New CI Podcast Episode: Arik Johnson on CI 2020

[August Jackson]

I'm happy to report that I've posted the long-awaited next episode of the Competitive Intelligence Podcast. This is my interview with Arik Johnson, founder and Managing Director of Aurora WDC and creator of this wonderful Ning forum for CI professionals.

http://cipodcast.libsyn.com/index.php?post_id=523046

This is a very conversational interview, and Arik and I touch on a number of topics, including:

1. The importance of the "perpetual beta" mindset in a paradigm of rapidly-changing technology and reduced barriers to entry.
2. The shifting paradigm for intelligence moving from asymmetry of information to asymmetry of interpretation.
3. Companies that "get it" on setting and executing winning strategies by articulating strategies in ways that stick and then empowering employees to self-actualize to pursue those strategies.
4. Arik explains the CI 2020 project that he began with Craig Fleischer to explore how the CI profession will change in the next 11 years
5. CI's evolving role as a mechanism and process to correct for cognitive bias
6. The importance of a customer-centric model in delivering CI

Suffice it to say there's great stuff in this episode. Please take a listen and share your thoughts here, on Twitter or on the Competitive Intelligence Podcast web site.

[Graeme Dixon]

Thank you very much for this. Very interesting

[Ellen Naylor]

This is a great discussion, which I listened to last night. You guys have great chemistry and it flowed well as you moved through a lot of CI material. What caught my attention immediately, of interest to our CI Ning group, is that most of our members are outside of the US. I thought I heard 90%! Point 6 is near and dear to my heart, since we as CI professionals are so excellent at digging up good scoop, pattern detection and applying analytical tools. Many of us are not so good at getting our message out and listened to by the right people in our companies to take corrective or pro-active action. We haven't developed those relationships with key decision-makers in our companies, and we're often impatient to get there. I wrote an article about developing executive relationships through cooperative intelligence in CI Magazine, and what I learned along the way is that often the way to the executive suite is indirect and lengthy, but with perseverance and solid work, you'll get there.