Intelligence at large organizations

Intelligence works at complex organizations:

Market, Competitive, and Business Intelligence experts seem to be the only staff dedicated to intelligence tasks at corporations. However, some people within compliance, legal, or financial functions analyze, grant credits based on assessments, records, and profiles, assess investments and prevent PEP, UBO, AML, or KYC; enhanced due diligences are a rock standard. Finance and solicitors study M&A, and the strategy department ascertains the adequate course that fits better the evolving markets vs the own portfolio or management of change.

At most companies, the financial departments work out budgets and annual forecasts based on internal information from the businesses and functions and external information they consider "anchored knowledge." That anchor information is obtained from external agencies, with little visibility and scrutiny over the applicability and accuracy of the set scenarios on macroeconomics and future end-states. What are the foundations of those macroeconomic grounds? Do they respond to advanced geopolitical scenarios?

Harold Wilensky devoted a chapter of his book?Organizational Intelligence?to the connections between economists and intelligence professionals. I would go deeper: The intelligence professionals are experiencing a global increase in the number and lethality of terrorist attacks, and countries have become more involved in a strategic vision to prevent such events. Likewise to the complexities in forensic investigations, forecasting human-induced actions requires a profound interpretative competence. Artificial Intelligence is of little assistance, as any radical ideology behind terrorism cannot consistently analyzed using an algorithm. AI and machine-learning application enables instead unmanned vehicles to reckon potentially life-threatening locations,?capturing paths and reducing risk to human personnel.

However, in the security field, the core conundrum is to ascertain the existence of malign influence or clandestine organizations based on available records that relate people, places, behaviors, trends, and events. For insurgencies and violent groups, holding the support of the population may be the difference between sustaining a terror campaign or running sporadic one-off attempt. I feel tremendously proud that I have anticipated some terror attacks and violent events just days before materializing, saving ever-precious lives.

Crafting coherent scenarios and forecasts is highly demanding. When the bulk of the load means ensuring the integrity of the individuals and permitting them to return home safely, the work stands between a rock and a hard place; there is no room for mistakes. However, in my phased transition from active duty to security, then to corporate environs, I quickly had to learn that the pressure is rather on business losses and profits and corporate reputation flaws (although past works with elements like Covid, required the synergies of both approaches instead: https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/jose-parejo-geopolitics_who-director-generals-opening-remarks-at-activity-7043559538993545216-C-J5?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop)

I still see some companies where C-Suit members may lack the understanding or creativity to settle a corporate intelligence unit within. However, a small and seasoned intelligence team can become business enablers and a decisive competitive advantage in a world of extreme and unbalanced competition. As I said before, at every company, specific individuals are tasked with analyzing various portions of business topics: commercials, marketers, institutional relations, legal or financials. When planing starting from the scratch an intelligence department, under the adequate leadership, these staff might add value to gathering knowledge.

Any corporation retains talent, data and information, inheriting understanding. But records, data and information does no mean knowledge, which along the time, mostly melts down and dissipate across the corporate structures. Data-driven analysis feeds information, and its analysis may assist informed decisions. ?Instead, knowledge is precious to intelligence to deliver actionable pieces,?and therefore, this is a strong binomial that must always be placed nearby the top decision-makers.

No matter the subject, strategic intelligence requires a very different approach than operational and tactical intelligence. For any seasoned intelligence professional, the target topic does matter little, and perspective can be the critical way to help you figure out where a piece should go depending on the puzzle design. Scenario creation, prediction and forecast require deep understanding and an insightful approach, where structured analytic technics and creativity plays a role. Any intelligence query demands a reformulation to capture the accurate level of granularity. As the environment evolves rapidly and the decision-makers demand quicker deep dives, intelligence professionals cannot waste time across echelons and corporate bureaucracy for getting the ground-truth directly from those who need the knowledge the most.?

Ruth Simmons wrote that "There's nothing worse than a leader who lacks ambition, and "Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings”? Salvador Dali

Center for European Policy Analysis OECD - OCDE International Monetary Fund NATO 美国哈佛大学 美国哈佛商学院 Harvard Advanced Leadership Initiative EAE Business School Harvard's Belfer Center 亚马逊 World Economic Forum 英国牛津大学 英国剑桥大学 加拿大多伦多大学 RANE Oxford Analytica (part of FiscalNote) United Nations Johns Hopkins University Advanced Academic Programs Ray Dalio