What happens to your career when you never have another opportunity to present a report at large meetings? Part 2.
What happens to your career when you never have another opportunity to present a report at large meetings?
In the previous blog, I asked the question:
If the CI’s future is a system-based, scalable, organizational approach to providing value, and that may never be able to present a traditional CI report in a large meeting, what will your title be? What will your job be?
Here are my thoughts on an answer.
- Your worth must be self-evident, visible, and proveable.
Competitive Intelligence has struggled with this since the time of Porter, and perhaps before. Does this mean a quarterly report? Possibly. Does this mean how you show up in the organizations? Yes. Does this mean focusing on customers? Yes. Does it mean anyone gives a damn about what technique you used to get your answer? Probably not as much.
CI people must move away from the ‘sciencey-jargon‘ of research. Get to the point. Make an impact on business.
Consider your deliverables. Do they matter? Do people get mad if they aren’t delivered? If they aren’t, then you may be focusing on the wrong deliverables.
Challenge yourself.
For me this meant Sales Battle Cards, Win/Loss Services and systems, Newsletters, Rapid Responses and Executive Reports. These are the hard and fast deliverables of a CI program and when delivered with mind-numbing consistency, they go a long way to creating the foundation for a great career.
- Engage.
So what keeps CI people from engaging? The traditional CI process is governed by the ‘taking of a request,’ ‘doing research,’ and ‘delivering a report.’
In short, bunk.
This process is outdated, and CI professionals should reject it almost completely. I will grant you that some of it still has a place as it represents the general service-oriented nature of CI, but it incentives working in isolation. That is not today’s business model and will result in you being left out of crucial meetings and on-the-spot decisions that have become the standard strategic planning method of today.
This challenge may become even more substantial as organizations no longer meet directly in meetings. If you don’t get the chance to present PowerPoint in the future? What does your career look like? How do you engage in the dynamic web-based organization of the future?
Out-of-sight, out-of-mind is not a career-building strategy.
So, how can your Battle Cards, Newsletters, and Executive Reports become – engaging? Get used to using systems to engage your audience. Enterprise social media, and other systems will become the water coolers of tomorrow, if they aren’t already today. Get used to these technologies and tools and be visible.
- Enable Self Service
What if in the future you never had a corporate meeting to present a report?
Think about the products and services that you provide your customers, probably the majority of whom are internal to your organization. Would you provide value even when you are on vacation? Would you provide value if you could not be reached for a phone call or an email? I postulate that in the future, regardless of your location, time or ability to produce analysis, you must be creating value.
I ask you: How will you do that if you are not helping make scalable solutions?
I hope this blog gives you some things to think about as you move forward in your CI career. I think we are all going to be challenged with new organizational paradigms. We will have to continually prove our value in a changing corporate landscape, which will require increased engagement, sometimes virtually. We may be tasked with improving the organization’s overall capabilities and scalability even when we are not doing the analysis.
Can your battle card system produce a battle card when you aren’t doing the analysis? Can your newsletter system produce a newsletter while you are on vacation? These are some things to think about.
If you have any questions, please reach out. I’d be glad to talk about the subject with you.
Ed.