Training for CI Professionals

The areas in which CI professionals can benefit from training are significant. Looking back at a study of CI professionals and skills, we see that it identified the following as "teachable skills," and thus appropriate for inclusion in training for all CI professionals:

strategic thinking

business terminology

market research and presentation skills

knowledge of primary information sources and research methods

enhancement of: journalistic interviewing and communication skills

analytical ability

a familiarity with scientific methodology ^[1]

Again, looking at the experience of the Best Practice CI units, we find that, for the CI professional, an ongoing training process should concentrate on several key areas:

analytical techniques
legal and ethical issues
communications and management

The scope of available analytical techniques is so broad that it has been suggested that CI staff actually undergo at least three separate courses in CI analysis:

The first would be a basic introduction to analytical techniques and methodologies in CI.

The second would cover the details of critical skills in use at the firm, such as financial analysis, as well as presentation techniques.

The third would be offered only after completion of the first two parts. This would focus on providing CI staff with "thinking" skills, and would serve to encourage them to use new ideas in managing, providing, and using CI. ^[2]

Training in legal and ethical issues deals primarily with restrictions on the way in which the data to be used to generate CI is collected. This subject is deal with in Chapter 7. Training on communications management and skills is vital to assure that the message of the CI unit gets out, and continues to get out, to the appropriate end users. Since the way in which the Best Practice CI units develop requires that they continually review, refine, add to, and delete communications tools (see Chapter 12), this training should be done on a regular basis.

^[1]Jerry Miller, "Competencies for Intelligence Professionals," Newsletter of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals, November 1995, 1–2.

^[2]Raymond Ellis (Cortel Concepts), "Intelligence Analysis in the Business Sector," AIC Conferences, Competitive Intelligence Forum '94, Sydney, Australia, 1994, 6.

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Training for CI Professionals

Training for CI Professionals