Plan a focused intelligence project to support management decisions where technology is important

• Use technology intelligence to anticipate competitors’ capabilities and intentions
• Select the right technologies to investigate and track
• Select appropriate sources of technical intelligence
• Learn about cutting edge analytical tools and software packages to develop actionable intelligence from raw data
• Integrate technical intelligence into the strategic thinking and decision making of your organization
• Form a Competitive Technical Intelligence (CTI) capability appropriate to your size and needs
• Protect your information from other firms’ intelligence efforts
• Set up a program to direct your intelligence effort

Technical Competitive Intelligence and the Management of Technology

The art of CTI is knowing how and when intelligence can improve technical decisions and enhance innovation.

• Competitive technical intelligence defined
• The role of technical intelligence in effective technology management
• Driving innovation with technical intelligence
• A four-step ‘decision based’ intelligence process
• Case studies of representative collection projects
• Ethical issues in collecting intelligence

 Exercise: Participants work in small groups on an exercise concerning the ethics of intelligence collection.

Focusing the Search

Learn to develop clear CTI requirement statements that balance breadth and focus.

• Defining where technical intelligence provides value
• Clarifying the assumptions and unknowns affecting decisions
• Anticipating technology shifts that can affect your operations
• Developing Key Intelligence Topics (KITs)
• Forming actionable intelligence questions to guide the collection effort

Sources of Technical Information

Knowing how to translate intelligence questions into collectible pieces of information (indicators) is key to selecting resources.

• Internal and external intelligence sources best suited for technical intelligence
• Source selection guidelines
• Organizing and using internal sources of intelligence
• Developing a comprehensive search strategy
• Collecting intelligence at conferences—steps to take before, during, and after the meeting
• Human intelligence collection: interviews, company visits, and expert panels
• Collecting information on private companies, divisions of major corporations, and non-U.S. firms
• Working with commercial sources of technical intelligence
• Anticipating emerging business drivers—techniques for identifying unarticulated customer needs
• Using counter-intelligence techniques to protect your secrets and information, and reduce intelligence collection efforts of your competitors
• Using the Internet, the World Wide Web, and portals

Exercise: Participants work in small groups to identify intelligence needs for a technology-based company and develop an intelligence search strategy.

Analyzing Technical Intelligence: Converting Raw Data Into Actionable Intelligence

 Analysis puts collected information into context, thus helping decision makers understand its implications.

• Guidelines for selecting the right analytical framework
• Qualitative versus quantitative techniques: pros and cons
• Traditional approaches: profiles, trends, maturity and substitution curves, life cycle analysis
• Scenarios as tools to anticipate future technologies
• Technology forecasting fundamentals—detecting the antecedents of substitution and indicators of ‘disruptive technologies’
• Techniques for analyzing patents: patent citations and patent mapping
• Computer aided pattern assessment techniques, e.g., knowledge clusters, literature content mapping, and company relationships

 Exercise: Participants have the opportunity to work with outputs from selected analytical tools.

Using Technical Intelligence Strategically

 Ensure that information leads to meaningful actions.

• Translating intelligence into action: lessons from the best
• Getting started with CTI: the ‘Virtual CTI’ model
• Packaging intelligence output: strategies for reaching decision makers
• Building buy-in and commitment to action
• Putting it all together—keys to success