companies, how many posts on Cafe Pharma are from non pharmaceutical sales reps, etc. How many times have you filled out an application for a real estate search web site in another town you were interested in and used false information so that you aren't contactable. Who will your network become today?
Tuesday, September 8, 2009
CI - "Duplicity"
Watched video by this name the other night (Julia Roberts, Clive Owen). It's about industrial espionage (not CI!) involving two packaged goods companies - my old stomping ground. While I have heard a lot of exotic tales, some true and some not over the years, this movie just doesn't make a lot of sense. Yes, I realize I should have left LEFT BRAIN at the door.
1) CI can never afford this degree of investment by either company. Nor is it required.
2) CEO's are not that delusional, but certainly well-advised as per the movie to keep the secret amongst the fewest number of people. (e.g. the Coke formula)
3) Lack of due diligence on the stolen "baldness cure" IP doesn't do justice to CI professionals.
4) There are generally much simpler, cheaper ways to get the information. Misrepresentation not required.
All that said, I can completely vouch first hand for the complete transparency similar companies are at risk of in terms of what competition knows about them. How's your information security environment?
I once challenged a well-qualified 3rd party, one readily available to any and all of us, to penetrate my organization without getting apprehended. They did, they got absolutely everything - fast.
1) CI can never afford this degree of investment by either company. Nor is it required.
2) CEO's are not that delusional, but certainly well-advised as per the movie to keep the secret amongst the fewest number of people. (e.g. the Coke formula)
3) Lack of due diligence on the stolen "baldness cure" IP doesn't do justice to CI professionals.
4) There are generally much simpler, cheaper ways to get the information. Misrepresentation not required.
All that said, I can completely vouch first hand for the complete transparency similar companies are at risk of in terms of what competition knows about them. How's your information security environment?
I once challenged a well-qualified 3rd party, one readily available to any and all of us, to penetrate my organization without getting apprehended. They did, they got absolutely everything - fast.
Monday, August 31, 2009
CI Dog
Freddie was my best buddy for 10 years. Got him from rover rehab, a local penitentiary which trained selected dogs, to be companions for shut-ins etc. At the time my son had been very ill and we brought him home for his 11th B-day. He was a Shepherd and Retriever mix. Beautiful, kind, fun, compassionate. Well, he died yesterday. My CI dog is gone. All good CI practitioners need a CI Dog
Friday, August 28, 2009
CI and the explosion of data - managing continuity
Great article today by Pulitzer Prize winning Robert Lee Hotz in WSJ
http://tinyurl.com/m3kchy "A Data Deluge Swamps Science Historians"
Reminds me of importance of having continuity in the CI function to manage its "history" and its "data" and instinctual wisdom - notwithstanding knowledge management systems, wonderful search engines, etc.
There are countless times were a skilled CI person with longstanding leadership in this space can race past all the libraries, databases, peers to the answer if they have been in the right place long enough. What is that worth?
http://tinyurl.com/m3kchy "A Data Deluge Swamps Science Historians"
Reminds me of importance of having continuity in the CI function to manage its "history" and its "data" and instinctual wisdom - notwithstanding knowledge management systems, wonderful search engines, etc.
There are countless times were a skilled CI person with longstanding leadership in this space can race past all the libraries, databases, peers to the answer if they have been in the right place long enough. What is that worth?
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Customer intelligence
I have been participating in a "sales training" program. One of the key tenets is to make sure that rather than "selling" you first always try to understand the "pain" of the person you are trying to help - what makes them frustrated, angry, disappointed, concerned, or keeps them awake at night.
On the other hand, I'm still astonished in this easy-information era at how sellers (myself included) make calls without doing due diligence on who they are calling so that they have relevant conversations, ask questions close to the "pain", and have key facts about the industry, company, person.
The wrong way: Headhunter staff make up to 120 calls/day (< 4 minutes/call and prep for same!)....I've recently disconnected on several who haven't read my CV on line or my Linkedin profile. Told them to call me back when they had. When I lived the corporate world, I received an endless set of calls from information vendors and consultants trying to sell me things I didn't need. I usually handled it by describing specific problems I was working on, asking them to demonstrate how their product or service would help me with that, and how it was better or different from what I was already using. Most couldn't and didn't know respectively. Even ones dedicated to my industry. Short conversations!
You have to ultimately and early on bring to the table the honest admission that you really don't know if/how you can help them though your 45 second pitch will likely include the fact that you often help companies/clients who are feeling pain over x,y,z. Kill the slides. Inquire. Listen. Empathize.
