SCIP Oregon

Official Event Registration Link – November 20th Event

Posted by campsean - 24/10/08 at 09:10:52 pm

Here is the link to the official registration page for the November event along with a bio of our presenter and a detailed program description.

http://www.scip.org/Training/EventsDetail.cfm?itemnumber=5422

Review of SCIP’s Conference and Trade Show Intelligence Book

Posted by campsean - 23/10/08 at 07:10:17 pm

SCIP recently published  a new volume in it’s “Topics in CI” series entitled “Trade Show Intelligence.”

I had an opportunity to peruse the book just before heading off to the Gartner Symposium in Orlando last week, which of course was good timing given that there was going to be a reasonably large trade show floor at the conference.

The book makes a ton of solid recommendation on how to structure intelligence gathering activities, how to do so in an ethical manner, and how to elicit information at the right times and in the right way while you are on the show floor.

Trade Shows can provide a wealth of information if you research the show in advance, attend with your ears and eyes wide open, and spend real time getting to know the products and solutions being offered in the booths.

I highly recommend this new volume in the Topics in CI series.

The only caution I would give to readers is that in a few places the book becomes repetitive in terms of the advice or solutions offered. This is only natural in a book that is essentially a collection of different essays and not a single cohesive piece written by a one author.

Sean Campbell – Cascade Insights
Chair – Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals – Oregon Chapter

Interview with Mark Chussil – Advanced Competitive Strategies

Posted by campsean - 08/10/08 at 08:10:42 pm

Mark’s Biography

Mark Chussil is Founder and CEO of Advanced Competitive Strategies, Inc. Mark began developing ACS’s ValueWar in 1986. Now one of the world’s most-powerful, best-known, and time-proven business simulators, ValueWar won the “Best in Class Software” award from Competia in 2002.

Mark has worked with ACS clients on four continents, including Astra Merck, AT&T Wireless Services, Bell Atlantic (now Verizon), British Airways, DuPont, GlaxoSmithKline, Kodak, Nortel, Novartis, Shell, Sprint, Sprint PCS, USWEST (now QWEST), Weyerhaeuser, and others who prefer not to be identified for competitive reasons. He speaks at conferences around the world about using virtual competitions (advanced business war games) and computer simulation to develop very successful competitive strategies.

Mark lectured from 1989 to 1994 in the Competitive Marketing Strategies seminar at the Aresty Institute of Executive Education, The Wharton School (the University of Pennsylvania).

Previously, Mark spent 15 years at the Strategic Planning Institute (The PIMS Program), where he was Director, Business-Unit Strategy Research and Director, PC Products. His experience also includes three years in market research and strategy at Sequent Computer Systems (subsequently acquired by IBM).

Mark is lead author of Strategy Analysis with ValueWar (Scientific Press, 1993). Mark’s articles and case studies on competitive strategy have appeared in Cases in Marketing Research (Reibstein and Farris), Competitive Intelligence Magazine, Competitive Intelligence Review, Marketing Research, PC World, Planning Review, SCIP.Online, Sloan Management Review, The Journal of AGSI (Association for Global Strategic Information), The Journal of Business Strategy, Wharton on Dynamic Competitive Strategy (Day and Reibstein), and other publications. He has been featured and quoted in Across The Board, Computerworld, Fast Company, Harvard Management Update, Oregon Business, The Wall Street Journal, and more.

Mark earned his MBA from Harvard University and his BA from Yale University.

Interviewers: Sean Campbell and Scott Swigart of Cascade Insights

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Interview Topics

 

• What business war gaming is and how it helps businesses competitively
• Establishing the right war gaming dynamic among participants
• How computer models help drive the results of business war games
• Using business war gaming to help overcome faulty assumptions
• Meeting the challenge of making good decisions about taking on risk
• Success stories and limitations: how war gaming contributes to running a business

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Sean Campbell: Mark, tell us who you are, what you are about, and what your focus area is around Competitive Intelligence.

