Harnessing the Power of Intelligence, Counterintelligence and...

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 288 pages
• Published by: Professional Dev Inst Pr December 10, 2002
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 0865029245
• ISBN 13 Number: 978-0865029248
• Book Dimensions: 9.4 x 6 x 0.8 inches
• Weighs: 1.3 pounds

Product Review
"A must read for senior executives This is a grand slam by Martin."

Professor Sunder Kekre -- Professor Sunder Kekre, Carnegie Mellon Graduate School of Industrial Administration

"A powerful message a richly-resourced guide for the intelligence gathering practitioner, replete with compelling examples of successful applications." -- Archie W. Dunham, Chairman, ConocoPhillips; Chairman, National Association of Manufacturers

"I highly recommend that all managers and leadersread this book." -- George Kolisnek, Director Strategic Intelligence, Department of National Defense

"Mining intelligence is a tall order Martin delivers sensible advice, rich in practical ideas and real-life examples." -- Douglas McCracken, CEO, Deloitte Consulting

"This book should be compulsory reading for senior executives." -- Howard Mann, President and CEO, McCain Foods

An extraordinarily.. well written book on a topic of great contemporary importance Advice.. practical.. completely on target."

F. Warren McFarlan -- Professor F. Warren McFarlan, Harvard Business School

Product Description
This book covers the organization, leadership, tools, practices and culture of intelligence. It reveals a powerful framework comprising new instruments, platforms and breakthrough concepts to address intelligence issues facing professionals and decision-makers, at the national and corporate levels, post September 11. Armed with a wide variety of real-life examples and road maps from business, government and the military, the author demonstrates how the framework can be applied to win customers and allies, seize opportunities, anticipate threats, shield assets from adversaries, and gain insights into the mindset of stakeholders, by legal and ethical means. The content is based on Harvard University Global System™ management road maps pioneered by the author Alain Paul Martin.

The failure to act on valuable intelligence is legion. About half of the book addresses this issue with new instruments for intelligence analysis and interpretation. A full chapter focuses on anticipating and managing surprise events, and another covers the application of the issue-incubation cycle, as an early warning system. Neglecting this cycle can result in undue risk exposure and flawed decisions. In addition, acting on valuable intelligence requires the commitment of a team, with members playing complementary roles. Otherwise, too many important ideas, intelligent trails and even great goals and missions are abandoned. The book looks at the power, status and role of the catalysts of intelligence-led change. It also introduces new intelligence tools used to analyze the perceptions and behavior of consumers and other stakeholders.

The book is suitable for general audiences. Learning about intelligence can help each of us make wiser choices, work better and be a more informed and accountable citizen. Technical terms are explained thoroughly. Real-life examples about people and important issues will be fun to read, talk about, both at work and to stimulate discussions and give your staff or students a primer on intelligence.

All in all, this is an excellent, timely and easy to read book with entertaining, vivid examples and breakthrough instruments, most of which are not available elsewhere. As illustrated by the following testimonies, this book is highly recommended for managers, professionals, educators and students in business, government and the military.

Reader Reviews
"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, management sage Peter Drucker captured the central problem facing organizations in uncertain environments -- they look in the wrong place. In volatile times, humans tend to hunker down in the cocoon of the controllable. Effective leaders embrace such times as an opportunity for greatness, when the prepared organization can jump ahead of ostrich-like competition. Yet, few management advisors opine on how to combat these human tendencies and systematically scan, analyze and act in uncertain environments. Michael Porter's classic works on Competitive Strategy and Competitive Advantage did dispense advice on competitive intelligence gathering, but did not attend to the conversion of intelligence into commercial advantage. Alain Martin's new book "Harnessing the Power of Intelligence" compiles tested processes which create such value. Martin's frameworks are based on research at American Express, Boeing, Dell, DuPont, GlaxoSmithKline, and Microsoft as well as application of his ideas in businesses, government, and the military. 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 the business intelligence available publicly, because the vast majority of it is either not in a standard hypertext format or not linked to a public domain name (the silent campers). His framework on issue incubation, shows that large scale issues go through a relatively predictable process of incubation 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. Martin also 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 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.