The theory is that none of the following will help you if you don't find the pain. I see truth here, but am with-holding judgment believing that CI is always helpful in engaging highly desired customers.
Your advance CI can help by prepping you to understand (listen to) the context more accurately ahead of time.
1) Have you been to their web site and read it "cover to cover"
2) Have you researched macro trends in their industry from industry pubs, research on industry association web sites, Department of Commerce reports, Bureau of Labor Statistics data on their part of the economy
3) If large enough have you listened to their latest updates to Wall Street (slides, audio, and esp. Q&A)
4) Have you looked up significant profiles on Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
5) Have you tracked their recent press releases, strategy changes, exec changes, results announcements...not just national, but very local press
6) Are their people in their networks you also know and can touch base with ahead of time
7) If it's a small business have you mapped out who their competition is on Yellow Pages, Whitepages.com or equivalent.
8) Are their customers or consumers ones you can easily touch base with (mall intercept, SurveyMonkey)
9) Read some case studies about their industry to fill in the blanks on key dynamics.
There are numerous collections of these on-line.
10) Etc, etc.
Are you close to your selling and business development organizations if you are a CI professional? Shouldn't you be? (esp. in this economy where it's often about market share not growing markets).
Thoughts?
On the other hand, I'm still astonished in this easy-information era at how sellers (myself included) make calls without doing due diligence on who they are calling so that they have relevant conversations, ask questions close to the "pain", and have key facts about the industry, company, person.
The wrong way: Headhunter staff make up to 120 calls/day (< 4 minutes/call and prep for same!)....I've recently disconnected on several who haven't read my CV on line or my Linkedin profile. Told them to call me back when they had. When I lived the corporate world, I received an endless set of calls from information vendors and consultants trying to sell me things I didn't need. I usually handled it by describing specific problems I was working on, asking them to demonstrate how their product or service would help me with that, and how it was better or different from what I was already using. Most couldn't and didn't know respectively. Even ones dedicated to my industry. Short conversations!
You have to ultimately and early on bring to the table the honest admission that you really don't know if/how you can help them though your 45 second pitch will likely include the fact that you often help companies/clients who are feeling pain over x,y,z. Kill the slides. Inquire. Listen. Empathize.
The theory is that none of the following will help you if you don't find the pain. I see truth here, but am with-holding judgment believing that CI is always helpful in engaging highly desired customers.
Your advance CI can help by prepping you to understand (listen to) the context more accurately ahead of time.
1) Have you been to their web site and read it "cover to cover"
2) Have you researched macro trends in their industry from industry pubs, research on industry association web sites, Department of Commerce reports, Bureau of Labor Statistics data on their part of the economy
3) If large enough have you listened to their latest updates to Wall Street (slides, audio, and esp. Q&A)
4) Have you looked up significant profiles on Linkedin, Twitter, Facebook, etc.
5) Have you tracked their recent press releases, strategy changes, exec changes, results announcements...not just national, but very local press
6) Are their people in their networks you also know and can touch base with ahead of time
7) If it's a small business have you mapped out who their competition is on Yellow Pages, Whitepages.com or equivalent.
8) Are their customers or consumers ones you can easily touch base with (mall intercept, SurveyMonkey)
9) Read some case studies about their industry to fill in the blanks on key dynamics.
There are numerous collections of these on-line.
10) Etc, etc.
Are you close to your selling and business development organizations if you are a CI professional? Shouldn't you be? (esp. in this economy where it's often about market share not growing markets).
Thoughts?
Friday, August 21, 2009
CI - new places to shop for innovation
I am not an innovation expert, but I have watched this space from a new multi-faceted perspective outside of corporate American for nearly two years now. Here are some thoughts and hunches for those of you providing CI support to the R&D and innovation communities. These are things I would pursue, advocate and ask my R&D and innovation friends about. How well are they doing with:
1) Grassroots connections outside of big research labs, academia, established commercial entities in your space: Young President's Organizations, local CEO Round Tables (small firms), angel investor events where new bus ideas are presented, local incubators of all sizes, futurist institutes & alternative educators who are thinking "outside the box", transition services for people out of work (all scientists have pet projects they never got to work on)
2) Reaching out to growing rosters of inventors no longer aligned to corporate agendas...retirees or in in-transition types. YourEncore, Gerson Lehrman, Innocentive, Intota come to mind. YourEncore has a roster of 2000+ "retired" life scientist thinking, helping, looking for new challenges.
