There are three key aspects to successful intelligence operations…being able to ascertain what it is you need to know, having a plan to bring together that information and finally turning the information into actionable intelligence. All of these three activities come at a cost and this article seeks to examine these costs to suggest a pragmatic way to incorporate intelligence into your operations and decision-making cycle. Let’s face it, not everyone has the resources of the large corporations, and almost nobody has all the resources they could use.
A fair percentage of the intelligence cost, both in terms of money and resources, goes towards the collection effort. The logic being that you need a stream of new intelligence hitting your desk so as to stay up to date. This can range from expert advice, internet research and human sources through to surveillance and commercial imagery.
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There is a danger though of collecting information for its own sake, whereby the results may be interesting to know, but are not necessarily related to achieving the business objectives. A bit like surfing the web, it is easy to become distracted. A lot of effort can be expended on collecting generic information, whereas often what you need to know is very specific. There is also a risk of mistaking a lot of activity for progress, when we go into collection overdrive to mitigate the fact that we are about to be blamed for it going wrong – the “we are doing everything possible, look how busy we are” syndrome.
But incredibly often, from a collection point of view, we already have the required information within our grasp, but fail to find it when needed, ask the right question or understand its significance. So, in fact, we could hold the answer, but still be expending resources, time and effort to re-collect this information.
Another big resource cost is the means by which we communicate and disseminate our intelligence. Let me use intelligence dashboards as an example, they aspire towards an all-informed network up through the layers of a company to the key decision-makers. There is a constant pressure to fill these dashboards with interesting and evolving content, think 24-hour news channels; this is often met through yielding to the temptation to include multiple automatic feeds of news and other events. Not only is there a real danger of the quality being compromised, but also that the intelligence is overshadowed by information with no means of differentiating between the two.
At this point, decision-makers may be thinking they are in the know, when the opposite could in fact be the case. Executives on an all-informed network and with access to raw information, which may or not be relevant or accurate, will naturally start to conduct their own analysis and assessment; arguably the people with the least time, effort and perhaps expertise to do so. Interestingly, some corporations appear to be set up specifically to achieve this aim; briefing the decision-makers with all the information and then letting the executives themselves decide what it all means. More common than you would dare to think.
For the record, the difference between intelligence and information has nothing to do with the original source, its sensitivity or subject matter, but has everything to do with being quantified, assessed and in context.
This then leads to the last main cost, that of the intelligence specialist. Intelligence analysis is the thought powerhouse of the whole process and the expert in this field provides the solutions to all of the issues identified so far in this article. They are also the inexpensive bit of the package, at least in relation to the costs of collection and the computer systems. Above all else, they perform the vital roles of filling intelligence gaps and predicting future courses of action and opportunities.
As a footnote, these analysts must be specialists in this field. Do not misemploy your security, business development or government relations managers and do not employ untrained personnel and call them intelligence staff.
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As for the true cost to business of intelligence, it is difficult to estimate. However, it must be said that the costs of intelligence, no matter how seemingly expensive, will never be as high as those resulting from the failure to foresee or prepare for a crisis event. When it all goes wrong, the consequences will likely be costly in terms of money, reputation, insecurity, time, resources and, even, lives. Of course, we only ever remember the failures, and there have been a few of these, and of epic proportions, in recent times. The key question seems to be, have we learned from these experiences, and will we use intelligence better in the future?
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
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