One example that we often use is armed conflict between nations. Wars are the ultimate human competition because the stakes are so high for many people. The problem with using it as analogy for business competitive intelligence is that the rules are clearly different. Ethics in business and war are not the same. Nations may justify actions during war time that an anathema to peace time life.

Another example that we can use is sports. The attractiveness of the sports analogy is that a “lifetime” is played out in plain view each season. All teams start with similar resources and the same record. Pitted against each other in a series of contests, the stronger teams emerge to contend for the title. There, superior systems collide to determine which will prevail. Nice and neat. Then it happens all over again.

Of course, business contests are not all that neat. Plus they usually occur with multiple, simultaneous competitors. The beginning and endings are not so clear cut. And, it is entirely possible that there will be more than one winner.

Okay, despite the caveats, there are good and bad lessons to be learned from American professional football.

The most successful team from the last ten years has been the New England Patriots coached by Bill Belichick. They have won three championships and regularly compete at the highest levels. Belichick’s reputation is that he meticulously and effectively prepares his team for each game. Players are aware of their roles and how to attack the opposing team. Knowing and exploiting every possible weakness of his opponents is a trademark of the Patriots.

Interestingly, it seems that this drive to know everything about competitors is what led to an apparent ethical lapse. In 2007, the Patriots (in violation of league rules) taped the sidelines of an opponent for the purpose of deciphering hand signals used to communicate with players on the field. Maybe they had been doing this in other games and for a long period of time (suspicions)? Many began to question how the spying affected the previous championships. Should they be considered tainted?

This is a cautionary tale about the ethics of competitive intelligence that does apply to business.

Where did Belichick’s drive come from? Did it arise first from proper and healthy impulses?

Actually, it did. Bill Belichick’s father, Steve, wrote one of the seminal books on football scouting methods. When scouting was done in a haphazard and spotty fashion, Steve pioneered the methodical use of scouting (i.e., competitive intelligence) to gain advantages over opponents. While scouting for the Naval Academy football team, he wrote “Football Scouting Methods” which contains a wealth of philosophy and practical methods for understanding competitors.

My favorite quote from the book describes his view of scouting.

“The objective of [football] scouting has been, and still is, to get as much useful information about a future opponent as possible. A more practical objective, however, seems to be to get as much usable information as can be utilized either (1) to help formulate game plans, or (2) better prepare various individual players to either combat the strength, or take advantage of the weakness of an individual or opposing team.”

To warm the hearts of competitive intelligence professionals, his first chapter is entitled “A Case for Specialization in Scouting.” This chapter reads like manifesto for (football) competitive intelligence. With little modification it works just as well for business competitive intelligence. Here are a few quotes from that chapter.

“Regardless of whether the accent is on scouting, the use of movies, or a combination of the two methods, it is generally agreed that advance information of an opponent is important and necessary.”

“It does seem strange that some head coaches feel that any coach, regardless of experience, can scout a football game”

“The argument for specialization get a further boost from the scouts themselves, as most scouts agree that they do get more proficient as the season progresses, regardless of whether they scout the same team for several weeks or a different team each week.”

“Basically, every football team has a pattern.”

Steve Belichick’s book was published in 1962. My “ah ha” realization is that competitive intelligence principles can be learned from non-business arenas. Bill Belichick obviously absorbed many lessons from his father. He just took them one step too far.

(Don’t you love it when someone reduces all of the complexities of life to simple categories? And yet, clearly some things fundamentally divide people into camps.)

Standards, or more precisely stated, the expectations that we have for ourselves are one of these dividing lines. Here is the illustration that I like to use. What do you see below?

There is a bar suspended between two posts, of course. Now, if I told you that you had to move between the two posts but not disturb the horizontal bar, you have two choices. You can go under it or you can go over it. Choosing not only where the bar is set but also how you pass through says something about you. And that is what separates all of us into one of two camps.

