The Uncaptured Advantage
Have you ever heard this?: "I could have told you that would never fly...." "How come we didn't know about that...?" "We've looked at that before...?"
Have you thought this?: "How the heck did that happen...?" "If only I knew then what I know now...." "This might be very useful to us, but who should I tell...?" "I wonder who would know...?" "Where could I find...?"
Operating in a competitive world plagued with information overload and attention deficit, these are, unfortunately, typical experiences. How many times do individuals and companies reinvent the wheel because information was not effectively captured and shared? How many times do we find out after brutal surprises that it was a simple failure to connect the dots, all of which were there?
The Missing Piece of the Pie
It is widely, but erroneously, believed that unstructured, text-based information comprises the majority of what is known within a company. There is a lot of focus on improving access to and analysis of digital information that is unstructured. This information comprises the majority of the text-based information, the remainder being in databases as structured information. However, what about the potentially useful, even critical information and knowledge that rarely finds its way into text? This potentially rich information remains uncaptured.
Think about all the conversations in the past months you've had over meals, on the phone, at conferences or around the water cooler. This and other uncaptured knowledge and information is found in the continual flow of news about individuals, industry chatter, insights, speculation and opinions. How much of that information is of strategic value or could provide a critical clue to an emerging opportunity or threat? How much of that information is ever captured and moves beyond the original conversation?
The real-time nature of this human intelligence resource is teeming with potential. If you could collect even some of it and weave it together with other information sources, a more complete and immediate picture of your business landscape would emerge. The critical dimensions of evolving company strategies, intentions and problems would come into sharper relief.
Connecting Eyes and Ears to the Corporate Brain
Most companies attempt to develop an accurate view of their marketplace using a limited number of professionals who serve as collection points for gathering relevant data and information, which is then passed up the line to high-level decision makers. The statement "Our strength is in our people" has become an unfulfilled promise for many organizations as they fail to leverage the richness of knowledge and information flowing through their companies on a daily basis.
Each outwardly facing individual in the company sees unique bits and pieces of a bigger picture, depending on the direction he/she is pointing and what they are encountering. Finding a way for larger groups to contribute what they know is, in effect, connecting more eyes and ears to the corporate brain, and allowing the brain to process the view in many more directions as the corporation moves through a complex and changing environment. Leveraging this corporate-wide diversity of sources is the only way to get an effective real-time view of our competitive environment. And that view, in turn, is of real-time relevance not just to the C-suite but to any manager whose actions need to be responsive to the constantly changing tapestry of opportunities and threats. Technology is an essential enabler of this complex process. Software solutions provide a means to effectively blend all the pieces of the information pie by organizing and contextualizing the mass of information and facilitating clearer analysis.
Tapping All Sources
Industry conversations are a prime source of critical intelligence and early warning signals, as is having knowledgeable employees read between the lines of what appears in press releases and the news. Employees can also provide further insight on current developments from their recent and previous experience with the organizations, initiatives or countries in question. A single bit of this otherwise undramatic human intelligence, from an unlikely source, may very well be the missing piece of the puzzle creating the tipping point for an important strategic move.
Our business cultures have barely tapped much of the knowledge, intelligence and insight that people individually and collectively possess. To gain competitive advantage and grow, your organization must discover and exploit innovative ways of deriving advantage from all its existing resources, including the rich knowledge and insights flowing through it on a daily basis. Leveraging the uncaptured resources will provide a more complete real-time view of your industry and business, allowing you to make better informed and more timely decisions.
Mr. Chender has been involved with knowledge and competitive-based solutions for over 30 years. He is the founder and CEO of Coemergence Inc., developers of a breakthrough class of early warning business solutions. He is also the founder and chairman of Metals Economics Group (MEG), a leader in competitor intelligence and strategic information products and services for the global mining industry since 1981.
Coemergence Inc. offers the next stage of competitive advantage for professionals who find, analyze or act on strategic business information. Its software solution, ACIS®, is transforming the knowledge workplace by drawing on the previously uncaptured information and knowledge held within an organization's people—human intelligence. This intelligence is then woven together with secondary sources, resulting in the unprecedented foresight necessary to quickly and effectively identify and act on opportunities and threats.