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The Unique Intelligence Needs Of Europe
The unwritten demands of developing a European Corporate Intelligence department often derail the best laid plans of American Big Business, used to the homogenized nature of business and culture in the United States. They often attempt to overlay a US template on a European problem, and soon find out the error of their ways.
Most are completely unaware of the historical forces, and the cultural barriers that exist, and have existed for over a thousand years. True the EU has plastered over most of the cracks, and likes us all to see a single community reaing from the same sheet of music. Under the surface there still runs a powerful current of Nationalism, and this is growing in many places. The average European does not relish the thought of being a great land of McDonalds, Wall Mart and cookie cutter strip shopping malls as far as the eye can see. Most of the United States can trace it's history back to the mid 1800's, and is quick to bulldoze down the old to build the vinyl faced wooden framework of the new.
European thinking tends not to go along these lines, and the result is decision making that is more than likely long term, nationalistic and not likely to collapse in the next credit, savings and loan, housing or dot-com bubble that plagues the United States. It often bewilders US competive intelligence analysts, used to a quarterly horizon on decision makers. The Europeans though tend to be equally confused with the Chinese who can look forward many generations, and look back 5000 years or so.
The fact is that "One Size Fits All" does not work when the logic of the modern business world meets the illogical, nationalistic holders of ingrown perceptions. Maybe history has more influence on deceision than the academics realize.
European Corporate Intelligence
European trading companies pioneered the art and craft of Corporate Intelligence long before many of the Nation States, including he United States of America existed. Today the realization is that to compete in the crowded global and multi-cultural marketplace corporations need to know a lot about their allies, and even more about their competitors.
They need to fully understand the trends in politics, and have advance warning of major changes in policy and legislation in the world's major Capitals. Sadly many believe they can learn about the world around them simply by having an academic librarian trawl the Internet with Business Intelligence Software.
These BI Suites are great tools for a corporation, but they are tools, and every tool is designed for a specific task, and not for every job in the workshop. Trying to plane wood with a hammer is a good analogy, hammers are great for driving nails into wood, but not for creating a smooth finish. For most of the 20th Century western governments have faced a single powerful enemy, and have developed intelligence networks to gather information focused on that criteria. Today the enemy is of a disorganized, and global nature, with no clearly defined communication, command and control structure, or with clearly defined recognizable uniform. The same with corporate threats, they no longer can be catalogued and conveniently filed with the library cards. The threat can be one's own government, who by changing rules and regulations, or taxation can destroy long established businesses in a very short period of time. That is where the specialist advisors now appearing in Washington, Brussels and major capitals around the world become an essential asset to the effective corporation. They track developments, threats and recognize risks before they become too large to manage.