Eureka! How CHATgpt helped me get an insight after 25 years!

Many people have a person who is their source of intelligence in the sense of either direct insight or material leading to insight. For a few people, I am this person, god knows why. But for me, it’s my wise friend, Jay Nakagawa.

The other day, Jay sent me this about a newcomer to the CI field, Competitive Intelligence Alliance (CIA):

“I asked ChatGPT to pick key messages of ACI and CIA and to contrast them to each other. Here's what it said:

Competition hates a vacuum

The Academy has been in business for 25 years. Over that time, we’ve seen our competitive set changes markedly. Competitors had come and mostly faded away.

In the 90s, there was SCIP. In the 2000s, came ICI (a German firm). Like us, they were “pure-play”, esconed inside our cluster of companies focused on CI in its various forms. Unlike these two, though, the Academy steadfastly refused to engage in conference running, instead focusing solely on rigorous certification.?

Yes, we left money on the table, deliberately.?

Nowadays, for many reasons, SCIP is no longer a leading member-based organization. At the same time as the decline of SCIP, the tasks of CI have “seeped” into many corporate functions, the prime among them are product-focused functions.

So the competitive landscape these days includes another cluster in the strategic map- populated by product-focused groups and organizations (product marketing, product management, etc.) where CI is a small part – almost an after-thought- in their portfolio of training and webinars. Leading a charge to educate product people on the importance of CI is Jay, who was for many years a successful product manager. It’s too early to tell if he’d be successful, but at least I don’t have to play nice with these people whose main job these days seems to be fighting their colleagues in engineering.

However, competition abhors a vacuum. So, a new organization, Competitive Intelligence Alliance is trying to move into the space of a member-based, CI-focused organizations. Being based in London, it doesn’t yet have the heft of the US market. Perhaps being less familiar with American attitudes, they chose the unfortunate acronym of CIA (are we back to being spies?). Still, I’d be remiss in my role as both CEO and Chief Intel Analyst (both titles I awarded myself of course in a moment of weakness), if I wasn’t intrigued by what Jay sent me, comparing the Academy to this new British group.

Where is the insight?

As I read through the CHATgpt comparative table, it struck me that we actually not truly competing with the CIA. The reason is deeper than just superficial different directions captured by the AI. We simply address very different needs in the market.

I always refrained from aligning ACI with an academic institution because CI is not a typical academic discipline. More importantly, our experience has shown clearly that young people graduating with an “intelligence” degree or program with “intelligence” as part of it, are not going to find many jobs in CI.

Simply put, companies hire and promote from within based on industry experience, not Gen Z’s ability to search for information on their iPhones. For the same reason, I always turned down requests to get CIP-certified if one was too young and too inexperienced. Again, leaving money on the table, deliberately.

It seems I am good at leaving money on the table. Maybe I need a bigger table.

For the same reason that experience is critical, I find networking useful and not useful simultaneously. It is useful in the sense that one is not alone in fighting management's lack of interest, or lack of respect for CI. I fully understand the need to share in misery, but I also suspect those in the same boat can’t help each other much when the boat is leaking. So creating networking opportunities must be done with experienced, savvy CI managers still working in the field. Think CIP?s.

Saying No to strategic options, leaving money on the table, is very hard but it is the most essential element in strategy. That reasoning led me to ask: What is the strategic positioning that ACI has carved for itself over 25 years?

Surprisingly enough I never bothered to articulate it succinctly. Sure, I explained to various forums that we pioneered the curiculum used by everyone in the field, and we pioneered the first and most respected formal certification accredited for 19 years, and that our faculty are the most celebrated leading lights of CI, but that is not the strategy. That’s just marketing.

Reading Jay’s CHATgpt summary, it struck me that our strategy from the inception (and as valid today) has been to focus on seasoned professionals or mid-career managers.

Not newbies, not undergrads, not information techies.

The idea of a one-stop shop, chasing every customer is the opposite of ACI. For a corporate professional with a min 3-5 years of experience under their belt, rigorous training in CI will open up a whole new career path (both in CI and in non-CI jobs as well) as it gives the person a view of how to compete unlike any other.

The idea of a one-stop shop, chasing every customer is the opposite of ACI's strategy

This is quite different from “where can we find the information about company X’s market share in southern Georgia last quarter.” Therefore, if someone is a newbie, we’d be taking their money in vain. Newbies don’t need, and probably can’t use, our comprehensive, rigorous, time-tested training.

The difference bewteen training mid career managers in CI skills, and giving search tips to newbies, is a difference between teaching a baby to walk and teaching an adult to run. So my strategy had a moral underpinning too. I have some integrity, as well as a sense of strategy.

The difference bewteen training mid career managers in CI skills, and giving search tips to newbies, is a difference between teaching a baby to walk and teaching an adult to run

Thanks, Jay. Thanks, CHATgpt.? It might have taken me 25 years to articulate this insight, but I am simply slow (another insight).

Mid-career managers- we are your gate into the future. It’s up to you to walk through it.

Alternative perspective

If you are a CIA member and are past just “networking”, think of building up a serious skill that will serve you all the way to the VP level. At the VP level, you can forget about external competition. Your internal one is bad enough…

As to belonging to “a community”- the promise of CIA - there is no more loyal community than our Alumni. Again, god knows why, as I am a horrible networker.

But at least now I understand what CHATgpt can do for me.

Mid career managers in search of the next skill level leading to a path forward should join us in March.

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