January 10, 2006
Arik Johnson's ReconG2 Weekly from Aurora WDC - 09 January 2006 - Competitive Intelligence for the Need-to-Know Enterprise
Happy New Year! I hope you all had as great a holiday season as I did, but I imagine you're also eager to get back in the swing of things as well. So, here are some highlights from today's edition of the newsletter to get you started.
If you haven't already noticed a lack of new blog entries lately that's because we're migrating www.ReconG2.com to a new extranet platform, but with the Vegas Consumer Electronics Show last week, and the Detroit Auto Show and Macworld this week, you can expect to see all new strategy and product analysis in the days ahead.
What's that you say? Don't know much about conference and tradeshow intelligence? Then, you should read our Technique of the Week:
>>> http://www.AuroraWDC.com/tradeshow_intelligence.htm
Likewise, in the absence of my own blog entries, at least there are a few you can read elsewhere, since I've been guest-blogging at the new Coemergence weblog (http://blog.coemergence.com) alongside a few of the best thinkers in the CI field. Pay it a visit and share your ideas, then join me and friends Craig Fleisher and Michael Chender for the free webinar "Creating a Predictable Advantage" Tuesday 17
January, from KMWorld Magazine, sponsored by Coemergence:
>>> http://webinars.kmworld.com/coemergence/17jan2006/coe5
Aurora will be presenting in person at events around the country over the next 30 days, starting Monday 23 January in Princeton, NJ at CBI's 2nd Annual Predictive Intelligence Forum. My friend Jordan Frank from Traction Software and I will doing our "Collaborative Early Warning" drug-development workshop simulation focused on the unique standards of CI best practices required by pharmaceutical, biotech and medical device markets. Plus, mention you're a friend of this newsletter and you'll get a $500 discount for you and your colleagues - then register three, and the fourth attends free:
>>> http://www.cbinet.com/sales/HB603_Glen.pdf
Later in the week, I'll be visiting the SCIP Boston Chapter for a meeting Thursday 26 January for a primer on Disruptive Innovation Theory and the relationship between this revolutionary approach to understanding competing technologies, anticipate industry changes and predict the outcomes of competitive product battles in advance. First written about by Clayton Christensen of Harvard, we're lucky enough to have Prof. Christensen keynoting SCIP 2006 in Orlando the end of April so I'm shamelessly promoting by spreading the word. Click to the SCIP Boston Chapter page on SCIP.org to register:
>>> http://www.scip.org/06_view_chap.php?id=9
Next, Aurora will be appearing at Frost & Sullivan's 13th Annual Competitive Intelligence event in La Jolla, CA starting Sunday 5 February. Always a valuable experience, this time around, Aurora has a surprise in store for attending delegates that we hope will set the stage for the rest of our year, and I don't mean the Super Bowl tailgate party - to find out what it is, click through to have a look at the program:
Finally, SCIP's Orlando Conference program is finally online and ready for registration - it's a truly stunning program with lots of surprises in store for those of you who've been before... as I've always said, not only is it the world's largest CI event, SCIP also has the best price-performance ratio to boot:
>>> http://www.scip.org/06annual
As always, my sincere thanks for reading the ReconG2 Weekly. Feel free to forward at will to all of your friends and colleagues if you think they'd enjoy it. Send me your comments, editorial ideas, suggestions & other feedback anytime - Arik.Johnson@AuroraWDC.com.
Best wishes for a happy, healthy and prosperous 2006,
- Arik
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1> Technique of the Week: Conference & Tradeshow Intelligence
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The cornerstone of every CI collection activity is penetrating the target-rich environment present at live industry events, such as conferences and trade shows. Aurora has a disciplined HUMINT model that brings both active as well as passive collection and analysis on board as you leverage the presence of the rest of the people in attendance from your organization:
>>> http://www.AuroraWDC.com/tradeshow_intelligence.htm
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2> On The Road Again: Winter 2006 Worldwide Appearances Calendar
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As we present our updated winter calendar of appearances & workshops at the CI events around the world that matter most, we encourage you to follow the links wherever your interests take you and come join Aurora and our partners in person to celebrate and learn about the benefits and best practices of CI in your organization.
Webinar - "Creating a Predictable Advantage" - 17.Jan.2005
Decision makers at all levels are frequently blindsided by shifts in the business environment and, as a result, face damaging surprises and near-misses. Hindsight always seems 20/20, so how can we use organizational memory to recognize the danger signs? Moreover, how do we use the information we already have at hand to predict and capitalize on windows of opportunity in the struggle for market share growth day-to-day? Knowledge managers can help evangelize a new ‘predictive’ direction to the C-Suite and demonstrate how early opportunity identification, risk management, and CI techniques come together to substantially increase a firm’s capacity to negotiate the short- and long-term competitive environments. You will learn what all knowledge managers need to know about competitive intelligence:
• Using the power of networked intelligence to vastly improve the early recognition of opportunities and threats.
• Capturing non-traditional data to elicit insights, generate intelligence and trigger action.
• Creating proactive IT support for predictive executive decision making.
• Recognizing potential triggering events and early warning signs for identifying opportunities and managing risk.
