International Conference on Competitive Intelligence and Knowledge Management, Trade Univesity of Vietnam, Hanoi, August 23rd, 2006

French national policy for Business Intelligence : a feed back from 12 years experience in education and research
Franck BULINGE, PhD Scientific Supervisor for Master in Business Intelligence and Knowledge management, Centre for Studies and Research in Applied Management, CERAM Sophia Antipolis, France Franck.bulinge@ceram.fr

Introduction The purpose of this article is to present the French policy for Business Intelligence (CI), in particular in the field of education. After summarizing twelve years of experience, Ill expose strengths and the weaknesses of French CI community, and the political solutions which have been adopted in order to optimize the French national CI system. I will then present the French educational framework destined to develop a homogeneous educational system. I will present finally, as an example, the strategic and scientific foundations of a master in CI and knowledge management. 1 Twelve years experience : The feedback French CI was officially born in 1994 with a report published by the French Commissariat gnral du Plan : Intelligence conomique et stratgie des entreprises (Business Intelligence and company strategy). The purpose of this report was to recognize business intelligence as a fundamental concept, methodology and tool, within the context of the new economy of information and knowledge. The French government decided to launch a movement toward a new way of managing strategic information. Since CI was known by a few individuals in a reduced number of companies, as technology or information scanning, it was necessary to generalize the practice of information networks between companies and administrations, in order to optimize the collection, the analysis, the dissemination and the operational use of information. To advance from individual to collective intelligence, both the issue and the goal of a national CI policy was to maintain a strategic position in the worldwide economical competition, by using and sharing information and knowledge. Henri Martres report was a small first step on the long way to a national cultural change. Sharing information was not, and is not yet, a natural feature of French business culture. Information was, and is still considered as a power asset which must not be shared in order to preserve ones position in the organization (companies or administrations). As showed earlier (Bulinge, 2002), individualism is a primary characteristic of French culture. Therefore CI, as a network centric approach for collective intelligence, was like a UFO in the managers sky.

Thus it was illusionary to expect any change before several years and without a strong and constant effort. Nine years after Martres report, CI was still cracking out of its shell). For example, it was impossible to agree on a unique definition: more than 25 individual definitions were identified (Bulinge, Larivet, 2002), and it can be said that there were as many definitions as authors, in the small French CI community. It was like the tower of Babel, and the semantic controversy was the main wall between theory and practice. During those years, education and research were differently developed by each school. In 2003, the situation was heterogeneous and quite chaotic, so Prime Minister gave Bernard Carayon, a French republican deputy, the mission to audit the French CI community. In his report, Bernard Carayon denounced a lack of unity and coherence in the educational programs for CI. At the same time, he underlined the discrepancy between educational supply and the real needs of companies. French CI had been built without planning; its diversity had become a weakness. Studies in CI were victims of this weakness, as far as companies were not able to have a clear vision of what they could do with CI as a concept. Most schools provided a theoretical courses incapable of satisfying operational needs, when these needs were identified (which was rarely the case). In order to clarify and define the CI profession, there were two starting points: to make decision makers aware of the importance of CI, to initiate managers to the process.

Unfortunately, the diversity of language kept them from understanding and from clearly profiling human resources within their organizations. Moreover, CI suffered from a centred vision on the part of researchers who omitted to consider the diversity, the specific cultural factors and the micro-economic reality of companies. They were developing models inappropriate to individual situations. Furthermore, the French government itself was qualified as blind and without strategic priority, and Carayon declared : The French state has neither defined strategic activities in terms of sovereignty, employment, influence-, nor the technologies attached to these activities, in particular hardware. In the same way, it failed to evaluate the forces and the strengths of national research, as well as those of French firms in these domains 2 - A public policy As a result of Carayons report, the French Prime Minister decided to implement a national policy in CI. President Chirac designated a national director for CI, Alain Juillet, former head of intelligence in the French secret service (DGSE), and the former director of diverse companies, of which the last one was Mark and Spencers. At the head of a small staff, Alain Juillet began to coordinate the implementation of CI, and to organize a national model. Today, the mission consists in: disseminating a culture of CI helping the SMEs protecting national industry from strategic dependence protecting technological and industrial capital providing information and knowledge about the future in order to reduce uncertainty

Prime Minister Cabinet Director

National Committee for CI Cabinet Directors - Department of the Interior - Department of Economy -Department of Foreign affairs - Department of Defense - Department of Agriculture

Permanent Group for CI Representatives - Department of the Interior - Department of Economy -Department of Foreign affairs - Department of Defense - Department of Agriculture

General Secretary of Defense Head of CI Alain JUILLET

Consulting Commissions and experts supports - Education - Research - Information and security - Professionals of CI

Embassies

Central Administrations

Regional Administrations

French CI political organization

Department of the Interior Department of Foreign Affairs

Department of Defense

General Secretary of Defense Head of CI Alain JUILLET Universities Trading and industries chambers Regions

Professional federations and associations

Administrations dedicated to finance and support innovation

A national network

3 The French educational framework for CI In spring 2004, Alain Juillet created a commission for education, inviting 14 experts to work at the elaboration of a national framework destined to become the label for CI studies. After nine months of brainstorming and knowledge management, the team published the Rfrentiel de formation en intelligence conomique, established as the five pillars of CI knowledge as it should be taught.

