ciprof

Very interesting responses to Russian CI practices so let me follow up with a more general open ended question - What is your frustration in terms of competitive intelligence in China. What frustrates you? What are the barriers?

OK I have been answering many of your questions and have been happy to do so. But now it is time for you to talk about CI in Russia. I would like to hear from you the Russian practitioners about CI in Russia: 1) You have read about CI in USA through the books like Fuld's and Kahaners - how does this compare to actual CI practice in Russia? 2) Many of the questions you have asked me have been about industrial espionage and counter intelligence. Is this where the bulk of CI activity is coming from in Russia? 3) Do Russian companies have intelligence units? What percent? Where do they report to? 4) What are the more common intelligence topics that you deal with? 5) Where do you see intelligence practice in Russia going over the next 5 years (I would like to see your intelligence about intelligence) 6) What are the key challenges you see to doing CI in Russia? This is just the start - Time for me to learn about CI in Russia from you the experts

OK I have been answering many of your questions and have been happy to do so. But now it is time for you to talk about CI in Russia. I would like to hear from you the Russian practitioners about CI in Russia: 1) You have read about CI in USA through the books like Fuld's and Kahaners - how does this compare to actual CI practice in Russia? 2) Many of the questions you have asked me have been about industrial espionage and counter intelligence. Is this where the bulk of CI activity is coming from in Russia? 3) Do Russian companies have intelligence units? What percent? Where do they report to? 4) What are the more common intelligence topics that you deal with? 5) Where do you see intelligence practice in Russia going over the next 5 years (I would like to see your intelligence about intelligence) 6) What are the key challenges you see to doing CI in Russia? This is just the start - Time for me to learn about CI in Russia from you the experts

In terms of laws around CI unlike the US where there is a strong Economic Intelligence Act no such law exists in Canada. In fact, in most countries in the world there really are no laws around theft of information. Criminal charges can only be applied if there has been a violation of the law for example if you broke into the company to steal information then you are charged with breaking and entering or tresspassing. My brother-in-law was a police officer who was in charge of these types of economic crimes and he told me that when a company said their information was stolen he had to ask them the value of what was stolen. The companies always talked about the potential loss due to the information being in the hands of the competitors. From the police and legal side the only answer that was relevant was what was the cost of the piece of paper or blueprints that were stolen which was generally around $1. In Canada if espionage is suspected you can always try to sue the company but criminal charges are rare. Culturally however Canadians take a dim view of industrial espionage and may not want to do business with a company that engages in these practices.

Policy investigation and that's just about it.

I cannot give you the program for this course as it is classified. However it does use publically availably search engines and known searching techniques.

What about CI in Japan? They have an annual conference that is sponsored my their government and have put a lot of resources into CI.

The US has a government office that handles requests for information for government information the association responsible for security when reporting on Industrial Espionage for some reason includes access to information requests as a for of industrial espionage. Even though these requests are legitimate. In many countries for example Canada, you can request information that the government has captured. This information can reveal company strategies (for example bid documents), government plans and so forth. The government then has to decide what information they will release that does not compromise security or privacy. The request is a public one so I am unsure why it is classified by the association as industrial espionage.

Specific people: Look at bogs, wikkies and discussion groups to see what they are saying (I have had a lot of successes with this). If it is a science/technical issue look at who is referencing them either papers or patents (this gives you others to talk about), invisible web search engines. The methodology I use for searching for source information depends on the nature of the inquiry. In Canada we have created a one week intelligence and internet course specifically for state intelligence officers showing them how the net can be used to get information to be used for high level crime investigations. There are a multitude of different ways the net can be used. But my best advice is not to ask for a "one best way" I know of dozens of search approaches that are appropriate for different needs. As for masking identity - I have had a few questions related to this area and I will tell you that I do not mask my identity. My competitors assume that I am investigating them - what self respecting company is not interested in their rivals? What I mask is the information that I am looking for by going to other parts of the website in addition to the area that interests me most. The idea is to ensure that the competitor is not aware of what information I am particularly interested in. Big, smart companies know about masking interent ID's and will assume that it is a competitor doing it. A smart intelligence team will be able figure out what information the anonymous user is looking for and then from there figure out who you are. Not a hard thing to put together if you have a good CI team. But if you are asking if there are times when I have masked my identify unintentionally the answer is yes - surfing from airports, libraries and other public places and if I am concerned about identitfying me by the city or country of the location (eg my local library) then I simply do it at an airport while in transit.

Again you need to be clear on what you are trying to validate - if it is trustworthiness as a character attribute then you need to identify people that the source has dealt with previously and interview them. As well you need to track their behaviors during this relationship. Depending on the industry the source may have had to file information pertaining to prior dealings. Again depending on the industry and situation the source will change and the method for getting the information will also change. I can't give you a specific answer but the technique which is called box the target is the approach used when trying to identify sources for information. This technique is used globally.

1) There are companies in Canada that do have a competitive intelligence unit which reports either to a functional executive or directly to the head of the company. The more dominant model though is someone within the organization part of an existing department that also has CI responsibility. 2) CI vs industrial espionage - the difference lies in collection technique for me more than anything else. Industrial espionage involves non open source collection. United States government even put "access to information" requests in the category of industrial espionage. Given that these requests are legal I am surprised to see it included in their statistics. 3) Your second and third questions deal with CI ethics - I urge you to consult the Society of Competitive Intelligence ethics guidelines and the Competitive Intelligence Foundation book - Navigating the gray zone. But more specifically as I go around the world I find different laws on collection which would make some techniques that are for example legal in one country illegal in another. I also see different cultures of collection for example in one country misrepresentation is usual while in another it is considered unethical. The companies that I work with all have some form of ethics guideline which specifies which activities are acceptable.

1) Western companies and Russia: I have not been asked by any company to do CI in Russia. 2) Many large Western companies have some form of intelligence function either a CI unit or an officer with CI related responsibility. It is not all outsourced. 3) I have been involved with hundreds of companies and seen literally thousands of intelligence projects and non of them have involved staff unloyalty, I think you are confusing competitive intelligence with company security. 4) Polygraph examination - some industries this happens but again very few companies in Canada use polygraphs for this purpose.

Great question - Global Intelligence Alliance (www.globalintelligence.com) has done 2 studies on percentage of large companies with intelligence capability. What they have noted around the world is that the percentage is rising and also that many people call it different things (competitive intelligence, market insight, business intelligence etc.) So the good news is that it is increasing. The percentage of companies whose CEO says they need better peripheral vision or corporate radar is between 81% and 90% depending on the study you look at. But unfortunately the term competitive intelligence itself is not understood so if you ask them do you need better competitive intelligence the answer is a lot lower. So the western answer is that most companies recognize the need for a better understanding of their competitive environment but they do not realize this is called competitive intelligence. As a result of executives not fully understanding what competitive intelligence is, the business community does not pay a lot of respect to CI specialists. But for those executives that do understand what intelligence is their CI officers are highly respected and get access to the top officials of the organization.

Source validation is key in competitive intelligence the rule of two non related sources applies. However for trustworthiness are you talking about the partner? his/her statements? suggested actions? I would look at their past actions talk to old partners, check to see if any legal proceedings had been enacted against them. I would check with the Embassy as well.

Good question - SCIP did a study several years ago about the salaries of CI people and the answer was it depends on where in the organization you were. If you were part of the strategy or planing department your salary was significantly higher than if you were in marketing. SCIP has job postings so you can find salary offers there as well.