FEATURE – We sometimes ask Cryptographic Briefing Experts with experience in both the public and private sectors to share their thoughts on security-related issues. You can read Part 1 of Business Intelligence in the Code Summary.
Business orders
Intelligence is a discipline, but business is imperative. So we have to act like it.
Building a thriving native business intelligence program depends on the foresight (or at least, the passion) of a corporate executive. They must see the value of intelligence. To see value, that intelligence has to be relevant, insightful, and actionable – meaning you’re giving them something (or the promise of something) that will significantly boost their revenue. financial indicator or reputation for the company.
But to achieve those three, you must recognize your company’s reason for being and how that translates to the needs and motivations of your internal customers, and relentlessly pursue the things that feed those needs. those needs and motivations.
- Companies often have a secondary motive for their business. Altruism, innovation, global citizenship. But its first commitment is always to shareholders. At the heart of every decision, every initiative, is the business imperative. The transaction must be made. Strategy must be enhanced. The wisdom you create, the advice you give, and the activities you conduct on behalf of your leaders MUST consider and reflect that core, underlying motivation from your customers. Your job is to use intelligence to building a route, not just finding roadblocks, to a positive commercial outcome.
- My Mentor, (Cryptography Briefing Expert Paul Kolbe) Always say: “The best information goes to the best customers. “That obviously doesn’t mean we keep the best for the customers we like best. That means no matter how relevant, insightful, and actionable your intelligence is, for a customer who doesn’t know how to ask for it or use it when they have it. is also meaningless. A ‘good customer’ understands the smart cycle enough to work with you to develop meaningful intelligent requirements that lead to a smart product they can use to make tough decisions. A ‘good customer’ knows how to act on your intelligence and bridge your popularity with new feedback and requests. So how do we get good customers?
- Your job is to create good customers. Our world is intuitive to us, but it is not intuitive to everyone. We had to use empathy with our customers, teach them what intelligence is and what isn’t, and show them how to play football. This is a journey where maturity often takes time, nurturing positive working relationships, guiding through the cycle, and embodying value. At the same time, it It’s also your job to make yourself a good businessman. Listen to your customers. Understand how they assess risks and opportunities. Get to know the company’s domestic politics. Speak their language instead of making them learn yours. Above all, help them see you as a sympathetic ear and the only likely answer to some of their problems. And remember the business imperative.
- ‘Good customer’ will increase in the past “can I / can I not?” intellectual questions and in Smart Questions “Should I/Shouldn’t” and “How Should I Do It”. That’s a turning point for your program: you’ve gone beyond tactics and strategy. You are no longer a tic-box, you are an advisor. Your discipline requires that your relationship with your client lasts through the life of a transaction and into the operational life of an investment. That’s the point of intelligence bike, and it naturally creates more complex requirements with higher bet results. But even mature intelligence programs find themselves included in last-minute deals for a ‘last check’. Intelligence is not a checkpoint exercise. Listen to that as an alarm bell and an opportunity for growth.
- Prioritize your efforts on the initiatives and customers that bring the greatest value or risk to the company. Intelligence sources are limited, expensive, and sensitive. It must be used where it will provide biggest bang for coin.
- Devote yourself to what I call “internal business development.“That means constantly pursuing hidden pockets of need within the company. For yourself. Self-promotion. Get your move right, try it out a few times and then make it right. You are on a journey like your growing ‘good customers’.
- At the same time, value is only as good as your external network. You must have the mentality of the Case Officer. Constantly pursuing new sources, new suppliers, new technical tools, new relationships. Transfer those that are old or no longer fit for purpose. And you have to make those relationships meaningful – trust builds transparency, helps reduce operational or ethical risk, and gives you greater honesty about raw intelligence and capabilities. greater control over how it gets.
- It’s easy and lazy to view intel teams as simply ‘subject experts.’ The truth of it: intel experts tend to be SME on a subject or geographic. But then how do executives differentiate your value proposition from all the other substantively intelligent ‘experts’? The real difference comes in when you can promote your group as well as ‘deep technical expert. ‘ That means, it’s not enough to just know everything. It’s rigor and discipline regarding how you know the ‘thing’ and the same discipline behind what you do with that ‘thing’. Your team has learned, practiced, and perfected their techniques to ensure that your raw information is not only collected professionally and authoritatively, but also fairly and technically evaluated. . Own and promote your craft.
- Company leaders want people who can think, but also who can do. A program cannot focus solely on interpreting and contextualizing a company’s external environment. It also needs to help find creative solutions and help implement them. Intelligence professionals are perfectly suited to that job, and where appropriate, we should demonstrate leadership in this area. We see the world in a different way, and the views we take for granted are not always obvious to others. Appreciate your uniqueness. That is your greatest added value. But…..
- Leave your old badge at the old door. Your resume at (choose a 3-letter agency) is great, but it can be as “difficult” as it is “certificates.” Outside the pub, company leaders don’t care about ‘how we used to do things.’ You don’t work there anymore. Do you work here. They only care how you walking to do the job and how to create opportunities or help the company manage risk. Inability to separate How we operate (with technical discipline, constant) from why how we operate (a national security variable required for business) can influence your view of risks and opportunities and reduce the value you bring.
- You are not an expert at most things, and very few corporate challenges are confined to your area of expertise. Build and leverage relationships within the company. Economists, digital security experts, political risk colleagues, lawyers, and business developers all have unique perspectives and provide significant double value for their ability to deliver. Friend. You can have a bigger impact with a dynamic message.
- But keep your sacred mission provides an independent view opportunities and risks for the company’s management when necessary. Collaboration within the company does not conflict with your professional ability to take a position and communicate it respectfully but directly to decision makers who need to hear it. It’s your job, and it’s what you get paid to do.
Read Part 1 of Business Intelligence in the Code Summary
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