Framework for CI education 1 - International environment and competitiveness

Both the society of information and the economy of immaterial are changing the traditional order of economical exchanges. The information and knowledge market is a new exchange and trading space. CI gives the ability to change information into operational and strategic knowledge. Rethinking strategies of the companies and governments, CI is considered as a cultural and operational response to globalisation in the society of information. Teaching goals: to identify and analyse geopolitics and economic keys in order to guide stakeholders and decision makers. Topics: Theory of information; Globalisation; Geopolitics and geo-economy; Organizations of international trading; Non governmental organisations and alternative movements ; Competition and economic warfare; Technologies of information and knowledge; Knowledge and information intensive firms; Information market; CI research; National CI systems and organizations; Global risk management; Informational risks; Economical crime; Economical defence and security; History of CI; Compared National systems of CI Keywords: Globalisation, competitiveness; multinational firms; geo-economics; data; information; knowledge; technologies of information; knowledge management; risk management 2- CI and organizations CI must be taken by firms as a model of management. But scientific studies show that they have some difficulty acquiring and implenting on regular basis. The phenomenon was identified as a cultural problem. It will evolve over a long time, through education. Teaching goals: - To define the stakes of CI as a success key factor to achieve strategic goals. - To organize and quicken internal conferences to advise the employees and managers within firms and administrations - To form, carry out, supervise and control a CI project Topics: Strategy, information and Decision making; Strategic analysis; CI project management; Communication and psychology of organisations; Network centric management; Ethics, rights, legality of CI; CI organizational and operational Process; CI marketing; Inside and outside CI actors; Internal audit of information and CI; Evaluation, indicators, instrument panels Keywords: strategy, analysis, success key factors; decision making; CI project; right, ethics, networks, outsourcing, audit, evaluation 3 - Information and knowledge management Intelligence cycle is considered as the heart of CI process: defining the needs, collecting and analysing data, disseminating information and knowledge to decision makers. Teaching goals: - To identify and define the information problems and needs of the organisation - To organize the data-to-information and knowledge process - To manage the relationship between information collectors, analysts and decision makers. Topics: Strategic analysis and informational needs; Sourcing: typology of information, identification and use of sources; Methods, techniques and tools; Right, ethics and deontology; Psychology and human factor in interrelationship; Multicultural factors; Intelligence analysis; Decision aid; Groupware; Knowledge management

Keywords: Intelligence cycle, Knowledge management, strategic analysis, information sourcing, scanning methods and tools; right, ethics and deontology 4 - Security and defence of immaterial patrimony Identify and protect the competitive assets of the organizations. Teaching goals: - To define and organize the strategy of information security - To manage informational risks - To prevent and manage informational crisis Topics: Information and knowledge patrimony; Intellectual and industrial property; Strategy and use of patents; Security policy and information systems; Management of crisis Keywords: intellectual and industrial property, patents, trade mark, copyright, infringement, security, informational crisis

5 - Influence and counter-influence

In a context of hypercompetition, information is considered as an arm used for disinformation, intoxi-cation, and destabilization. It is necessary to identify the risks and threats that can affect the strategy of a firm or a government. Lobbying is largely used in the strategy of influence by firms or by groups of interest. It can determine the decisions of international organization at the expense of firms regarding the traditional competitive rules. Teaching goals: - To identify information risks (disinformation, rumors, perception management, intoxication) - To identify and understand the strategies of influence and counter-influence - To use information and knowledge as offensive and defensive strategic tools Topics: Strategies of influence and counter-influence; Methods, techniques and tools of influence; Psychology of manipulation and disinformation; Perception management; Offensive and defensive use of information and knowledge; Lobbying; To form and carry out a strategy of influence and counter-influence; Evaluate and manage the risks of influence Keywords: influence, lobbying, disinformation, stakeholders, destabilisation, non governmental organizations, rumour

