Defining Clients and Overall Needs

What a new or established CI unit does not want or need is to receive a mission or even an assignment, that says, in essence, "We want to know everything about this Target (or Targets)." Frankly, given the easy availability of raw data (sometimes in vast quantities), your end users do not really want this. That is because they would then spend the vast bulk of their time digesting all the data the CI unit could accumulate, without ever having the time to find, much less act on, that small portion of it that is potentially actionable. ^[1] All this means that, as a part of this effort, one must get to the real decision-makers at a firm, the ones we call the end users.

The key, then, is to assure that what CI the unit provides, and will provide, should make a difference with the firm's key decision makers, the end users of the CI. And who are these key decision makers? They are those the CI unit actually supports, regardless of to whom it reports or where it is located. For example, for strategy-oriented CI, that would be senior management teams, senior staff, and senior executives, as well as strategic planning and business development units. ^[2]

One proven way to accomplish this form of global needs assessment is through internal interviews. In fact, that is really the best way to do this. A quick way to start this process is to ask the end users questions designed to elicit their real needs, based on their experience. Of course, you should discuss what they see as their CI needs, but take that as only the first step in the process. That is because end users who are not familiar with what CI can and cannot do often frame their replies in terms of what they think the CI unit can provide (find), rather than what they want or need to know.

Keeping that in mind, you can redirect the discussion to bring the focus to needs by asking questions like these:

What has happened in the past one to two years with respect to key competitors that had an impact on our firm? Of those events, which ones do you think that our firm [or your unit or SBU] might have avoided or exploited had it only had some early warning of the events?

By doing this, the interviewer is placing the focus on real decision making, and not on what the end users think the CI unit might be able to provide. Then, those involved with creating or managing the CI function can do some quick retrospective research. That research should be designed to find out if the use of CI, at the relevant point in time, might have been able to provide your firm with the desired early warning. If so, then you have identified one critical area for the CI function. But be very careful: the danger is that this sort of inquiry, if not controlled, can become a blame game.

Those managing a CI function also have to determine when their end users will typically need CI, as well as what they need it for. As we discuss later in this chapter, the type of CI you provide, the uses to which the end users apply it, the sources to which you will go for research, the manner in which you deliver it, and the turnaround time are all interconnected.

For example, if your firm has formal planning cycles, are there key dates that you should know about to make sure that strategy-oriented CI is available for that process? It is not helpful to offer profiles of expansion plans to senior management a month after the usual close of the planning cycle. Similarly, if your firm regularly launches new products or services and the CI function has a tactics orientation, and therefore might be directed to check on potential new products hitting the market, when is your own go-no go date with respect to the launch date? Intelligence about a new launch by a competitor provides no benefit if it arrives after your own firm has made an irrevocable decision.