What is it worth? The question is as old as commerce itself...
Decision-makers want to be sure they are expending the appropriate amount of resources on the right kind of activities to maximize value.
Intense, hyper-competitive environments and stakeholder concerns continue to create pressure on firms to enhance spending efficiency wherever possible. Senior managers expect to see tangible return on their investments and often complain about the lack of understanding of how a given activity like CI, actually contributes to the bottom line. Numbers-driven CEOs and CFOs need to know that CI budgets and activities are efficiently making a tangible contribution to desired performance.
Too many CI executives lack convincing responses when asked by senior executives to justify their budgets or staffing requests, whether it be financial measures like return on investment (ROI) and internal rate of return (IRR), year-on-year productivity improvement indices, or just doing far more with much less. Unfortunately, even after decades of practice and scholarly research on this topic, no accepted industry convention or “plug and play” software application exists to reliably make the case for and connect CI results with organizational ones.
Benefiting from nearly two decades of successful experience in leading several top CI functions, we'll discuss a variety of approaches, philosophies, processes and methods to illuminate discussions about results and performance between intelligence and organizational leadership. Specifically, the session will look at:
- Measurement and valuation approaches and tactics demonstrated to work (as well as those that don’t)
- Critical factors to address in demonstrating CI performance and its impact to the organization when the time comes to ask for more resources
- Quantifiable methods for connecting intelligence results with organizational performance
How to Measure Strategic Market and Competitive Intelligence Performance
1. How to Measure Strategic
Market and Competitive
Intelligence Performance
A Complimentary Webinar from Aurora WDC
12:00 Noon Eastern /// Wednesday 19 December 2012
~ featuring ~
Craig McHenry Dr. Craig Fleisher
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2. Are you worth the price?
The lifespan of the average CI group is between three
to four years! (SCIP Surveys)
Today’s hyper-competitive environments create
economic pressure on firms.
Are you prepared to
articulate, well and
often, the value of CI
to your stakeholders?
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3. What is in it for me…
besides my job?
When done effectively, demonstrating and measuring
CI value:
Affects the success of your company and
organization
Provides a means to improve and grow
- Understand what is working, is not working, & why?
- Expands CI influence to areas of the organization
Moves you from overhead and cost center
to profit center and enabling function
- Captures CI performance in financial terms
- Reminds stakeholders of what you do and why
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4. Acknowledge, But Overcome The
Barriers And Excuses
No time to do it
Don’t know how
No complaints = satisfaction?
CI value is too
deeply embedded
in other activities
Return on Investment = CI Benefits / CI Costs
(calculating the numerator is the problem)
Other groups support decisions-making too
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5. Measure Strategic Market &
Competitive Intelligence Performance
Embrace A variety of Ask for more Connect results with
measurement and resources organizational
valuation “intelligently” performance
approaches • Behave like an • When you can,
• Result oriented internal business calculate
qualitative • Do it to yourself • Link to key
descriptions before they do issues/products/ser
• Statistics and • Create a culture of vices/
figures “CI” for CI • Swing for the fences
• Making “value”
the KIT
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6. Tell The Story –
Clearly and Often
How CI caused your stakeholder to do something
different
or differently
Without CI = X
but with CI = Y
Consider: The STAR Technique
Situation – Describe the business issue
Task – What was CI’s role
Action – What did you do and why
Result – Describe the outcome of CI research and
overall business impact
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7. Measure! - “What gets
measured gets managed”
Statistics = good, but don’t tell the whole story
Number of: projects, project hours, KITs, reports, etc.
How many: unique interactions, business functions,
Budgets: CI dept. budget, CI headcount, project $,
Metrics that hint at quality of work done
Not just were we right, but what was confirmed / new information/
revised (before decision)
What sources were used (internal vs external) (how many, of what
caliber)
How much “repeat” business do you get?
Decisions – Size/monetary impact, time under consideration, etc.
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8. An idea! - treat the value question
like its own CI project
Elicit the information from the organization
Formal discussion with key stakeholder(s) after
delivering results – part of the project plan
Probe on the perceived value of the work done
- What is the expected value to the company of the decision made?
- If money were not an issue, what would you be willing to pay for this
information?
- What would you had done if CI had not been an option?
Consider using a 3rd party
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9. Points To Keep Mind
Caution: stakeholder involvement bias
Keep legal informed of your work - they can be an
important ally
Sometimes you can infer value
When the CI budget comes from the product
groups, they are expecting a benefit or return to
their bottom line – e.g. voting for CI with their
budget.