First of all, think of the bar as representing the set of expectations that we have for ourselves and our work.

Everyone has expectations which soon become evident to those that we spend time with regularly. The expectations (and our ability to deliver on them) largely defines our personal and professional brand. Where you set the bar for competitive intelligence is exceedingly important. Why? Because you will find that you are touching on important subjects involving important people that might drive important changes in the organization. By definition, this requires high expectations of you.

There are 3 areas where you need to decide on high expectations.

1. Integrity – Decide right away that you will have the highest integrity in all of your dealings. Easy to say that this your goal but know that your integrity will be challenged. Directly and indirectly you will be tested to see if you are fair, honest, trustworthy and so on. Fail one of these tests because you are not prepared and there will be little forgiveness. Here is an example of giving The Right Answer to the Trap Question (which happens to be an integrity test).

2. Value – Some people love to do analysis. They are enamored with the techniques, tools and the intellectual stimulus of grinding through data. Others love the presentation of information. Nothing pleases them more than assembling 50 beautiful slides full of animations and transitions. Talking to people and exchanging views is another seductive activity that some CI practitioners enjoy. While all of these things are worthwhile and important, they are all not meaningful when they do not deliver value.

My definition of “value” for competitive intelligence is credible answers to important questions that when answered well may lead to changes in business strategy.

To create an enduring competitive intelligence function, you must deliver value. Satisfaction with anything less means that you will be looking for another job soon.

3. Work Quality – No one (that I know) sets out to do poor work. Nevertheless, poor or mediocre work often is performed by people throughout the corporate world. Sometimes this is enabled by lack of review of the work or by skillful self-insulation of the effects of the work. The evidence of poor work for a CI person may be in shoddy research, haphazard analysis, ineffective presentations or neglected personal relationships. You do not have the option of performing poorly and it is best to understand that from the beginning. The quality of all that you do must be top-notch because it is expected when moving in strategy circles. Your standard must be that of senior leaders that are held accountable by stockholders, senior management and employees.

Setting the bar is step one.

Step two is deciding whether you go over it (meet or exceed expectations) or whether you go under (do the least possible to get by). This is the difference between the high jump and the limbo.

You must sign up to set the bar high and then choose to go over it. This is the only standard that will work over time. It is the only way to effectively influence meaningful change in the business strategy of your company. (Save the limbo for the pool party to celebrate your success.)

Setting some standards is about you and what you choose to aspire to as you develop the competitive intelligence function. The three critical areas are integrity, value and work quality. Once you have done this, you are ready to begin introducing yourself and what you hope to accomplish to the rest of the organization. This will be your competitive intelligence brand.

Next topic is “Introduce The Brand”.

Here are the 15 steps that we are walking through. Which ones do you think are especially important?

The Human Side of Competitive Intelligence

1. Find The Pain
2. Get The Job
3. Tease The Vision
4. Frame The Foundation
5. Setting Some Standards
6. Introduce The Brand
7. Accumulate The Tools
8. Back To The Vision
9. Secure The Budget
10. Build The Presence
11. Expand the Brand
12. Go For the Value
13. Recruit A Staff
14. Go On The Offense
15. Evangelize The Mission

It doesn’t start that way, of course. Some days before a senior manager comes to you with an assignment. He has questions from the management team about the competitive landscape and you are just the competitive intelligence professional to get answers for them.

Luckily, you know what do. You start by clarifying their vague questions.  What specifically is important? You practice some rephrasing and finally present a set of three important questions to answer. Is this the right set, you ask. Yes, it is your senior manager responds and off you go to get answers. Your report is due at the next senior management staff meeting.

This is the fun part. Now that you have the questions, you begin to think through how to get answers. Let’s see, since one of the questions is about power and how it is expressed within our industry, I’ll start them with Porter’s 5 Forces. Then, I’ll follow with a detailed product comparison for the market segment we care about. Then, for the last question, I’ll finish with a financial comparison of competitors.

