The Best Practices in Competitive & Business
Intelligence Gathering
- CIRCA’s approach is ingeniously designed to guarantee that the best possible intelligence gathering is accomplished.
- The CIRCA professionals are highly attentive to gaining an appreciation of the client’s objectives, understanding of which is fundamental to knowing which information must be gathered in order to achieve the client’s goals and successfully complete the project.
- The target information to be gathered is clearly specified, and the determination is made as to the best approach to use in obtaining the required intelligence. The information requirements are clearly documented and communicated to the client so as to gain client participation in the project scope and definition phase.
- The specific approach to be used in gathering the desired intelligence varies according to where it currently resides and can best be found, but CIRCA adheres to certain key principles regardless of the more detailed approach to be used:
-
- Appropriate Use of a Thesis and Avoidance of Too Narrow an Information Funnel
-
- CIRCA minimizes its use of a thesis until far enough into the project to make sure that key information is not going undetected due to not being aware of its presence or importance. When a thesis is applied too early, the information “funnel” gets narrowed prematurely, and in such cases, one can reach the end of the project with the right answer to the wrong question, or a partial answer which fails to address key questions that were not identified as important to ask.
-
- Use of Specifically Targeted Subject Matter Experts
-
- If CIRCA did not have its own in-house, finely tuned executive recruiting capability, it might be tempted to use information sources that do not have exactly the necessary subject matter expertise. With its in-house capability, however, CIRCA never needs to compromise in its use of exactly the right information sources, whether they be from industry, government, or academia, or are current C-Suite executives or retired former top executives.
-
- Avoidance of Assumptions and Biases
-
- In intelligence gathering, one cannot allow assumptions or biases to distort the picture being pieced together for the client. One given to making assumptions or being guided by biases will almost certainly ignore or not even bother to search for intelligence that does not support the assumption or bias that is already held. CIRCA’s professionals are highly accomplished at the suspension of assumptions and biases. They gather information from Subject Matter Experts and industry specialists but are not specialized themselves as to subject or industry. Rather, they are experts at gathering information in an unbiased way from those that possess subject matter knowledge.
-
- Recognition of When Complete Information Has Been Acquired
-
- CIRCA professionals are experts at knowing when the necessary amount of information has been gathered. It is not merely a matter of ensuring that the information is accurate. On a given subject, there are usually a number of perspectives that must be considered to arrive at an accurate assessment of the matter. Some of the perspectives may seem to contradict one another, but this is not necessarily an indication of inaccuracies. It may just be that additional information is needed and will be the “glue” that pulls all perspectives together into a cohesive picture. CIRCA’s professionals have the experience and judgment necessary to navigate such issues to an accurate conclusion.
-
- Appropriate Use of a Thesis and Avoidance of Too Narrow an Information Funnel