Alice heard Bob before she saw him. Talking rapidly on the phone and carrying a set of PowerPoint slides, Bob came bursting around the corner toward his office where Alice had been waiting patiently. With the barest nod of his head, he passed Alice and continued his phone conversation as he sat down at his desk. Something appeared to be up.

Alice was miffed. Bob was 15 minutes late to a meeting that he had asked for earlier in the day. Ostensibly they were going to discuss his upcoming meeting with his boss where Bob had to explain how to recover from various competitive attacks. Now that he had shown up, he was distracted by what appeared to be an emergency.

Alice had to admit that he seemed different from earlier that day. The tentativeness was gone and the energy that most associated with Bob was evident. She could understand why he was successful with his product line for so long. He was decisive, passionate and hard working. She waited from him to finish his call.

Bob finally hung up the phone and looked at her. “Come in, Alice,” he said.

“Sounds like you had an emergency today, Bob,” ventured Alice.

“You might say that,” replied Bob. “Do you know about the conference coming up in a couple of weeks? Well, we had some plans to make a splash there by announcing a new product. Guess who just preempted up.”

“I suppose it would be one of our competitors,” Alice answered.

“Yes, and not just any competitor. It’s those guys over at Advanced Products. They seem to delight in sticking it to us. This isn’t the first time that they have pulled a stunt like this. Seems like they are determined to keep the press focus off of us,” Bob said with a hint of anger.

My wonderful son stood in front of me excited to be retelling the adventures he had at church camp last week. He was full of words and stories. I just love hearing him talk about his experiences and answer questions. I asked him about his favorite food, the friends he made, the different play activities, the bus trip and so on.

Did he remember the things that his mother told him before he left on the trip? For instance, did he always put on sunscreen (the Texas sun is bright and very hot in July)? Yes, he assured me that he always had done so.

Did he remember to always wear his swim shirt to the lake? That’s when he averted his eyes, shifted his feet and changed his tone. “Well,” he said “I only went to the lake twice.” And then he grinned at me and I knew. TRANSLATION: Dad, I forgot about the shirt.

When you know someone really well, you can often sense their message from many cues that are more telling and accurate than their words. All of the other signals give them away. In fact, in a strange way, the actual words are distracting as often as they are informative.

Interpersonal signals abound among those we know best (and that know us). I use this often with close friends.

We might be listening to a speaker when one of us will signal the other with a lifted eye brow (TRANSLATION: can you believe this speaker?). A casual flicker of the hand (TRANSLATION: this is not important), a half smile (TRANSLATION: I’ll tell why it’s amusing later) or rolling eyes (TRANSLATION: we are wasting our time) can all be quite meaningful when interpreted correctly.

In competitive intelligence we can use the same signals (except that our subjects are other companies).

I have traveled around the world for business and pleasure. From the Old City in Jerusalem to the rural villages of Kenya or the crowded streets of Bangalore, I can always find certain things that mean just about the same thing that they mean in Texas. For instance, no matter where I have traveled, I can always get a Coca-Cola. The markings, bottle shape and product are essentially the same everywhere. You and I can rely on those facts which make it comfortable for us to choose Coke (or maybe you are a Pepsi person?).

Coke is a valuable brand. It got that way because many years ago there was a vision for the product, an explicit way to market the vision and scrupulous enforcement of the brand that emerged. Brands are powerful shorthand ways that we assign value to or judge the worth of something. They help us cut through the noisy clutter of life to make simpler decisions. If we are associated with a “good” brand, then we find our pathways smooth and clear. Conversely, few things are harder to overcome than a “bad” brand (if they were still being made, would you consider a Yugo?).

Of course each of us establishes a personal brand. Personal branding is a bit of a rage in corporate life today. Establishing a brand, the thinking goes, ensures that your unique value is recognized. (Translation: you get to keep your job.)

It is also important when starting a new Competitive Intelligence program. The CI brand that you develop will empower you to accomplish great things. In previous entries in this series, we have already talked about Setting Some Standards and hinted at branding elements at the Tease The Vision step. Now it is time to make the critical branding elements explicit. So, here they are.

Where I live it is common to have slab foundations (How to Build a Slab Foundation) for homes.

Slab foundations are solid blocks of poured concrete on top of which the structure is erected. There are several important characteristics that a slab foundation must have in order to support the house that is being built.

• It must be shaped correctly for the house. It is costly and difficult to alter the basic shape after it hardens.

• Although it looks like a solid mass of concrete, it actually conceals a great deal of infrastructure including electrical conduits, plumbing and cables (which provide strength).

• Everything attached to or embedded in the foundation must be in the right place (again, it is hard to change things fixed in concrete). For example, the plumbing for sewage should emerge where the bathrooms are planned to be.
• Finally, after doing all of the necessary things, it is important to preserve your flexibility for all of the remaining elements of the home. For instance, the placement of the second story wall for the guest bedroom is not to be tied to something in the design of the foundation.

The foundation serves its purpose even though it is not a visible feature of the home. The structure above obscures what is beneath it and many people give little thought to what they don’t see. However, you absolutely must pay attention to your CI foundation. And the quiet time after your first management presentation is a good time to establish what will support all that you do later.