Compare CI research to other market and
customer analytics
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10. When The Time Comes To
Ask For More Resources…
Behave like an you are running your own business
Face the inevitable - do it to yourself before they do
Create a culture of Continuous Improvement for CI –
meaning you should be able to tell others where the
improvement occurred, how much, and at what quality
levels
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11. Behave Like An You Are Running
Your Own Business
Benchmark but be skeptical
Use comparisons only as a guide
Give more weight to internal metrics
Learn to say no --
but remember to whom and why
Some rejected projects are areas
ripe for growth and expansion
Better to say no than short change an
important stakeholder with inferior work – use
opportunity to asses need for more resources
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12. If necessary face the inevitable
and do it to yourself before they do
Get out in front of obvious business
changes and step up to the challenge
Track project deliverables and
perceived value
- Know where you would do more and where less work
Proactively consider outsourcing
specific CI activities to focus on
high value tasks
- Can be used to both grow and expand capacity in advance
of adding headcount
- Can also be use to reduce or redeploy assets in the face
of cuts
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13. Create a culture of Continuous
Improvement for CI
Consider: After Action Assessments any time CI
work is done for a team
As part of project wrap up, capture project
details and feedback from all involved
- How complex was the question/business issue?
- How well did we describe the risks associated with what “we knew we didn’t
knew?”
- Did we fully leverage our internal knowledge?
- What are the lasting consequences of this project?
- If we found a discontinuous change, is there any way to anticipate or
compensate for that next time
Provide feedback and learning to
stakeholders
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14. Quantifiably Connect CI Results
With Organizational Performance
If possible, calculate return on investment
Link CI effort to key specific issues /products
/services
Swing for the fence – One homerun at the right time
can make the whole season
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15. If The Data Exists, Calculate
Project Return On Investment (ROI)
ROI
calculation:
Best when a benefit can be clearly quantified
Don’t be shocked by some very high ROI
figures from time to time
- Benefits realized over time can be adjust for NPV
Increase return by reusing where possible
Build and track use of your “Inventory of
Knowledge”
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16. Link CI Projects To Key
Issues/Products/Services
Track product performance relevant to CI projects
done
Look for changes related to CI supported
decisions
Areas without active CI work offer points of
comparison – use caution here
Identify inflection points
What if scenarios aren’t always reliable, but
can point to likely benefits from CI projects
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17. Swing for the fences – one homerun
can make the entire season
Although infrequent they are gold
Look for those projects where you can
obtain concrete data on the benefits
Write up the work as a short case study
for internal circulation and promotion
- Example: A change in strategy based on actionable CI work which
cost $100k and added $5mm sales to product’s bottom line
- ROI – ($5mm/ $100k) * 100 = 5,000% !!!
Success like this can influence
stakeholders for years to come
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18. Questions and Comments
Craig McHenry
www.linkedin.com/in/mchenrydc
Dr. Craig Fleisher
www.linkedin.com/in/drcraigsfleisher
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19. Biographies
Craig McHenry Craig McHenry has over 20 years of CI experience in a variety of leadership
roles. Craig most recently Director, CI for Pfizer’s Specialty Care Analytics
Business Unit. He joined Wyeth in 1991 and advanced his understanding of the
pharmaceutical industry while working in several business functions Since early
in his career at Wyeth, Craig has been involved with competitive intelligence. In
1993, Craig played a key role in forming the first Business and Competitive
Intelligence function, which evolved over the years into a Competitor Insights
team. Before Wyeth, Craig spent five years at Unisys and holds a M.A. in
Computer Science Ed. He has been a member of SCIP since 1993 and is a
graduate from the Gilad-Herring Academy of Competitive Intelligence.
Dr. Craig Fleisher With 25 years of intelligence experience, Dr. Craig S. Fleisher joined Aurora in
2011 as its Chief Learning Officer. He helps direct the Intelligence Collaborative
(Intel Collab), manages the firm’s internal analyst team, as well as executes
tailored analytics and training programs at our clients’ locations. His PhD
(Strategy, Environment & Organization) is from the University of Pittsburgh’s
Katz Graduate School of Business, MBA (Marketing & HRM) from Vanderbilt
University. Previously a business school dean, MBA Director, and Chaired Full
Professor, Dr. Fleisher is a past president of the Strategic and Competitive
Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) society, Chair of the Competitive Intelligence
Foundation, Editor of the Journal of CI & Management, and is a SCIP
Meritorious Award winner and Fellow.
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Notes de l'éditeur
Numbers or estimate are best
Be seen as constantly and actively looking for ways to improve and add value