An interesting session
held at Orange HQ and led by Safi Ghauri, Global Business Intelligence Analyst
at consumer goods firm Reckitt Benckiser. The event was attended by a range of
CI vendors as well as Practitioners from a range of sectors covering financial
services, FMCG, aerospace, pharmaceuticals. Media and
IT.
Safi talked through his
experiences and the building blocks to constructing a CI team within a global
organisation, highlighting 4 key lessons.
- Company
culture
- Highlighting
the benefits of CI
- Keep CI
processes simple
- Feedback
Company
culture
Safi highlighted the fact
that CI teams are more successful the closer they are to decision makers.
Safi if CI is
promoted from the top down, the programme will embed properly and thus benefit
the whole firm.
Highlighting
the benefits of CI
CI touches all part of
the organisation, for example marketing, sales, sourcing, finance, strategy –
there are techniques to address detailed competitive product/service issues,
such as pricing and large vista challenges, such as innovation and the strategic
moves of whole organisations. Above all, a central CI hub listens, and
encourages individuals to share and benefit from information and perspectives a
single person cannot possibly collect on their own. A CI hub only thrives if it
is seen to be useful to all, so generosity and a good social network is vital in
energising the power of a corporate team and
culture.
Generosity
of time; Simple, effective ways to get success: “Must give else never can
receive”
One thing that
Safi mentioned
within some organisations is “black hole syndrome” – feeling that you are
contributing to CI but getting nothing in return. Simple and quick channels for
corporate CI include tools such as a central repository may be on Intranet where
people can email CI, a voicemail where people can message CI. People on a day to
day basis are busy and don’t have time to fill in reams of forms that then need
to be processed. Simple an effective ways to communicate are easier to build in
to a routine, and don’t require over engineered, expensive solutions – just a
perceptive person to recognise information as useful intelligence, a channel to
someone who can evaluate it and someone to act upon it if
necessary.
Feedback
Keeping people in the
loop with outputs as well as regular updating of your knowledge networks will in
the long run be more productive and help people be recognised for their
contribution and feel that they are all contributing and benefiting from the CI
team.
Safi’s presentation
stimulated a lively discussion and it was interesting in listening to the
audience talk about what they had been doing with their CI functions, what had
been successful or not, especially with the number of industries represented in
the room. This was a fun evening when even the most worldly CI professionals left with their enthusiasm
refreshed. Safi’s enthusiasm is
infectious.
Ivan
Radulovic
Consultant
TFPL Intelligent
Resources
I like the way you identify corporate CI as an activity everyone in the organization can participate in, Ivan. Smart candidates can add this to their tool kit - it becomes another differentiator and way to demonstrate their ability to provide extra value to an employer. Great post!
Posted by: Marsha Keeffer | 22 November 2009 at 21:12