So, off you go. You begin accumulating information, talking to people and documenting the answers. You synthesize, summarize and test your conclusions. Your boss, acutely aware of your assignment and how it might reflect on her, monitors all that you do. She coaches you on what to say and how to say it. Your presentation slides begin to emerge. They are a work of art and represent an intellectual tour de force. Surely this will be a great triumph for you.

The presentation day arrives. You will have 30 minutes of an all day staff meeting to present. Due to other items taking longer than expected, you finally enter the room two hours after the scheduled time. You notice that the managers assembled look tired and distracted. Half of them are talking on the phone. Most of the others are doing email. Only a couple of them are even looking at you. You start.

The first question seems to fly by. A head or two pops up from their computers when they figure out that you are starting with the answers rather than the data. That is a good approach their eyes seem to say. There isn’t much debate as you move on to the second question. Again you present the answer as your boss fidgets nervously. There are a few more requests for clarification which you handle confidently. All of your preparation, skill and personal magnetism are paying off. Indeed, this performance may well result in the big bonus that you had been hoping for (and that your boss had been resisting giving to you).

Everyone seems to be listening now that you are to the final question.  You are on cruise control at this point so when the trap is sprung, it shocks your entire being.

One of the managers in the back (that has successfully cleared his email queue) raises his hand. What are the implications of the competitor’s new product on our technology strategy and the plans that we have to acquire the XYZ Company?

Wow, that is a great (note: all senior manager questions are “great”) question. It is not only a great question, at the time it is ask it seems incredibly reasonable that a competent CI professional would have a ready answer. The problem is that in all of your preparation you spent no time thinking about it.

While time is standing still, you review your options. I can’t admit that I don’t know, you think. If I do that, they will question all of my other answers. They will realize that I have been incompetent. Okay, I’ll give them an answer. They probably won’t know if I am right or wrong. Hold it, these are smart people. They will know. You look to your boss. Her look is glazed. She doesn’t know the answer either. Besides this is saving her a lot of money in your next review cycle. You have to think clearly. What do you do?

First, realize that the trap question is not about your competence, it is about your integrity.

Senior managers have built in sensors for bluffing. After all, much of what they do might be considered a bluff. (Yes, we can meet those sales targets with half the staff!) They accept that other senior managers will bluff them. But they do not want to be bluffed by you. It will kill your credibility once and for all if you try.

Second, focus on the value of future competence.

Remember that you have already answered some important questions for them. Compare the confidence that you have in those answers to any that you might provide off the cuff. Always think in terms of value the way that senior management thinks about value. They think about “big numbers” and how they and their organizations are measured. Most of all, they want to understand their risk. The best answers unqualified by risk are dangerous to them. You can answer the manager’s question but today’s answer has too much risk (or uncertainty). Tomorrow’s answer will be far more certain.

Third, realize that the on-going relationship ultimately defines your success.

A competitive intelligence function will not likely endure if its people are not trusted by senior management. An untrusted staff will find that the questions are no longer asked, the meeting invitations are no longer received and even the valid, useful conclusions are ignored. Senior managers are constantly sorting through their organizations for the people that they can trust. Most people do not pass the muster but the CI person must do so (or find other work).

So what are some good answers? Try one of these.

• “That’s a great question. It was not considered thoroughly in this analysis. My answer today has too much uncertainty. May I eliminate some of that uncertainty and report back to you next week?”

• “That’s a great question. I have identified several similar issues that require more study. May I address your question and the other issues at the next staff meeting?”

• “That’s a great question. I can only speculate about the answer today. I would love to discuss this with you outside of the meeting when you have time.”

• “That’s a great question. The way I would approach answering it would be to talk with Joe in sales, complete a four corners analysis and then work through the conclusions with the CTO. Would you like for me to do this?”

Remember that you must be competent. However, integrity trumps competence. Avoid the traps that suggest otherwise.