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Intelligence & Counterintelligence:
Insights from the Battlefield

Alain Paul Martin

"Good intelligence does not apply only to state secrets and large companies. Nor is it necessarily expensive. A controversial word in the past, intelligence is emerging as a vital topic on the business agenda of leading agile organizations, regardless of their size. It is the bedrock of today's knowledge-based economy."(1)

The book Harnessing The Power of Intelligence, Counterintelligence & Surprise Events features a wealth of real-life illustrations in intelligence and counterintelligence from the public domain (2). The following stories supplement the book collection of cases.



The Embryo for a Billion Dollar Business at Baxter International

While scanning new inventions, Baxter International stumbled upon Sanyo smart vending machines and teamed up with the Japanese company to pioneer automated pharmacy systems that "electronically dispense medications, at the point of use, in a controlled fashion and track usage. Most systems require user identifiers and passwords, and internal electronic devices track nurses accessing the system, track the patients for whom medications are administered, and provide usage data to the hospital's financial office for the patients' bills." (3) To further reduce human errors, Baxter extended the system, in 2002, adding "electronic links between I.V. poles and the system server using wireless bar-code scanners. All the information is communicated to a central server to verify that it's right compared with the patient profile... If an I.V. drip rate is set wrong or a hose is crimped, an alert sounds on the nurse's handheld..."(4)

Important

A detailed coverage of intelligence, counterintelligence, strategy, risk, F-Scale and strategic negotiations is the subject of the management seminar: Strategy, Risk, Negotiation & Leadership.
For seminar objectives, outline and upcoming sessions in the US and Canada, contact www.executive.org.

Footnotes

1. A. P. Martin: Harnessing The Power of Intelligence, Counterintelligence & Surprise Events, Executive.org Press, 2002.

2. The following are among the intelligence and counterintelligence cases discussed in the book:
    a. Intelligence

    – GlaxoSmithKline and Bristol-Myers Squibb
    – Harnessing Tacit Intelligence at Nippon Roche
    – IBM Advanced Scout Rescues Orlando Magic
    – Amazon, Honda and Other Dark Horses
    – Intelligent Organizations in the Third Sector
    – Southwestern Bell Telephone
    – Glainard - Then and Now
    – Bell Canada: Translating Intelligence into Front-Line Dividends
    – Intelligence on Stem-Cell Migration Case
    b. Counterintelligence: How Good Organizations Lose Intelligence
    – Dumpster Diving: How Rivals Can Intimately Map Your Business from Small Nuggets in Your Trash
    – A Preventable But Costly-to-Ignore Trap: The Case of Xillix and Olympus Optical
    – Hotels and Meeting Places: Hot Beds for Leaks
    – The Friendly Visitors with a Hidden Agenda: The Cases of Kellogg and DuPont
    – Posting Ads for Non-existent Jobs
    – A Growing Threat: Your Lap Top and PDA: GE Power Systems and U.K. Ministry of Defence
    c. Intelligence Analysis & Interpretation: Connecting the Dots
    – VALSTM Psychology of Markets: Selected Illustrations
    – U.N. Case to Remember
    – The Case of Millennium Pharmaceuticals
    – Watching eBay
    – Scanning at Nike, TRW, Siemens and Anheuser-Bush
    – $30-Million Lesson from Banking
    – From a Cluster of Isolated Events to a Phantom Trading Scheme in Government Securities
    – From Isolated Events to Stock-Market Bubbles
    – Dell's Linux Strategy
    – GE-Honeywell Aborted Merger
    – American Express Cause Celebre
    – Public Affairs Events
    – Intelligence Lessons Learned from Mad-Cow Issue Incubation in the U.K.
    – Surprise Events Fuel Social Marketing: From Ichilov Hospital in Tel Aviv to University of Bristol in the U.K.
    – Taking Charge and Hitch-Hiking on Surprise Events: Inspiring Strategists and Catalysts of Great Change
         Darwin: The Brilliant Strategist
         Mackenzie King at the Rockefeller Foundation
         Ford and Toyota
         Michael Bloomberg and the Critical Mass for the Next Paradigm Shift towards a Smoke-Free Environment
         Lance Armstrong's Wake-up Call
         Craig Kielburger's Galvanizing Event
         Provocative Advertising at Benetton
         The Art of Orchestration at the Pasteur Institute
         Boeing: Impact of F-35 Joint Strike Fighters
         Ivan Reitman: The Journey from a Surprise Event to a Tidal Wave of Blockbusters
         Nobel Laureate Kim Dae Jung: From a Champion to a Great Architect of Change
         Raoul Wallenberg: A Selfless Role Model Beyond Comparison
         Greg Watson: Leading Without the Benefit of Authority
         Nobel Laureate Jody Williams: A Lifesaver and a Shining Beacon of Hope for Civil Societies
         Maurice Strong
         Peter Uberroth and Dick Pound
         William H. Gross
         Gregory Pincus
         Mikio Sasaki at Mitsubishi
         Boeing: From Wilson to Shrontz, Condit and Mullaly
         Anchor Nuria del Saz at Canalsur in Spain

3. Stanford University Evidence-based Practice Center: Making Health Care Safer: A Critical Analysis of Patient Safety Practices, Chapter 11. Michael D. Murray: Automated Medication Dispensing Devices. www.ahcpr.gov/clinic/ptsafety/chap11.htm

4. www.ahcpr.gov/clinic/ptsafety/chap11.htm


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