 

Mark Chussil: I am the founder and CEO of Advanced Competitive Strategies. My colleagues and I focus on business war games and strategy simulation, mostly for Fortune 500 companies. We have conducted about 100 business war games on six continents, in many different industries.

We are not industry experts; we are strategic-thinking experts. We help people take the knowledge, information, expertise, and experience that they have in their industries and put it to the best use possible.

We have also spent a fair amount of time speaking at conferences and putting on workshops about strategic thinking and about business war gaming and simulation. We have published quite a bit in those areas as well.

Scott Swigart: One of the things that you mentioned was war gaming. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Mark: Sure. Business war gaming means different things to different people. There is no strict definition, as opposed to generally accepted accounting principles, for example.

Continue reading Interview with Mark Chussil – Advanced Competitive Strategies…

Meeting Minutes – 9/28/2008 Meeting

Posted by campsean - 01/10/08 at 05:10:52 pm

Next Committee Meeting

Date: October 28th – Now – November 4th
Time: 8:00am to 9:30am
Location: Jake’s Grill on 10th.

This meeting is an open meeting.  Those who are on the steering committee and those who are not are both welcome to attend as we will still be discussing next steps for the chapter, etc.
Please RSVP by October 10th if you not be able to attend.

First Event – November

Date: November 20th
Time: 8:00am to 9:30am
Location: Jake’s Grill on 10th.

Our first event is going to be focused on optimization engines to predict prices, analyze advertising, etc. Jess Laventall and Beau Martin will lead the discussion for 30 minutes and then we will turn to an open dialog for 30 to 45 minutes amongst the members in attendance. There will be a charge to attend this meeting as discussed in the first meeting.  Final cost structure will be discussed in the October meeting in terms of the breakdown in cost for members and non members of SCIP.

Committee Members

The following individuals volunteered to be part of the steering committee for the Oregon Chapter.

• Dennis Muscato
• Bob Cooper
• Todd Lue
• Roger Courville

Discussion of Possible Event Formats

There was discussion of a number of different formats.

• One idea was for standard 15-30 minute presentations, leaving 45 minutes for discussion and Q&A
• Another idea is for facilitated discussions allowing attendees to share their expertise around a topic.
• A third idea is for a moderated panels of experts, with Q&A.

There was a consensus that if someone has expertise, it’s valuable to have a presentation, but it would be good if the format was more dynamic than straight presentations.

Purpose of the Chapter

There was discussion around what the Oregon chapter could provide to the members, and the broader community.

• Networking between the members would let members know who to refer to for CI that is outside of their own expertise.
• Professional development – Members are interested to expand beyond the way that they’re going about certain practices, and are interested in best practices from others, and the discipline and rigor around certain CI techniques.  People want the chapter to educate them on CI.
• Outreach – People also felt chapter could raise awareness of CI in the local marketplace.  It is good for all CI professionals to have local marketing and executive level people know about the practice of CI and the benefits to their organization.
• Media relations – As part of community outreach and chapter promotion, the chapter could interact with local business publications.
• Online forum – The chapter should set up an online forum – likely a LinkedIn group – where members can post questions and engage in online discussions beyond the interaction that happens at committee meetings and events.
• Roster – The chapter should maintain a public roster of members, their area of expertise, and contact information.

TODO: Set up roster and LinkedIn discussion group.

The Linked In Discussion Group is already setup. Simply Log In to LinkedIn and request to join the group titled – Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals - Oregon.  You’ll then have access to the discussion groups.

We’ll also be putting together a Google Doc that all members can access and then populate with their contact info, brief backgrounder, etc.

Topic Suggestions for Upcoming Events

Topics suggestions for upcoming events:

• Communicating the business value of CI
• Building a CI practice in a business – under marketing or stand-alone.
• Data gathering – Primary, Secondary, Internal, Financial Statements.
• Common CI outputs and audiences
• Counter-CI, helping your organization keep secrets secret.
• Being the bearer of bad news in your organization – how to be rewarded for your CI efforts, rather than being seen as a disruption.

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