Strategically Thinking » CI Series: 7. Accumulate The Tools

Jun

CI Series: 7. Accumulate The Tools

Tom Hawes Competitive Intelligence, Organizational Development 2009-06-16

Wrench A couple of days ago a friend of mine called to borrow a specific tool. He was going to start a repair to his riding lawnmower and needed a torque wrench. He has a large number of tools already – screwdrivers, saws, sockets, pliers, drills, etc. – that he has previously used to make or repair things around his house. However, on this day and for this lawnmower repair project, he needed something that he did not already have. So what did he do? Well, he started with the first and most powerful tool that he had to find the tool that he was missing. He called someone that he knew. Now it turns out that I was no help that day since I didn’t have a torque wrench. However, if he secretly didn’t want to buy the tool, I could have easily connected my friend with someone else that had a torque wrench to lend.

There are three lessons that are significant. Toolbox

1. It is possible to anticipate the need for certain tools. When that is the case, it is best to get them as soon as possible. For example, every homeowner (or mechanic) needs a hammer. Everyone needs an assortment of screwdrivers. Everyone needs a saw of some sort. A person should master these common tools because they are useful in solving many problems.

In competitive intelligence, it is also true that there are common tools that should be identified and acquired early. Although you don’t have to have all of these tools on day one, it is useful to know that you will need them. Here is a partial list by category of some tools that you will likely need.

Presentation Preparation (e.g., PowerPoint, Impress)
Basic Analytics (e.g., Excel, Bissantz SparkLines,
Financials Comparisons (e.g. Yahoo Finance)
Earnings Calls Summaries (e.g. Thompson, SeekingAlpha )
Basic Meeting/Facilitation (e.g., whiteboards, poster charts, easels, markers, laser pointer)
Collaboration (e.g. website, SharePoint, Groove)
Database (e.g., Access, MySQL)
News Collection (e.g. RSS clients – Snarfer)
Organization Charting (e.g., OrgChart Plus)
Newsletter Creation (e.g., Microsoft Word, Publisher)
Website Creation/Editing (e.g., Dreamweaver, Microsoft Expression)

Notice that I did not include a complete all-in-one tools suite from a competitive intelligence software vendor. There may come a day when you need exactly that type of product but it is not this day when you are just assembling your competitive intelligence effort. In my opinion, you are far better served starting (mostly) with tools that you already have and trying to accomplish the tasks manually. This way you learn firsthand about what is important to you and your customers before attempting to justify, acquire and deploy a major system.

Group 2. Think of key people as “tools.” They are tools in the sense that they help you accomplish your competitive intelligence tasks. Indeed, The Human Side of Competitive Intelligence series is all about how people affect and enable competitive intelligence. Sometimes they will help you with the specific problem. Other times they will provide supplemental information. Perhaps they will direct you to others when they cannot help you directly. Finally, it is a simple truth that often they will have specific expertise or organizational credibility that you lack. Thus, it is a great advantage to identify these key people (at least by function) quickly so that you can begin establishing quid pro quo relationships. After all, they will want something from you (and, when you do CI well, you will have something of great value for them) too. Here are the functional categories where you need to know someone.

Legal (to provide review and guidance on sensitive issues)
Ethics (sometimes provided by Legal people, to provide and explain standards for conduct)
Financial (to perform detailed analyses and interpretations, also to make comparisons with internal financial results)
Marketing Communication (to observe and track competitor’s external communication and messaging)
Senior Management Mentor (to give you perspective on how senior management thinks and what they value)
Internal Analysts (to answer questions and provide interpretations of information)
External Analysts (to exchange understandings and studies for the industry and specific competitors)
IT Support (to assist in implementing systems that can be widely used in the organization)
External Process Networks (to help understand new methods and tools for competitive intelligence)

3. You won’t always have what you need. Don’t panic because someone probably has the tool (or knows the person) that you need. The most useful attitude that I have found is to assume that the solution can be found and then to orient my search accordingly. That is, I expect to find just the right tool for my problem. When I do, I promptly add it to my tool bag for future use. Even better, the confidence that I gain by finding and then mastering the use of a new tool to solve a difficult problem makes my value greater as a competitive intelligence professional. Remember when we introduced the brand for this new CI function? Part of the personal branding is that you become known as a proficient problem solver.

My friend completed repairing his riding lawnmower for 20% of the cost that he would have paid to someone else to do the work. He acquired and used a new tool. He added to his tool box for future projects. His confidence about solving mechanical problems has grown. Altogether, this was a successful project for him.

In a similar manner, it is time for you to begin the same process as you begin executing competitive intelligence functions regularly. Accumulating the tools, mastering their use and solving problems will become your mantra. Good luck!

Next topic is “Back to the Vision”.

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

The Human Side of Competitive Intelligence