What new technology deserves investigation? Which competitor should be closely monitored to avoid being overtaken? What major behavioral shift should be anticipated to adapt your offering? With effective strategic monitoring, you will be able to answer all these questions, and therefore detect both opportunities and threats in a timely manner.
STRATEGIC INTELLIGENCE: WHY IS IT ESSENTIAL TO ORGANIZE IT WELL?
STRATEGIC INTELLIGENCE: WHY IS IT ESSENTIAL TO ORGANIZE IT WELL?A little bit of history…
In 2008, traditional taxi companies did not detect in the development of smartphone applications a potential threat which a few months later would take the name of… Uber, and introduce a real disruption in urban passenger transport.
Who knows if the most agile among them could not have then transformed the threat into an opportunity, created their own platform and made the switch to these new technologies more quickly and thus better resist this new competition… Or even killed it in the egg.
By focusing too much on their own field of activity and without an effective strategic monitoring system, most of the large taxi companies simply found themselves unable to anticipate a threat which, as is increasingly the case in all sectors, came from a very distant technological (or economic) universe.
As this example illustrates, the challenge of strategic intelligence lies in detecting a new form of competition or the emergence of a promising technology early enough to allow for the deployment of an action plan (or response) aimed at maintaining or strengthening competitive advantages. A threat identified in time also often takes the form of a potential opportunity.
Weak signal: how to avoid missing it in your strategic monitoring?
In itself, a weak signal is neither positive nor negative . It's simply information. Most often insignificant and barely perceptible to most people. It takes on its full importance when it intersects with other information, or when it is amplified by the intuition or curiosity of an observer or a working group. ("Did you say working group?" Yes, we'll come back to that...)
Detected early, a weak signal can open the door to genuine strategic opportunities. Conversely, if it is not identified in time or if the correct conclusions are not drawn, the same weak signal can conceal a threat, as it allows a competitor to seize upon it.
STRATEGIC MONITORING: 360° OR MORE?
STRATEGIC MONITORING: 360° OR MORE?Strategic intelligence is a composite form of intelligence gathering. It encompasses all the intelligence gathering activities that must be organized within an organization: competition, market, regulations, geopolitics, etc
Strategic intelligence is also multidimensional, in that the depth and precision of the information expected can vary enormously from one subject to another.
This organization can prove complex. Faced with the multiplicity of issues, areas to monitor, but also internal clients who do not expect the same deliverables… It is easy to get lost along the way, or worse still produce a pile of reports, flows and tables… that nobody reads.
Sometimes very focused and precise, sometimes more diffuse and distant from the day-to-day operations of the company, strategic intelligence should enable the various decision-makers to make medium or long-term decisions, based on a "Probability" vs. "Impact" or "Imminence" vs. "Risks" matrix.
Leaving aside compliance issues, the major challenge for a strategic intelligence unit lies in simultaneously conducting broad, superficial monitoring (for example, of macro trends) and highly detailed monitoring (for example, of competitors). Furthermore, it requires the regular execution of in-depth investigations— deep dives —to further explore detected signals.
Without a regularly reviewed monitoring plan, your monitoring unit can quickly become lost…
Similarly, it is necessary to conduct after-action reviews (AARs) on situations where information deemed important in hindsight was detected too late, or when information was disseminated but failed to trigger a reaction or raise any particular alarm. The resulting diagnosis and action plans will likely differ. Sometimes it may involve revising the scope of monitoring, and in other cases, adapting the methods of dissemination and strategic enrichment of the findings.
SOME COMPONENTS OF STRATEGIC INTELLIGENCE
SOME COMPONENTS OF STRATEGIC INTELLIGENCEThis involves monitoring across the entire scope of the company's radar. However, the level of precision required will differ depending on whether you're monitoring competitors (their product pipelines, patent filings), tracking startup news (emergence, funding rounds, proofs of concept, partnerships, etc.), or following megatrends such as inflation, climate change, geopolitical or sociological developments
We won't list them all in this article, but among the essential elements of strategic intelligence, we should prioritize:
Competitive intelligence: direct… and indirect
This is the most instinctive type of monitoring: closely monitoring production techniques, product or project pipelines, acquisitions, patent filings… What new products/services are your competitors about to launch? What technologies is their R&D department working on? Who are their new academic partners, what theses are they funding, what collaborative projects are they participating in?