3) Replicating localized networking practiced by local legal and CPAs and commercial bankers as they "stalk" emerging businesses in the community. Join SCORE (Service Corp or Retired Execs...you don't have to be retired!) to join in the free and forever counseling they offer to local business. Visit local job networking groups where innovative people are in transition and often have great ideas but lack confidence in how to pursue on their own. In my community attorneys spend 400-500+ hours of community service doing "outreach"...how many scientists and other innovators are doing that. Follow local innovators on their blogs and SM activities.
Identify principals or inventors at local firms and follow them.
4) Go younger. The essence of credentialing through academic degrees simply has to change with the advent of information technology and the deluge of sources and types of self-learning processes out there. No educator can keep up with and presume to "teach" beyond a certain increasingly basic level. Efforts of academicians will be increasingly stretched towards keeping up their own knowledge and applying it. Knowledge is simply growing too fast and the tools to access it and synthesize from it are completely redefining academia. More and more adjuncts are being brought in to keep it real and this will lead to further dilution of the old ways.
An increasing number of teens and twenty somethings are likely to be innovating on their own as they are forced to evolve their own ways of learning independently and sharing these with each other "outside the box". Find & sponsor these communities or create them: Junior Achievement, science fairs, community" sessions targeted on specific problems, create a micro-finance venture fund for kids, penetrate the home school community where more flexible learning can be the norm, re-purpose young game creators into other kinds of invention, encourage failure as a learning tool.
5) Leaving 'em alone. At least leave more or 'em alone. How many brilliant people come into corporate R&D environment and are completely frustrated and disillusioned with 2-3 years because they were not allowed to create, innovate when they were under the impression that is whey they were hired. Meeting more and more of them. Sure teach them how to do basic commercial assessments to be selective about what they work on and make sure they know your strategies intimately.
Thoughts?
1) Grassroots connections outside of big research labs, academia, established commercial entities in your space: Young President's Organizations, local CEO Round Tables (small firms), angel investor events where new bus ideas are presented, local incubators of all sizes, futurist institutes & alternative educators who are thinking "outside the box", transition services for people out of work (all scientists have pet projects they never got to work on)
2) Reaching out to growing rosters of inventors no longer aligned to corporate agendas...retirees or in in-transition types. YourEncore, Gerson Lehrman, Innocentive, Intota come to mind. YourEncore has a roster of 2000+ "retired" life scientist thinking, helping, looking for new challenges.
3) Replicating localized networking practiced by local legal and CPAs and commercial bankers as they "stalk" emerging businesses in the community. Join SCORE (Service Corp or Retired Execs...you don't have to be retired!) to join in the free and forever counseling they offer to local business. Visit local job networking groups where innovative people are in transition and often have great ideas but lack confidence in how to pursue on their own. In my community attorneys spend 400-500+ hours of community service doing "outreach"...how many scientists and other innovators are doing that. Follow local innovators on their blogs and SM activities.
Identify principals or inventors at local firms and follow them.
4) Go younger. The essence of credentialing through academic degrees simply has to change with the advent of information technology and the deluge of sources and types of self-learning processes out there. No educator can keep up with and presume to "teach" beyond a certain increasingly basic level. Efforts of academicians will be increasingly stretched towards keeping up their own knowledge and applying it. Knowledge is simply growing too fast and the tools to access it and synthesize from it are completely redefining academia. More and more adjuncts are being brought in to keep it real and this will lead to further dilution of the old ways.
An increasing number of teens and twenty somethings are likely to be innovating on their own as they are forced to evolve their own ways of learning independently and sharing these with each other "outside the box". Find & sponsor these communities or create them: Junior Achievement, science fairs, community" sessions targeted on specific problems, create a micro-finance venture fund for kids, penetrate the home school community where more flexible learning can be the norm, re-purpose young game creators into other kinds of invention, encourage failure as a learning tool.
5) Leaving 'em alone. At least leave more or 'em alone. How many brilliant people come into corporate R&D environment and are completely frustrated and disillusioned with 2-3 years because they were not allowed to create, innovate when they were under the impression that is whey they were hired. Meeting more and more of them. Sure teach them how to do basic commercial assessments to be selective about what they work on and make sure they know your strategies intimately.
Thoughts?
Thursday, August 20, 2009
CI - Good means becoming a child again
Yes I'm a heretic. Like to suggest that if you want to create great CI, watch this and think about it. CI will go the way of education. Interdisciplinary, indistinguishable from many other kinds of learning, more right brained, better choreography.
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
http://www.ted.com/talks/ken_robinson_says_schools_kill_creativity.html
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