Join my good friends and me for this important examination of predictive decision-making, featuring University of Windsor Professor (and SCIP Board President-Elect) Craig Fleisher, Coemergence CEO Michael Chender and KMWorld magazine Publisher Andy Moore. It's all available FREE, January 17, 2006, at 11AM PT/2PM ET. Register now:
>>> http://webinars.kmworld.com/coemergence/17jan2006/coe5
Princeton, NJ - CBI's Predictive Intelligence - 23-24.Jan.2006
In addition to my good friend Jordan Frank from Traction software and I delivering our "Collaborative Early Warning" workshop on Monday morning, through Tuesday the 24th, you'll also hear a top-shelf faculty discussing cutting edge CI applications. Here are a few examples:
- Forecasting Results of New Product Launches - Johnson & Johnson
- Using CI to Benchmark Internal Drug Development - Pfizer
- Trend Monitoring - Endo Pharmaceuticals
- Connecting Scenario Learning with Market Monitoring - Amgen
- Neural Network Models & Time Series Analysis - Sanofi-Aventis
- CI in Evaluating M&A deals - Odyssey Pharmaceuticals
... and a bunch more ... Wow, great stuff, huh?!
In the bet-the-ranch world of bio-pharma, anticipating future market dynamics isn't nice-to-know, it's need-to-know. So take five minutes today and call Glen Manseau at CBI at 781-939-2513 (or email glenm@cbinet.com) to join us and qualify for the special discount. If you need further details about what we'll cover, click the link below to view the complete program; if you're active in CI and related fields in bio-pharma, you can't afford to miss it.
>>> http://www.cbinet.com/sales/HB603_Glen.pdf
Boston, MA - SCIP Chapter: Disruptive Innovation - 26.Jan.2006
Winners and Losers in Disruptive Innovation - the theory created by Harvard professor Clayton Christensen, who will also be keynote speaker at April's SCIP Conference in Orlando, refers to the market dynamics that govern products or systems that respond to the varied demand curves of the so-called undershot, overshot and nonconsuming contexts of competitive posture and customer value proposition. I'll offer a CI-oriented sample of Christensen's ideas on how every firm can gain competitive advantage by understanding and anticipating the threats and opportunities from your current and future rivals, then join us in Orlando in April to get the full story of how to predict industry change and see what's coming next:
>>> http://www.scip.org/06_view_chap.php?id=9
La Jolla, CA - Frost & Sullivan 13th Annual CI Event - 5-8.Feb.2006
Next, Aurora will be appearing at Frost & Sullivan's 13th Annual Competitive Intelligence event in La Jolla, CA starting Monday 6 February. Always a valuable experience, this time around, Aurora has a surprise in store for attending delegates that we hope will set the stage for the rest of our year - to find out what it is, click through to have a look at the program:
Orlando, FL - SCIP Annual Conference & Exhibition - 26-29.Apr.2006
SCIP's Orlando Conference program is finally online and ready for registration. It's an impressive program with lots of surprises in store for those of you who've been before... as I've always said, not only is it the world's largest CI event, SCIP also has the best price-performance ratio in the CI event world anywhere:
>>> http://www.scip.org/06annual
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3> JOBS: Are you relentless? Aurora is Hiring Research Analysts
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Business is brisk and Aurora's never-ending pursuit of the best talent marches on. If you consider yourself among the best and brightest in the CI field, we want you to join Aurora's elite team of versatile professionals. Learn how to combine your CI skills with Aurora's systemic approach to awareness and predictability in market-oriented decision-support with proprietary infrastructure and tools to help our clients see clearly the risks and rewards that await them and create an unfair advantage in achieving their sustainable market success.
Aurora's broad foundation of furnishing the most respected clients in diverse industries with the Competitive Intelligence business leaders "Need-to-Know" means we must again expand our corps of research analyst staff with opportunities across North America for human source collection experts. In addition, you must possess the talent to clearly deliver high-impact analysis, communicate advice and positioning guidance and exhaustively optioned recommendations.
Field experience in target-rich environments is a must and only those possessing unquenchable curiosity and a relentless drive to succeed in delivering what clients Need-to-Know need apply.
For consideration, send a brief professional history describing your related qualifications plus non-proprietary output examples to Mr. Derek Johnson, COO and Director of Research & Analysis Support Bureau services:
>>> Derek.Johnson@AuroraWDC.com
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4> INFO: Subscriber Services, What We Do, How to Reach Us
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Aurora WDC is a Competitive Intelligence professional services firm headquartered in Wisconsin and consisting of two highly complimentary businesses.
Run by Aurora's Founder and Managing Director, Arik Johnson, the CI Best Practices Institute is based in Chippewa Falls, while the Research & Analysis Support Bureau is based in Madison, expertly operated by Derek Johnson (yes, in case you're wondering, Arik's brother).
If your business or organization needs strategic or tactical CI collection help, advice or training, call us: 1-800-924-4249.
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Posted by Arik Johnson at January 10, 2006 01:14 PM
"Competitive Intelligence applies the lessons of competition and principles of intelligence to the need for every business to gain awareness and predictability of market risk and opportunity. By doing so, CI has the power to transform an enterprise from also-ran into a real winner, with agility enough to create and maintain sustainable competitive advantage."
