Selecting Staff with the Right Skills

• strategic/analytical thinking, such as inductive reasoning

• communication/interpersonal abilities ^[4]

The need for strategic and analytical thinking skills is probably a surrogate for education and formal training in CI. That is because there are not enough graduate level programs offering a major in CI or even merely emphasizing CI to staff business CI units. As time passes and that changes, the need for strong strategic and analytical thinking skills will be replaced by a need for specific training in CI analysis or other strategic and analytical skills.

The need for communication and interpersonal skills is due to the fact that world-class CI units have found that regular, intensive face-to-face communication with their own internal customers throughout CI projects is vital to effective operation of the CI process. As continuous, and two-way, feedback is a vital part of the job, the CI staff must have the associated communication and interpersonal skills to manage such contacts.

But merely possessing specific skills is not all that a new CI unit staff needs. The staff, whether made up of one person or a dozen, also needs certain attitudes. Again, Best Practice studies show that the CI staff at startup must be both risk-takers and committed to the CI profession.

The need for a risk-accepting attitude is due to the fact that, in successful CI units, CI managers and end users must allow for, and, in fact, even support, differences of opinion among the staff. In addition, as professionals, the CI staff must be able to openly identify CI failures so they can then learn from them. The commitment to the CI profession, both, inside and outside the firm, enables the CI professional staff to have the opportunity to improve its CI skills to meet the growing demands and needs of the current and future internal clients.

What is interesting is that these same studies that show us what skills are vital have also shown that a common belief held by non-CI experienced managers is not correct. That belief, which is expressed in many ways, is that a new CI staff member must "know the business" or "have prior experience with the company." In fact, that is not true. Studies of the best CI units show that, in start-up CI units, knowledge of the company, or even of the industry, is not a critical qualification. Rather it is only "moderately important." Even in the arena of technology-oriented CI, Best Practice firms have similarly found that "While an understanding of technology is important, an STI [science and technology intelligence] professional needs to develop generalist skills." ^[5] The reason for this is relatively simple: knowledge of the company and of the industry in which it competes is easier to learn than are the necessary analytical skills. In addition, it can be argued that a new CI professional coming to a firm without significant industry or company experience will be able to operate more effectively, as he or she is not burdened with ingrained assumptions, undisclosed biases, or flat-out incorrect information.