As you sip your shaken-not-stirred martini at the bar, you recognize “As Time Goes By” on the piano.  You sigh impatiently as you look at your Rolex again – your contact is late.  You have very urgent questions only they can answer and you are starting to worry.  Are they having trouble finding parking?   Or is their Aston Martin lying in a ditch, nudged off the road by shadowy figures hidden in the fog?

A very glamorous scenario to be sure, but that type of intelligence imagery belongs to the fictional world of movies.  Competitive (Strategic) Intelligence (CI/SI) certainly does have military roots and practiced by national security agencies and police departments. However, the business world adapted those original techniques with an aim to “leverage insights, best practices, and unimpeachable ethics to drive growth and reduce risk in strategic choice” in their respective industries.  (Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP)). Continue reading No Stone Unturned: Leveraging HUMINT Insights →