02/10/2014
BUSINESS CORPORATE INTELLIGENCE
“And therefore I say: Know the enemy, know yourself; your victory will never be endangered. Know the ground, know the weather; your victory will then be total.”Sun Tzu, The Art of War
CORPORATE INSTITUTIONS
Some of our corporate institutions in our country lack the intelligence we are about to discuss. Some corporations have security departments that incorporate intelligence and investigation, but they do not even function or they have no idea on what they should be doing. We have done a lot of survey in many corporations and We have discovered that their security departments are a monument type. They have big titles or positions yet they know nothing about investigations or corporate intelligence and yet they are paid for doing nothing. These corporations suffer from thefts, sabotage, industrial espionage, strikes and riots while they have people who are supposed to detect, prevent and deter, this happens because they fail to develop effective intelligence, we must first understand its fundamental nature—its purpose and characteristics as well as its relationship to decision makers and operations..
HOW IMPORTANT IS INTELLIGENCE?
Corporate business intelligence requires a firm focus on the competitor. It aims at taking action which avoids competitor strengths and exploits competitor critical vulnerabilities. The identification of these strengths and vulnerabilities is crucial. Corporate business intelligence requires acting in a manner to deceive and then striking at a time and place which the competitor does not expect and for which he is not prepared. Identification of an adversary’s expectation and preparations is also important. It requires decision and action based on situational awareness—a keen understanding of the essential factors which make each condition unique—rather than on preconceived schemes or techniques. How is this situational awareness gained?
Accurate and timely intelligence—knowledge of the adversary and the surrounding environment—is a prerequisite for success in corporate business. Certainly, it places a heavy emphasis on the judgment of leaders at all levels. Nonetheless, judgment, even genius, cannot substitute for good intelligence. Genius may make better sense of available information, and it may provide superior and faster use of the knowledge it gains from that information, but no decision maker—no matter how brilliant—can operate effectively without good intelligence. Intelligence, therefore, is at once inseparable from both decision makers and operations. Intelligence contributes to the exercise of effective decision making and helps ensure the successful conduct of those operations. By identifying adversary weaknesses susceptible to attack, intelligence also serves as an important element of corporate institutions. Effective intelligence in the hands of capable decision makers has often provided decisive advantages of tactical, operational, and strategic importance.
THE OBJECTIVES OF INTELLIGENCE
Understanding the relationship between intelligence and decision making and control is key to understanding the role of intelligence. The main purpose of intelligence is to support the decision making process. Intelligence strives to accomplish two objectives. First, it provides accurate, timely, and relevant knowledge about the adversary (or potential adversary) and the surrounding environment. In other words, the primary objective of intelligence is to support decision making by reducing uncertainty about the hostile situation to a reasonable level—recognizing, of course, that the fog of business renders anything close to absolute certainty impossible. In achieving its primary objective, intelligence performs four related tasks. First, it identifies and evaluates existing conditions and adversary capabilities. Second, based upon those existing conditions and capabilities, it estimates possible adversary courses of action, providing insight into possible future actions. Third, it aids in identifying friendly vulnerabilities the adversary may exploit. Finally, intelligence assists in the development and evaluation of friendly courses of action based on the results of the first three tasks.
WHAT IS COUNTERINTELLIGENCE?
Counterintelligence includes both active and passive measures intended to deny the adversary valuable information about the friendly situation. Counterintelligence also includes activities related to countering hostile espionage, subversion, and strikes and riots. Counterintelligence directly supports corporate protection operations by helping the corporate institution deny intelligence to the adversary and plan appropriate security measures. The two intelligence objectives demonstrate that intelligence possesses both positive—or exploitative—and protective elements. It uncovers conditions which can be exploited and simultaneously provides warning of adversary actions. Intelligence thus provides the basis for our own actions, both offensive and defensive.
INTELLIGENCE AS KNOWLEDGE
Although the objectives of intelligence have been discussed, the term intelligence has not been defined. Very simply, intelligence is knowledge—knowledge about the adversary or the surrounding environment needed to support decision making.
Since people understand situations best as images—mental pictures—intelligence aims to create an accurate or meaningful image of the situation confronting a decision maker. Good intelligence paints a picture—or more accurately, several pictures—of possible realities. Not all knowledge which goes into decision-making qualifies as intelligence. Knowledge pertaining directly to the friendly situation or to the status of an ally does not constitute intelligence. Knowledge not pertaining directly to the friendly cause generally falls under the category of intelligence. What do we mean by knowledge? In describing intelligence as knowledge, we are distinguishing intelligence from data or information. Intelligence is developed from information, but it is important to recognize that intelligence is not simply another term for information. Information is unevaluated material of any kind—adversary reports, intercepts, photographs—and represents the raw material from which intelligence is ultimately derived. Few pieces of information speak conclusively for themselves. They must be combined and compared with other pieces of information, analyzed, evaluated, and, finally, given meaning. Good intelligence does not simply repeat the information which a source reveals. Rather, it develops this raw material in order to tell us what that information means and identifies the implications for decision making. In other words, intelligence is the analysis and synthesis of information into knowledge. The end result is not more information, but knowledge that gives us a meaningful assessment of the situation. Since intelligence is derived from information, it shares many attributes of information. Information, and the intelligence which results from it, is perishable. Information will always be incomplete, sometimes confusing, and often contradictory. Not all information will be important or even relevant, and much of it may be inaccurate or misleading. Too much information can be as harmful as too little. With all information, we seek not a large amount, but to have the right information available when needed and in a useful form, and so it is with intelligence. Finally, we note that knowledge does not exist for its own sake, but as the basis for action. We do not develop lengthy intelligence studies just because we have the ability to do so or because a subject is of academic interest. Intelligence that is not acted upon or that do not provide the potential for future action is useless.