From a "competition" perspective, your strategic intelligence work should enable you to answer all these questions.
Market intelligence and long-term trends
Beyond traditional competitive intelligence, good strategic intelligence must be able to step outside one's area of expertise.
Mega trends (or critical invariants for some)
It's not just about sensing the current climate to anticipate the next big trends.
The main objective is to identify scenarios, categorize them in a matrix (for example: Probability vs. Impact on the company's performance) and launch as many sectoral or thematic analyses ("deep dive") as there are needs.
strategic foresight thinking .
It involves selecting themes, broad areas of monitoring, generally of global scope, but which could ultimately impact the company and its business model . They are not intended to predict the future. However, they are indeed a foresight exercise. They can be enriched by various works, such as those offered by Ariel Kyrou in * Les imaginaires du futur* (Imagining the Future ), which explores the future through works of science fiction.
Here are some examples of this type of monitoring:
- For example, keep an eye on the latest innovations specific to the metaverse . If its use were to develop, it could indeed be advantageous for a cosmetics brand to have its foundations, eyeshadows, and lipsticks tested by our avatars. And if a technology were to add an olfactory dimension to the metaverse, a perfume brand would have every reason to ensure that its fragrances are the first to be able to be smelled "digitally."
- Another example in the field of cosmetics is that the questioning of gender stereotypes in recent years has been a weak signal allowing brands to offer new makeup product proposals.
- In a completely different area, the inflation our economies are experiencing can also be considered a crucial long-term monitoring issue . If rising prices are sustained (and they likely are), they could profoundly transform consumption habits, giving rise to new modes of consumption, communication, transportation, banking practices, and so on.
- Climate change is also one of these major trends capable of disrupting the economy at all levels. It is worth noting in this regard that for the first time in 2021, the CIA's annual threat report (Global Trends 2040: A More Contested World)
Startup monitoring
The example of Uber and taxis clearly illustrates this: you don't operate in isolation, and innovation in a sector completely different from your own can have a significant impact on your business . For example, the discovery by a biochemical startup of new catalysts to transform CO2 into formic acid—a molecule used in fuel cells—can be crucial for a company in the automotive industry.
Do you have a list of high-potential start-ups or SMEs for your business?
And effective monitoring of the genesis of new start-ups (accelerators, incubators, fundraising rounds, etc.)?
If so, how often do you update the information about them? This is a crucial question, as you will potentially find yourself managing a vast amount of diverse and varied information, some of which may have a relevance rate below 10%. It's best to have a solid method and tools before starting or acquiring an online database.
With our Skopai , access a database of over 200,000 startups worldwide and stay up-to-date on their business news. Plus, our software automatically detects new startups for you.
Standards and norms, competition, digital developments, societal changes, underlying economic trends… The challenge of strategic intelligence lies in avoiding spreading yourself too thin, or conversely, remaining blind to entire segments of your environment. To achieve this, it's essential to reflect on the organization of your strategic intelligence. Ideally, this work should be managed by a dedicated team, which will coordinate the network of subject-matter experts (science, competitors, standards and regulations, labor law, etc.) and establish a comprehensive intelligence plan.
To best perform this strategic monitoring work, you need tools that allow you to cover the various scopes described above. Patents, scientific articles, collaborative projects, theses, web articles… IPMetrix is a multi-source monitoring software that allows you to monitor all the desired areas without getting lost in the mass of existing information . Thanks to our tool, you will be able to classify, detect, and comment on each piece of information, giving you all the means to avoid missing a crucial weak signal. Want to learn more?
