Tim Wood Powell     The value of knowledge

To illustrate the principles of value creation, consider these two hypothetical vignettes from everyday life.

Vignette 1 – A Visit to the Doctor

You pay a non-routine visit to your doctor.  The doctor’s first question is, “What kind of pills would you like today?”

Your reaction?  You’re shocked at the incompetence, and look for another doctor.  Any doctor that prescribes medicines upon request is little more than a very expensive vending machine.  We expect the doctor’s first question to be something more like, “What is bothering you today?”

Yet, too often the former is how intelligence practitioners and other information professionals approach their clients.  They ask—with the best of intentions—”What kind of intelligence or information do you need to do your job better?”

It’s basically the same “vending machine” mindset, and invites the same reaction.  It’s unprofessional, and adds little value.

A more productive approach for the intelligence professional to take is to start by asking, “What business problems are you having?”  He or she should then be able to translate from the problem expressed by the client, to the solution he or she can offer—just like a competent physician does.

Vignette 2 – A Call to the Broker

You call your stockbroker with some money to invest.  She says, “Here’s a great investment idea for you.  Unfortunately, it’s a new stock, and totally different from any other, so there is no way to know how it might have performed in the past.  And no analysts cover it, so there are no forecasts of how it might do in the future.  And it pays no dividends, so you might be up or down a year from now.  You have to just trust me on this one.”

Sound appealing?  Not very.  Yet that is how many intelligence operations approach the issue of the ROI of intelligence.    They have more questions than answers—or, worse yet, they just ignore the issue.

Return on investment (“ROI”) and value creation should be at the beginning of any conversation about intelligence.  Intelligence must at least have a fighting chance of paying for itself by creating benefits greater than its cost.  In today’s cost-conscious world, if it does not, it becomes simply another good idea that never gets fully implemented.

Excerpt from “Intelligence:  Developing the Business Case”, chapter from Starting a CI Function (SCIP, fall 2008).

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