What Military Intelligence Taught Me About Business Intelligence
The world of business intelligence came as second nature to me.
Transitioning from the public to the private sector, I LOVED doing competitor analysis and analyzing the market, so much so that I didn’t understand why it wasn’t like that for everyone. As a product manager at the time, it just made sense. Talking with my sales and marketing peers, they got it but probably thought I was slightly obsessed. I dreamed of having a way to have information and paint a picture to arm our business with intelligence to make well-informed decisions, pivot, or find new opportunities. I tried several different things over the years; some worked, some didn’t, but the passion never left to have that strategic picture.
My passion came from my military intelligence background. Once you start seeing how pieces move together and correlate, it is hard to unsee it. Side tangent: this is probably the equivalent to our software engineers seeing everything as part of a system…same concept, but I digress. I want to nerd out a little bit with you and share how one (there are many) military intelligence frameworks can be something you add to your toolbox, but before we go there…
Business intelligence, competitor intelligence, competitor analysis, and external forces are all concepts that the majority of businesspeople know. Sometimes, the research that goes into these areas is vast but often lacks depth. This could be a result of having a full workload, a non-systematic approach to research, collection, and analysis, or not fully understanding the value that the intelligence can provide. I do mean intelligence, not information. No, I am not talking about collecting trade secrets. I do mean the collection of data points about known markets and competitors that are analyzed to produce intelligence and then used to see the holistic environment to aid in decision-making, pivots, and identification of business opportunities.
I see the military framework, Intelligence Preparation of the Operational Environment (IPOE), as a method to add more depth to this process. It could be an answer to overcome the hurtles listed above to find more clarity and opportunities. While there are many different frameworks that military intelligence analysts use, this one directly correlates to business. IPOE is used for mission planning, or more accurately stated, “is the systematic process of analyzing the mission variables of enemy, terrain, weather, and civil considerations in an area of interest to determine their effect on operations.” (JP 2-01.3) The intent is to take a holistic approach to understanding the environment. It provides leadership with relevant aspects of the environment (how it impacts friendly, threat, and neutral forces), how it could impact operations, identifies opportunities, and gives commanders information on which advantages to leverage and when. It is comprised of four steps:
- Defining the operational environment. “It is the aggregate of the conditions, circumstances, and influences that affect the employment of capabilities and bear on the decisions of the commander.” (JP 2-01.3)
- Describing the impact of the operational environment. “It describes how significant characteristics affect friendly operations.” (JP 2-01.3)
- Evaluate the adversary and other relevant actors. “The purpose of evaluating the threat is to understand how a threat can affect friendly operations.” (JP 2-01.3)
- Determine adversary and other relevant actor courses of action (COAs). “During step 4, the intelligence staff identifies and develops possible threat COAs that can affect accomplishing the friendly mission.” (JP 2-01.3)
There are four steps, but there is a lot to unpack in order to produce this living artifact. One could immerse oneself in hundreds of pages of military doctrine that discuss IPOE and how to conduct one. This is the same for a business trying to understand its IPOE, but it can always be started and built upon over time, as it should.
Something is better than nothing, and as I mentioned, once you see it, it’s nearly impossible to unsee it. You might as well document the things you see, which will create shared alignment and understanding within your organization. Bonus, it allows others to add to the collective picture.
Let’s adapt this to business. Some of the verbiage here needs to be updated. Our competitors are not our adversaries, but the steps and analysis conducted in these steps create a structured format for business intelligence and competitor analysis. These steps, with some verbiage tweaks, may look something like this:
- Defining the business (vs. operational) environment.
- Competitors (direct, indirect, replacement, potential, and future), market segments, target markets
- Economic trends, policy, regulations
- Technology, supply constraints, or advancements (for you and your competitors)
- Socioeconomic impacts and influences
- Describe the impact of the operational environment.
- Geopolitical impacts, volatility in policy & regulation changes
- Vulnerabilities in current operations (supply, tech, etc.) or other market vulnerabilities that could impact business
- Emerging industry trends (direct and indirect)
- Target market behavior and impact
- Evaluate competitors and other relevant businesses and people within your orbit.
- Strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, threats (SWOT) analysis on your competitors
- Why the market buys from them, their unique value proposition
- How they position themselves against their competitors, or you
- Their centers of gravity (COG), the things they must have to function as a business, compare to your own COGs…are they the same?
- Determine courses of action (COAs) for competitors, other relevant businesses, and people within the orbit. Note: this is all about predicting actions that are likely to be taken after you understand the information above. The intent is to be knowledgeable about how those actions could impact your business and may lead you to move in different directions or see opportunities that weren’t already visible. Be cautious with COAs; they are an assessment and therefore could be wrong. You should identify more than one; they are a method to think critically and see if they impact your operations/strategy.
- This is all about predicting actions that may be taken based on different factors from above
- How might your competitors respond to market conditions, tech changes, your company’s product or new releases, etc?
- Is there a potential for mergers, strategic partnerships, etc.? Why?
- What is their strategic outlook, and how does it impact your business and market?
Where to get started? Create a quad chart, break out each section and start filling it in. It is that simple. Remember, starting can be the hardest part. Some of this information already lives in your head; start documenting it. Once you see a visual laid out, you will begin to ask more questions, see gaps, and, better yet, opportunities.
Ever heard the military adage, “Fail to plan, plan to fail?” Planning is a necessity in military operations. It is also a necessity in business. Yes, yes, there is also another famous quote out there, “no plan survives first contact with the enemy.” IPOE is more than just planning, though; it is knowledge that will help forces pivot when they need to, but in order to do that, you have to get started.
In closing, let me say that there are lots of great books out there on the topic of Competitor or Business Intelligence:
- Competitive Intelligence Advantage by Seena Sharp
- Blue Ocean Strategy by W. Chan Kim & Renee Mauborgne
- Business Model Generation by Alexander Osterwalder & Yves Pigneur
While I am sure there are even more out there, these are some of my favorites. Each of these books offers valuable information. Some things overlap, but each takes a different approach and adds value in different ways. IPOE fuses together several of these concepts. Sometimes a different viewpoint will provide you with that “light bulb” moment.
Thanks for nerding out with me.
References
Joint Publication JP 2-01.3, Joint Intelligence Preparation of the Operational Environment, https://irp.fas.org/doddir/dod/jp2-01-3.pdf
