Top 10 Intelligence Capabilities Issues

Published: October 11, 2016

Over the past several years we have been collecting information and data points from interviews we held with top executives from dozens of companies. We found out that the top intelligence capability issues that are cited from business leadership as impediments to a highly valued intelligence function are universally consistent across industries and firms. Check out the top 10:

  1. Deliverables lack actionable business insight and recommendations.
  2. Tactical/transactional work consumes too much time.
  3. Intelligence team talent lacks business/market understanding or analytical skills.
  4. The corporate function ignores BU/Regional issues.
  5. Deliverables are not clearly designed nor enable business priorities and strategies.
  6. Information is delivered or data is dumped – analysis burden is left to the recipient.
  7. There are inconsistencies in local capabilities/understanding and the ability to execute.
  8. Competing priorities inhibit any real, valued outcomes – BU, Regional, Local.
  9. Routine reporting lacks insight (newsletter tend to diminish brand value).
  10. Resource constraints from leadership, talent, budget, meeting/process integration, technology.

A CI capability starting with a rock solid CI strategy that aligns with core executive leadership, has a business cadence and corporate governance, as well as contains proper CI purpose, vision, mission and values statements seems to set the intelligence pace to head off at the pass many of the above CI capabilities issues.