Business Support: Intelligence-led Operations (Part two)

A great deal of intelligence effort is expended looking into the past at unexpected events, security breaches, under-performance, operational failures and so on. This is a perfectly natural human instinct as we seek to understand what has happened, particularly if it is an adverse incident. We are often driven by a target-focussed system that demands explanation. And, of course, intelligence has a clear role here defining the problem, priorities and likely avenues of approach.

That is all fine and the reality in which most of us are living. However, these past events represent failure as we did not foresee them and take preventative measures. This is where intelligence, properly employed, comes into its own. It is possible to get ahead of the game by producing predictive intelligence assessments of what will happen in the future.

There are some challenges though to such an approach, which are mainly attitudinal…

Moving forward from reactive to proactive operations provides exciting opportunities alongside associated risks; these need to be balanced, managed and mitigated to your advantage. This means dealing with degrees of uncertainty; there are few definitive black and white issues.

Intelligence operations are dependent on the exchange of information. The focussed collection, collation and analysis of information will drive a culture of liaison and cooperation within your business and across the operating environment to include partners, competitors, regulators and neutral parties.

Priorities will be set according to the business mission and objectives. This may involve moving away from headline grabbing operations towards selected targets to achieve the long-term goal. Decisions will remain firmly in the hands of the Board, but will be better informed.

Success will be measured in terms of risks neutralised and opportunities taken. The following two sayings need to be taken into account:

“Dangers that are warded off by effective precaution and foresight are never ever remembered.” Winston Churchill

Hindsight view of analysis: the Analyst overestimates accuracy, the Customer underestimates value, whilst the Overseer states events more easily seen than was the case

 So having had a look at some of the internal and external pressures on the intelligence team and at the desired end-state, let us cover the two main deliverables to your business from intelligence-led operations:

Intelligence enables your organisation to deal with a large quantity of uncertain information. This is achieved by applying the principles of intelligence and a wide range of analytical techniques to collect, collate, evaluate, analyse, validate and assess information with the aim of producing predictive quantified intelligence to drive your decision-making process.

Secondly, the intelligence discipline will effectively deal with personal, organisational and cultural biases. All stages of the intelligence cycle will be flawed if such biases are not neutralised.

It all sounds very simple, but in my experience few people or organisations get it right. However, in summary, intelligence-led operations will benefit your business by providing an in-depth understanding of the following:

• Context and scope the problem and the operating environment
• Incentives and disincentives for your sector
• Commercial opportunities
• Threats, vulnerabilities and risks
• Risk mitigation strategy
• Red Flag indicators and warnings of future activity
• Business and regulatory relationships
• Strategic engagement plan
• Support to decision-making and operational activity

It is well worth the journey!

Do you want to understand better the business dynamics in your sector? Are you looking for options to drive forward your business in a challenging environment? To find out more about what QRO Global could do to assist your business or to learn more about the types of projects that we have worked on in the past, see our Services Page or email us today – info@qro-global.co.uk