How to Develop a World Class Market Intelligence Function
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The newest GIA White Paper presents a
pragmatic approach to setting up an intelligence function from the ground up.
Following best practices, the set-up process may only take months as has been
demonstrated in the Outotec case example. On the other hand, bringing the
intelligence function to world class levels calls for efforts especially around
‘decision-point intelligence’ and ‘intelligence co-creation’, both areas that
typically require years of methodical development work.
Setting up an intelligence function – Where to start?
Market Intelligence as a systematic corporate activity is becoming increasingly commonplace not only in the largest global companies but also in small and middle-sized enterprises. As a result, increasingly many individuals find themselves with an assignment from top management to launch a corporate intelligence function or to enhance an existing one.
Hans Hedin, during your career you have seen countless organizations of different sizes and industries to work on systematizing their intelligence activities for business benefits. If someone came to you, saying that they have a mandate from the CEO to start an intelligence function, what would you tell them to do first?
“Yes, it’s really not that uncommon situation nowadays, is it? First of all, while companies and industries are different, the good thing is that their intelligence challenges tend to be even surprisingly similar - at least in the beginning. Hence the suggested initial activities are also very similar for different companies. I’d advice this person to start with a careful needs analysis and to structure it around six key success factors of any world class intelligence function:
- The scope of the intelligence activity,
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the intelligence process,
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the intelligence organization,
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the deliverables,
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the tools and techniques,
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and finally the intelligence culture.
Before going about the exercise I’d advice the person to first familiarize them with the GIA World Class MI Framework that explains the key success factors in more detail, and may even provide some preliminary development targets to keep at the back of their mind when conducting the needs analysis.”
On the other hand, many companies already have an intelligence function in place but it needs enhancements. Can you give advice to intelligence directors in such a situation?
“Well, the GIA World
Class MI Framework of course provides guidelines to developing each of the key
success factors of Market Intelligence, but in reality they can hardly be
developed in silos. Rather, the required development efforts are necessarily a
unique combination of activities in each company each time. The White Paper
presents a staircase model derived from the world class MI framework that gives
the readers a template for adjusting and combining the development initiatives
to best suit their own company’s unique situation and requirements. The
template should be helpful, but for us to “fill it in” with a magic formula
that would match each company’s unique situation would be downright naïve.”
So it’s not possible to provide uniform advice on intelligence development to the more advanced companies, but Hans, can you give us examples of what the typical pain points are in the more advanced organizations, intelligence-wise?
“Sure. They can
perhaps be grouped under two main topics: One is decision point intelligence, and the other one is intelligence co-creation. Numerous
companies still have not linked the intelligence activities tightly enough to
decision making, and what this comes down to is simply mapping out the decision
points in different business processes that require intelligence support. It
sounds quite simple, but reality proves otherwise. Intelligence co-creation, in
turn refers to having an analysis capability close to decision making. So close
in fact that the intelligence analysts are capable of involving decision makers
in parts of the process of analyzing the market information and drawing
conclusions.”
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Global Intelligence Alliance
Global Intelligence Alliance (GIA) is a strategic market intelligence and advisory group. GIA was formed in 1995 when a team of market intelligence specialists, management consultants, industry analysts and technology experts came together to build a powerful suite of customized solutions ranging from outsourced market monitoring services and software, to strategic analysis and advisory.
Today, we are the preferred partner for organizations seeking to understand, compete and grow in international markets. Our industry expertise and coverage of over 100 countries enables our customers to make better informed decisions worldwide.
