Jason Kirby’s relevant article When the Spies are out of Control in the July 2^nd edition of MacLean’s provides an interesting read. His contention that “…companies are increasingly faced with a lose-lose proposition when it comes to defending themselves” in effectively countering spies and thieves, will resonate with most competitive organizations today. The sheer scale of global espionage has become overwhelming in scope and extent.

Kirby goes on to discuss the shifting ground of corporate ethics and the ever increasing blurring of lines between espionage and competitive intelligence. His view that current mores indicate that only “being caught” turns “smart business into malfeasance”. I believe this to be especially true as the concept of Intelligence operates in the murky world of mights and maybes - what could happen in the future on a balance of best probability. A further complication is that most business folk today prefer the safe world of the tried and tested…what has been seen to work. Consequently we see reliance on expensive protective technology, which at best can only factor in known threats, as the only means of pre-empting the damage of ever evolving corporate espionage. More often than not organizations use the same off the shelf intelligence technology as their competitors or industry partners. Once a would-be spy/thief knows what technology has been deployed, the rest is plain sailing. The West Jet/Air Canada hacking/espionage saga that we witnessed some years ago was a case in point.  

Kirby’s thinking resonates with me as it echoes many of the ideas that I have addressed in my book Corporate Intelligence Awareness, Securing the Competitive Edge, published in November last year, I explore people awareness, in conjunction with developing technology, as the best possible defence.  Aware employees, sharing red flags/clues that appear will soon perceive patterns that will indicate a potential threat. Corporate Intelligence Awareness, in people terms, refers to innate human capacity to think creatively when faced with the unknown or unproven.  The greater the capacity of an organization and its people to work with confidence in the dimension of potentials, possibilities and maybes, the greater is its ability to accurately predict future threats. Conversely, this awareness will also enhance organizational capacity to gather competitor and industry intelligence in a legal and ethical manner. This input unquestionably ensures ongoing planning and strategy relevance.

Those organizations using my methodology, evolved from extensive diplomatic, international trade and Canadian consulting experience, report that they are well placed to protect important business information, data and corporate secrets. Pre-emption of what might happen is critical to this success