Posted on June 17, 2010.
First, I’d like to publicly thank the SLA Cincinnati Chapter for funding my virtual attendance at this year’s SLA conference. I was able to attend many of the sessions most of which were invigorating and informative.
Here is a summary of the June 16th session, Competitive Intelligence Transitions for LIS Professionals, on leveraging one’s skills as an LIS professional in a CI setting and transitioning into CI work. Speakers included Victor Camlek (VP, Market Intelligence, Thomson Reuters Health Care and Science Business), Jan Herring (Fuld-Gilad-Herring Academy of Competitive Intelligence), and Anna Shallenberger (President, Shallenberger Intelligence Services) and the session was moderated by Toni Wilson (President, MarketSmart Research Services). They identified transferable skills, challenges of transitioning into CI, elements of a successful transition, and ways to incorporate CI into a more traditional corporate library setting.
Space does not permit a thorough reporting of the session, so I’d encourage you to sign up for the CI Ning community, pay attention to the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals’ events and networking, get involved in the CI Division of SLA, and read Starting a Competitive Intelligence Function, a SCIP publication. You’re also welcome to href="mjenkins
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hamilton-coorg?subject=SLA%20CI%20session">contact me to discuss this session.
CI certainly isn’t unfamiliar to librarians. The speakers noted that the following skills, typically demonstrated by LIS professionals, are important in CI:
- Ability to create effective communication
- Reference interview techniques
- Research abilities and the capacity to take a “deep dive” to go further
- Presentation capabilities
- Quantitative, analytical skills
- Ability to identify trends, to synthesize, and to write well and succinctly
- Database creation and management
- Ability to elicit information from human sources by phone, in person, and online
- Teamwork orientation
- Alerts and news tracking, the ability to create “early warning systems”
- Training proficiencies
But the speakers also commented on the challenges that LIS professionals might face when moving into CI. Some of them are:
- Overcoming limited perceptions of “librarian” and what our work entails
- Limited familiarity with business vernacular
- Lack of CI-specific credentials
- Limited practical experience with analysis and presentation
- More travel and life/work balance issues
These challenges suggest areas of focus to ensure success. LIS professionals who want to make the jump to CI are advised to:
- Inventory your capabilities and work to improve weaker areas
- Focus on the organization’s business needs for the production of intelligence
- Update your CV to include CI terminology and bone fide CI experiences
- Gain CI credentionals like SLA certification, SLA Click U events, SCIP programs, and demonstration of CI competencies
- Find an experienced CI professional to serve as your formal or informal role model or mentor, possibly through the SLA CI Division’s mentoring program
- Work on any CI project available to you, including CI work for nonprofits
- Learn your organization’s (or prospective employer’s) products and services
- Improve time management skills to allow time for synthesis and analysis
- Improve presentation skills
- Become familiar with business and financial language and tools
- Learn to recognize and navigate vested interests and agendas
- Learn the typical CI report and presentation format
- Learn about creating and monitoring news alerts
- Recognize that you will need to take a point of view and defend your conclusions
- Plan to spend time with your audience to be able to anticipate their needs, via regular meetings, strategic planning, and casual conversation; it’s about being proactive and exerting influence by proving one’s value to the organization
- Participate in CI communities like the local SCIP chapter, CI Ning group, etc.
There were excellent questions from the audience, too, about legal implications and ethical considerations related to CI, the CI professional’s place within an organization, and more. Contact me if you’d like to hear more about the session.
href="mjenkinscmshamilton-coorg">Mary Jenkins, Law Librarian & Director, Hamilton County Law Library, 513.946.5300
