Toronto, ON (PRWEB) November 14, 2006 -- The recent speech delivered on November 9, 2006 by Eliza Manningham-Buller, Director-General of MI5, on the terrorist threat facing the UK is one of those rare occasions when an expert outlines the true nature of intelligence work. Rodger Nevill Harding, author of the recently released book "Corporate Intelligence Awareness: Securing the Competitive Edge," discusses the direct business parallels.

Good intelligence predicts what might happen in the future - a series of often disparate clues that gives rise to theories that, if applied in time, might influence business strategy and planning. There are a lot of mights and maybes in intelligence, says Harding.

It would appear that Manningham-Buller agrees: "It is understandable that people are reluctant to accept assertions that do not always appear to be substantiated. It is right to be skeptical about intelligence… I wish life were like 'Spooks,' where everything is (a) knowable, and (b) soluble by six people. But those whose plans we wish to detect in advance are determined to conceal from us what they intend to do. And every day they learn. From the mistakes of others. From what they discover of our capabilities from evidence presented in court, and from leaks to the media. Moreover, intelligence is usually bitty and needs piecing together, assessing, judging. It takes objectivity, integrity and a skeptical eye to make good use of intelligence: even the best of it never tells the whole story......."
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