Comments on: What’s the Future of SCIP and the Competitive Intelligence Profession?

By: ellendnaylor

ellendnaylor — Thu, 04 Jun 2009 15:40:51 +0000

George, I am hopeful that F&S’s presence with senior executives will help put CI awareness at that level. And I agree that more cirulation of the CI Magazine would be helpful too, and is something I never thought of. Thanks for your sharing!

By: George Karshner

George Karshner — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 22:37:20 +0000

Thanks, Ellen. Good article. SCIP has always done a good job of marketing to practitioners, which is preaching to the choir. For many years one recurring key issue has been how to encourage management buy-in. For Competitive Intelligence to have any future we still need to reach those decision members and educate them as to the benefits of CI. Working CI into MBA programs is a start for future C level folks, however there is much more that can be done to generate management awareness and interest in the short term. Get the message to *them*. The SCIP magazine one good tool that is underutilized. A few copies should be in every airline’s business class section, the seatback of every car in the limo fleets of major cities, corporate lobby waiting areas and maybe even in executive washrooms. There are probably many other, perhaps better, ways to carry the SCIP message to the executive class; (arranging PR interviews about CI on Blumberg radio comes to mind).

SCIP and Frost need to put some energy and resources in management’s direction.

By: Ellen Naylor

Ellen Naylor — Thu, 28 May 2009 14:42:50 +0000

I agree with your comment, Mary Ellen. CI is often just a phase for many, whereas being a librarian is a way of life, so SLA has a great following, for example.

Happy to help out in facilitation, Arik. Although I am only at SLA on Tuesday, June 16. My life is complicated since I’ll be caring for my parents, but could duck out for something that gets me back by 9:30 a.m. on Mon or Wed.

By: Arik Johnson

Arik Johnson — Thu, 28 May 2009 11:30:04 +0000

I had a chance to chat with Ken Garrison yesterday about the merger and how it’s being perceived by membership and beyond and suggested SCIP sponsor a town hall meeting to discuss the outlook.

This would be online most probably but with perhaps a live component – for example, I’ll be seeing you and a number of other members at SLA in a few days and it would be easy enough to find a room somewhere with wifi and tack up GotoMeeting and a phone bridge without spending any money to do it.

Would you be interested in helping facilitate together this Ellen?

By: Mark Johnson

Mark Johnson — Thu, 28 May 2009 09:35:56 +0000

Ellen, well and kindly done. CI is not faring well in the marketplace as a distinct discipline. Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan. I hope SCIP takes your cooperative approach, but I know they generally exclude the dissenters from committee formation. The result is less contentious but also less insightful.

By: Mary Ellen Bates

Mary Ellen Bates — Wed, 27 May 2009 23:00:16 +0000

Ellen, that was a nice summary of the SCIP implosion. One other factor may also have been that many SCIP members are passing through CI along their career path, and don’t expect to be doing CI for long.