March 2005

No. 037

"Marketing Finished Intelligence Products to CEOs and Policymakers"

There is one word to describe an intelligence team that has identified what CEOs and policymakers need to know, collected all the raw information accurately and efficiently, performed a careful and thorough job of analysis and evaluation, and in due course reached sensible, even brilliant conclusions, judgments, and projections. The word is useless. An essential timepiece is not to withhold any intelligence of consequence, but to communicate without delay to the CEO or policymaker. The earliest possible intelligence is what is wanted. Therefore, the means (channel of distribution) for transmitting not only must be swift, but the organization (quickly understandable document) of the presentation must also. The thing that matters - the only thing that matters is what gets published and to the CEO or policymaker in time to help guide the organization to achieve its stated objective. But if the finished product is delayed to be untimely then those products are of no value, no consequence, or use whatever. The labor and expense was for naught because it has now become yesterday's news. To a CEO whose company or policymaker whose country is collapsing all around, it is of little comfort to know that their intelligence team is well informed. On the other hand, the CEO and policymaker want to know why they did not know - know ahead of time.

This is the art of marketing finished intelligence products. Channels of distribution are one of the key elements in all marketing and also in the intelligence business. An intelligence product is no different from any other product. Market timing and speed to market is key. This is where the input meets the output at the sameput. It is the analyst's or intelligent officer's job not only to manufacture but also to market and distribute the final product to the designated enduser. To find the most effective and efficient way to get the product to its intended market (CEO or policymaker) is channel of distribution logistics. As any marketeur knows, the world does not beat a path to your door when you invent a better mousetrap. The world just sits there, waiting for you to put it in their hands, even read it for them, and digest it for them. Even then the marketing is not over. As any fledging marketing executive learns, it takes an unrelenting effort to get a new customer (CEO or policymaker) to consider a new product (market intelligence brief or finished intelligence report) even when it is obviously, visibly, and provably in their own best interest. But if you really have the right product at the right price, at the right place, at the right time - and the marketing effort never gives up - then sooner or later they will buy it.

Marketing intelligence to CEOs and policymakers takes a combination of tenacity and gall. CEOs and policymakers tend to be too busy to devote much time to absorbing a market intelligence brief or finished intelligence report. Their intentions are good, but their time is limited. The urgent pushes aside the important. They tend to look at what they need at the moment. The data they need right now is what commands their attention, not the careful analysis that will effect events tomorrow. One of the challenges of a good analyst or intelligence officer is get their boss (the CEO or policymaker) to take their medicine (read the brief or report) and absorb it (pay attention to it). It is not just sometimes, but quite often, that CEOs and policymakers must be forced somehow to digest intelligence that is good for them.

Moreover, different people assimilate intelligence in different ways - not your way, but their way. Some people like to read, some like to talk face-to-face. There are good reasons and times for both. Others prefer listening to audio tapes or ipods. Some like videotapes, charts and assorted visuals, while others cannot stand them. No one form of packaging is better or worse than any other. It is a question of what does your customer want. It is a question of what will make the customer (CEO) buy the product or the customer (policymaker) buy into the product. For the marketeur it is a question of style, taste, or even habit.

It is the intelligence analyst's or intelligence officer's job to figure out what will work best for the CEO or policymaker they serve. As a good intelligence analyst or intelligence officer, you give the customer what they want. You do it their way, not your way. It is the good intelligence analyst's or intelligence officer's role to figure out what will work best for the CEO or policymaker, and to orient themselves to whatever turns out to be the answer. What will work is the answer. The intelligence team must adapt itself to those they serve. It is not the other way around. An intelligence team must be prepared to deliver its products in different forms as reports, briefings, tapes, or any combination of these. They must be able to catch CEOs or policymakers wherever they can, whenever they can - at their desks, at breakfast, even at the water cooler, washroom, on their way to work, or even on an overseas flight when they will not be interrupted by people, cell, or telephone calls. This is when there is time to chat - uninterrupted - and this is important. Intelligence analyst or intelligence officer must be prepared to do whatever works.

Sometimes nothing works. So what does one do? This is when the analyst or officer really earns their pay. When the CEO or policymaker is too busy, too distracted, or too far down the primrose path to listen, it is up to the analyst or officer to make them. This is not a job for the weakneed or fainthearted. This the time when the analyst or officer must crash through the gatekeepers, tie the CEO or policymaker down, and make them listen for their own good and the good of the organization. If the intelligence analysts and officers do not have the guts to do this when it is necessary, replace everyone on the intelligence team. CEOs and policymakers cannot afford an intelligence team who are afraid of them or any flunky gatekeeper. The intelligence team must genuinely like, respect, and admire the CEO and policymaker enough when push comes to shove to have the courage and sheer bureaucratic power to get through when the CEO or policymaker most need them.

Think of intelligence as a process, rather like manufacturing. It is composed of a series of steps where each one must be completed before the next one can be taken. There is a quality control process, internal and external security concerns, and even at times bottlenecks. Oh, those bottlenecks do become a challenge of the first order. What is the weakest link in the intelligence process? Many times it is found in the discussion alone or like the aforementioned above. Each step is different, but they all have one thing in common. Nothing happens all by itself or by accident. You never have a new product suddenly appear out of nowhere. Things just do not happen by themselves. For example, where does milk come from? Typical answer is the grocery store. Someone has to make it. Someone has to make a series of decisions to make a product, manage the entire manufacturing process from the acquisition of raw materials to product design, and onto your company's delivery truck a finished product.

Think likewise with intelligence. CEOs or policymakers will never just happen to have a vital finished intelligence product landing all by itself on their desk. Some analyst or officer will have had to manage the process step-by-step, from the CEO or policymaker selecting what is needed to be known, to collecting the information, to processing the data, and to landing the finished intelligence product from their desk to the CEO's or policymaker's at precisely the right time and right format that can be easily absorbed and understood. This is the process of intelligence. This is how intelligence works.

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