SCIP Oregon

Interview with Jim O’Brien – Regence

Posted by campsean - 20/09/08 at 01:09:21 am

Jim’s Biography

Jim O’Brien is a competitive intelligence practitioner with experience in the financial services industry and the insurance arena. He currently manages the CI function for the Regence Group, an insurance provider in Idaho, Oregon, Utah, and Washington. Prior, O’Brien worked as a CI analyst for JPMorgan Chase & Co. in their Treasury Services division. He received a B.S. in Commerce, with a concentration in International Business, from the University of Virginia. O’Brien hails from the New York City area, where he lived prior to moving to Portland, Oregon, 3 years ago.

Interviewers: Sean Campbell and Scott Swigart of Cascade Insights

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Interview Topics

 

• What it takes to be a good Competitive Intelligence practitioner
• The two fundamental types of CI people, and why you need both
• How people happen into the CI field, and why there’s no conventional training for it
• How CI practice fits into various industries

 

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Sean Campbell: James, please give us a little bit of your background in relation to competitive intelligence.

James Regence: Sure. I got my start in CI back in 2004 at JP Morgan. I just kind of landed in the field by accident; from what I am told, that happens to a lot of people, although there are common skills that attune you to it. You need to be pretty good with both words and numbers, be able to articulate yourself in written and verbal form, and also able to demonstrate the financial value of your analysis.

I enjoyed working with CI, so I stuck with it when I left JP Morgan, and I landed in healthcare. It seems that CI practice is a transferable skill set, such that hiring managers from different industries are willing to take someone who doesn’t know much about the industry but does have that CI skill set.

Continue reading Interview with Jim O’Brien – Regence…

Interview Series with the local CI community…

Posted by campsean - 20/09/08 at 01:09:43 am

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