Trump vs Biden on competitive intelligence
Did you watch the Presidential debate on 6/27/2024 between Trump and Biden? Here is my take:
Trump doesn’t answer questions. He has zero plans on any issue (except, if you elect him, the sun will shine again). He loves the untestable hypothesis that if he was the president in the last 3 years, Hamas wouldn’t have attacked Israel in a million years. Kinda hard to test.
Biden on the other hand, lives in fantasy land. I felt sorry for this old and fragile man. He should be napping, not debating. His claim that the US has never been in a more revered position, and no one dares to mess with it met with loud laughter from the bare-footed Houthis all the way from Yemen. Russians just shrugged and went on to take another Ukrainian city. Biden is full of plans- for Hamas to return hostages, for borders to be secured, and for Social Security to be saved by taxing rich people until they go broke or move to Switzerland. As I said, la la land.
Does all this truly matter? Die hard Lefties will vote for Biden even if he were dead. Die hard MAGA will vote for Trump even if he was lost inside the Mirror on the Wall. Independents, who vote on issues, not optics, will be, as usual, split in the middle (it hurts, too).
Biden or Trump as CEOs?
Watching these two embarrassments on stage, I couldn’t help but see two types of decision makers who should be very familiar to my competitive intelligence comrades. Trump is the decision maker who makes decisions based on his stomach’s content at the morning of the meeting. Biden is the executive who is sympathetic to the CI analysis as long as it agrees with his predetermined ideas which were formed when he was a young product director 145 years ago.
Given that competitive analysts must face such decision makers, what tools help them the most?
I am glad you asked.
CI Professionals rank their tools
Designing a curriculum for training CI professionals requires an open-minded perspective and humility re the profession. I have none of that, so I conduct surveys every few years to make sure my biases and narcissism are in check. This is where you should comment, no, Ben, you are Not a narcissist. We know narcissists. You are actually the most feet-on-the ground humble person we know.
Go ahead. I’ll wait.
Our latest survey asked CIPs? specifically which courses served them best in their careers.
Here is the gist of the responses: On a scale of Extremely Valuable, Very Valuable, Somewhat Valuable, Not Valuable at All, and Sorry, what was the question (Biden), 84% of the responses marked the entire program (CIP-I? and CIP-II?) extremely or very valuable. ?That’s not bad, considering Hamas only receives 71% support in Gaza these days, and only 79% of dead Russians have a favorable opinion on their butcher Putin.
When the two lower ranked courses were excluded, the satisfaction level rose to 90.05%.
Individual ranking
Keep in mind- the ranking is specifically about “value to your career”, not which one I enjoyed the most or who is the best teacher (Heather and Helen kill me everytime they get a better evaluation than me).
Courses naturally varied in their ranking. The leading course (not by much) was Cross Competitor Analysis, which teaches how to draw a strategic clustering map which will please your bosses. Example of one such map is below. You can see why it is so useful*.?
*Of course, this is just one way of looking at the CI training field. I am open to different interpretations as long as they agree with my preconceived idea.
领英推荐
New topics of interest?
While the ranking was important (we dropped a course and added two new ones), respondents’ “wish list” revealed pain points. Asked to rank-order 5 predetermined topics. The leading came out as How to use AI, followed by How to Talk to Bosses who Don’t Want to Listen and then How to Measure CI ROI. Data analytics and How to Organize a CI function topics were less popular. It seems obvious (to me) that if your problem is bosses who don’t want to listen, your ROI will be problematic. Alas, AI won’t help. Vendors/forums selling you AI “solutions” are preying on your desperation.
Major lesson: If your problem is bosses who don’t want to listen, your ROI will be problematic too. Alas, AI won’t help. Vendors/forums selling you AI “solutions” are preying on your desperation.
When I asked people to list any other topic they wish we offered there were only 17 responses which suggests most were satisfied with what we offered or too lazy to type. These 17 had no clear theme (word cloud came out cloudy), but one response summed it up for me:
“Whatever can help me elevate my value beyond how big of a stick I can fetch.”
I hear you. I feel you. I cry with you. AI won’t help here either.
The most impressive finding
I asked: “If you moved to other functions, was the CI training helpful? The scale went from not really (0) to definitely (100).
The score came in at 93.
I can die happy now. For decades I advocated CI training as a career tool, not just in CI. Understanding industry dynamics is as critical to all managers and all executives as understanding a P&L. It actually the reason the P&L looks like it is…(for better or worse).
?Competitive intelligence is a manager's career tool, not just a specialized skill.
Alternative perspective
So, whether it’s Biden for you, or Trump, doesn’t matter. What matters is to provide you with a corporate career path. Don’t go for an MBA (surely not to Columbia or UCLA). Come to us. We’ll turn you into a wizard at competing in only 2 weeks. Look who comes to us:
For more results, go https://academyci.com/aci-survey-executive-summary-competitive-intelligence-professionals-rank-their-tools/
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Our expanded CIP-I? program including the new CI Blueprint? by PWW’s David Kalinowski is the result of the above survey. And the embarrassing debate. Join us in October/November. No need to bring your AI with you.
The irony of being a CI leader in a large company is that the company pays you to study the competitors, the landscape, the dynamics and reflect. And if you actually get paid to do this and are afforded the time, resources and use your CI Tools effectively, then by definition you should (either as a lone leader or team) be the “one” with the best access to the best Intelligence in the room. This likely happens in govt intel orgs, too. The conundrum or issue occurs when you are asked to apply this Intelligence whether it be in an Anti-Trust Market Assessment for a merger, Strategic Planning to guide the company down the road for the next 3-5 years, but you are NOT the decision maker. If in a company, you are NOT the CEO, there can be problems, b/c even if you’re title is EVP, even if you should be the one at the point managing the process of the merger or strategic plan, ultimately the ultimate decision maker, usually the CEO or POTUS has to rely on your Intelligence guidance, while at the same time demonstrating to everyone in the company that he is still the smartest person in the room and company. It is more rare than a Black Swan when a CEO or POTUS can truly use Intelligence w/o stating I know best and beating his chest.
Professor of Business Administration, Economist
4 个月It's all decadence, one long, sad missed strategy of spilled talent. The US is soon on the level of a Nero or Caligula. In the meanwhile China is now the scientific Superpower, an undisputed fact by any serious metric, https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2024/06/12/china-has-become-a-scientific-superpower
Supply chain, business operations, customer collaboration, program management and new product introduction. Extensive experience in ERP, PLM, and purchasing tools
4 个月A worthwhile read, thanks for humor and feet-on-the-ground perspective
The Decision-Making Maverick? Life, Leadership & Business Coach, Competition and Strategy Specialist, Author - Improving your life, decision-making and the competitiveness of your business.
4 个月Love the idea that CI training is a career tool. I would add it is one of the best training in good decision making!
Managing Director, Expedient
4 个月I concur with all of your findings, and I laughed harder than when I was watching the debates. (Or was that crying). For one thing, both parties are so scared of losing and so in fear of the other candidate and their policies that they would vote for a Democrat koala bear or a wild boar Republican. It has come down to fear and loathing on the campaign trail again, and we all lose. But it looks like your trainees don't so congratulations!