However, as far as the framework is a guide for developing homogeneous national programs, it is not the ultimate mean to become the best course in the charts. It gives indications to develop the right learning contents, but it doesnt give the way of the good strategy, methods and tools. Therefore, each school is free to develop its own method, to build its own strategy and its own pedagogic engineering. Even if they follow the framework, the difference between them will be in the pedagogic approach of CI. 4 - Strategies for CI education: the case of CERAM Master Business intelligence and Knowledge Management CERAM Sophia Antipolis is a high business school situated near Nice, in the south of France. It was the first school to create a post graduate course in CI (1996). Alice Guilhon, Executive Director, and I, were members of the commission for CI education. In 2005, she asked me to perform a reengineering of the program in order to apply the framework. But it was not the only factor to recruit me. I was supposed to have developed an original pedagogic approach based on a strategic analysis that gave me the success key factors to increase the good name of CERAM. In France, with some 75 schools in CI, an increase of 100% within three years, competition has grown up and become severe. CERAM needs to maintain its place in the top five published by SMBG, a consulting cabinet specialized in recruitment. Our strategy is based on the combination between academic research, operational needs and employment opportunities. CI cant be tough without a clear vision of firms real and

potential needs, nor a clear vision of employment realities. The followings are considered as hypothesizes which are being experimented since one year: CI, as a new emergent model of management, must not be considered as a revolution but as a necessary evolution of the management, considering the changes due to globalisation. So we have to link the teaching program to the traditional field of strategy by implementing methods and techniques of CI (Bulinge, 2002). By this way, it will be easier for decision makers and recruiters to recognize the goals and schemes of this course, and its contribution to the success of strategy, regarding their own human resources references. Until now, and considering the Carayons report, CI courses were too theoretical and inappropriate to the operational needs of companies. Its necessary to know what is CI?, but it is more important for managers to answer these questions: how does it work? Who, where, what, when and how to do it? Indeed, theory and philosophy of information management are necessary to develop intellectual knowledge, but it is not enough to manage on the field. So CI must also be learned through an operational and technical approach: learning by doing in order to develop appropriate skills. The main need identified in companies does not concern information collection but intelligence analysis and knowledge management. Since collection methods, techniques and tools have been well developed, and are now on the way to be mastered, decision makers are flooded by massive and fatal information. Thus, information has become more a problem than a solution. Today, there is a real lack of capability to evaluate process, analyse information and change it into operational and strategic knowledge. Its obvious that intelligence analysis has become the main priority for those who have crossed the first step of collection. Unfortunately, intelligence analysis was, until now, neither taught at school nor studied by researchers. Assuming this situation three years ago, it has become obvious that analysis is a success key factor, giving to CI course a competitive advantage for two or three years. One can observe an evolution of the learning market: the need of selective knowledge and professional training is growing up. It becomes necessary to adapt the courses to this evolution by creating short modules offering specialized topics: technical information collection; human information collection; psychology of intelligence analysis; strategies of analysis, methods, techniques and tools (MTT) for analysts, MTT for knowledge management, intercultural business negotiations These topics must be organized into two to five days training or intensive courses. As far as the CI companies needs are not well identified, it is necessary to develop CI training as a further course, a double competence as we say in France. So students must include CI to their main knowledge as a strategic asset for employment: engineer+CI, biologist+CI, manager+CI

Conclusion The goal of this article was to present the French policy for CI and its implementation in the field of education. Politics is not an exact science, so it is necessary to experiment this model in live, and to confront it with the complexity of social interactions. It is also too early for having any conclusion about the experiment of a new educational framework, even if the companies and the French CI community have welcomed this new

model of training. The first feed back from the recruitment of the next year class yet shows a real interest for the intelligence analysis course, but we need one more year to confirm the evolution of main indicators (national charts, students rate of employment, work experience periods offered by companies, good name of the course, number of applicants, alumni) Indeed, if French CI cannot be taken as a universal model, because of its complexity and uncertainty, it can be seen as an example of experience by the countries expecting to implement their own national CI policy. Bibliography Bulinge F. (2002), Pour une culture de linformation dans les PMO : un modle incrmental dintelligence conomique. Thse de doctorat en Sciences de linformation et de la communication. Universit de Toulon et du Var ; http://bulinge.univ-tln.fr Carayon B. (2003), Intelligence conomique, comptitivit et cohesion sociale, rapport au Premier ministre, juin 2003 Larivet S. (2002), Les ralits de lintelligence conomique en Pme , Thse de doctorat en sciences de gestion, Universit de Toulon et du Var Martre H. (1994), Intelligence conomique et stratgie des entreprises, La Documentation franaise Web sites www.ceram.fr
www.intelligence-economique.gouv.fr/ http://epices.univ-tln.fr