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New Book
“This is an extraordinarily thoughtful and well written book on a topic of great contemporary importance.
Its advice is detailed, practical and completely on target.” |
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Click below to view a larger image (150K) |
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A Proven Framework and New Tools for:
Book Description Excerpt from Chapter 1 Table of Contents Book Index |
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Praise from Distinguished Business School Professors
“Information in the past tense is never as valuable as information in the future or present tense.
How often do we hear that 'the signs were all there.' Martin has created a framework and processes
that anyone or any organization can adapt and use to create information and intelligence that will
prevent or reduce unpleasant surprises in their lives or work.” Harnessing the Power is a novel work. The core of that effort, Chapter seven
‘Value incubation: a proven framework for early detection of threats and opportunities”
is a real gem. It walks the reader through one model of how individuals convert raw data
into useable intelligence. As you read through it, Alan links his vision of analytical phases
with real world examples of successes and failures, based on such principles. He then moves on
to the use of the CI you have generated. Finally, Alan has three chapters to help the CI
professional understand those with whom the CI professional must deal with, in his or her own
organization. I found, as I read these closing pages, that many of the tools and techniques he
was using could well be applied to profiling competitors’ key executives, or defining a
competitors’ corporate culture and view of the world… [This book] deserves to be seen by all executives still unfamiliar with CI and by CI managers
eager to improve their own management skills." |
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Book Review by Dr. John Sviokla*
"Ninety percent of the
information used in organizations is internally focused and only ten percent
about the outside environment. This is exactly backwards." -- Peter
Drucker As usual, in one pithy phrase, the management sage Peter Drucker captures the central
problem facing organizations in an uncertain environment -- they are looking in the wrong
place. This sin has an even greater cost when things are volatile -- as
they are today. The natural human tendency in rocky times is to pull in
antennae, and hunker down in the cocoon of the controllable. However,
the effective leader understands that volatility is an opportunity for achieving greatness
because the prepared organization can jump ahead
of its ostrich-like competition. Yet, there is little business management advice on how to combat these natural human tendencies
and systematically scan, analyze and act on the uncertain environment.
Michael Porter, in his classic works Competitive Strategy and Competitive
Advantage did dole out useful advice on how to gather competitive
intelligence, but he did not opine on how leaders can systematically take
action to turn intelligence into commercial advantage. Alain Martin's new book Harnessing
the Power of Intelligence is a compendium of practical advice and well
tested management processes that facilitate this transformation from
intelligence to value. Martin's competitive intelligence framework is based on research on a number of companies including
American Express, Boeing, Dell, DuPont, GlaxoSmithKline, and Microsoft.
Within the framework are a number of core tools that the author has applied in
businesses, government entities and the military. In my judgment, there are three key items.
First, the book has the most up to date and
complete list of intelligence sources. For example, Martin cites the
University of California at Berkeley "Invisible Web" project, which
has shown that search engines only document about 15% of publicly available
business intelligence, because the vast majority of it is, either not in a
standard hypertext format, or not linked to a public domain name (the so-called
“silent campers”). Second, his framework on issue incubation shows that
large scale issues go through a relatively predictable process of evolution and
development. Many leaders make the mistake of getting on an issue too
early or too late. The issue incubation process delineates ways to
recognize the progression of topics, and provides advice on if, when and how to
intervene. Third, Martin has a tool called Factional Analysis that helps
a manager analyze who is likely to influence a volatile situation (from allies
to adversaries). This tool is much richer than the traditional
stakeholder analysis for it includes roles that do not fit in the normal
economic calculus. For example, he includes "fanatics" in the
analysis -- people whose sole purpose is to disrupt. A leader can take
the advice in this book and use it to guide outward looking intelligence,
assess the current state of issues (or do a triage on a surprise event), and
then take concerted action. At points, the book does suffer from the same weakness of
Porter's books in that in its desire for completeness the text often has a
"list-like" feel. But, on balance this book provides a framework full
of tested tools to turn uncertainty into value. * Dr. John J. Sviokla is vice chairman
of DiamondCluster International, where he leads the firm's Digital Strategy practice and is an expert
in business strategyl age. DiamondCluster International (Nasdaq: DTPI) is a global management
consulting firm based in Chicago, that helps leading organizations develop and
implement growth strategies, improve operations, and capitalize on technology.
Prior to joining DiamondCluster, Dr. Sviokla researched and
taught at the Harvard Business School for 12 years. In this capacity, he
authored more than 100 articles, case videos and teleseminars and edited
numerous books. His seminal articles in the Harvard Business Review, “Managing
in the MarketSpace” and “Exploiting the Virtual Value Chain” (both co-authored
with Jeffrey Rayport) were among the first harbingers of the e-commerce wave to
come.
While at Harvard, Dr. Sviokla created the first course at the
Harvard Business School in electronic commerce. On five continents, and at many
leading institutions including MIT, London Business School, Hong Kong Institute
of Science and Technology, the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and University of
Melbourne he has taught thousands of senior executives about the coming
revolution in e-commerce. He is fortunate to count among his ex-students the
leaders and founders of firms such as Yahoo!, Drugstore.com and many others. |
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Book Review by Prof. André Potworowski*
With our attention focused on
post September 11 terrorist threats, an explosive Middle East situation and the
demands of the ever-expanding knowledge economy, a new book offers a refreshing
and practical perspective on dealing with intelligence. Alain Paul Martin’s Harnessing the Power
of Intelligence, Counterintelligence & Surprise Events is a
distillation of years of experience of working with corporate strategy,
intelligence and counterintelligence. Martin, who provides strategic
consultancy to major international clients, gives us powerful tools to better
use intelligence at the national and corporate level. For instance, his “value incubation
framework” allows the user to anticipate and see how the linkages between
seemingly isolated events can often lead to major tidal waves. He demonstrates
clearly with an analysis of major financial disasters including the $64 million
American Express Soybean Oil scandal, geopolitical events like the fall of the
Martin focuses on how intelligence can help an organization’s staff make wiser choices, become well
informed and be better prepared. His competitive intelligence framework uses examples from
American Express, Boeing, Dell, DuPont, GE, GlaxoSmithKline, IBM, Kellogg and
Microsoft, among others. By considering real business and government
situations, the book brings the framework alive and shows how it can be applied
to win customers and allies, seize opportunities, anticipate threats, shield
intellectual assets from adversaries, and learn about the key players, all by
legal and ethical means. For example, his “Factional Scale” tool provides a new
way to analyze and categorize allies, foes, and political leaders. Consider the
current German position on Iraq. As early as 1999, Martin warned his clients that
Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder is “a rider and hitch-hiker on foreign issues” who
“can quickly shift his rhetoric to gain or maintain power.” Moreover, the appendix
on the BSE outbreak in Britain is written by Dr. Brian Morrissey, a leading authority
on managing large-scale risks in health, food and agriculture. This rich case study,
about a mismanaged high level of risk to a national population, will be of interest to
anyone engaged in building public trust when managing high-profile issues. While the book’s style is uneven at times, the wealth of practical information it
offers, including accessible resources, tools and references, cements its value.
All in all, a most valuable and practical guide to an increasingly vital dimension
of corporate and government survival. * André Potworowski is
President of TMA-Technology Management Associates and
Adjunct Professor in the Executive MBA program of the School of Management at the
University of Ottawa. He consults to large R&D organizations on
strategy and innovation. He was a Science Writer for the CBC. He holds a Ph.D.
in Physical Chemistry and Computer Science from the University of Toronto, and an
MBA from Harvard Business School.
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