Intelligence

Competitive Intelligence Projects

Businesses will routinely have intelligence needs that either cannot be done in-house, or are more effective done through outsourcing.  Big projects, especially involving extensive primary or secondary research, may easily exceed organic resources.  KIPP, and its network of strategic partners, can provide critical services or augmentation needed for a variety of competitive intelligence projects that may involve Prioritization and Direction, Collection, Fusion and Synthesis, Analysis, Dissemination, Utilization, and Feedback support or process improvement consulting.  Many times, intelligence projects will find that effectively engaging senior management into the process is major hurdle, and KIPP provides subject matter expertise in how this can be done while also truly being an outside consultant helping to overcome so many of the corporate culture issues that too often hinders progress within a company.  KIPP has a long history developing and managing leading edge intelligence programs, and can help your firm in variety of ways from building an operation from scratch to significantly improving the return on investment of a current operation.  KIPP also can provide leading experts in competitive intelligence as needed, and has an array of training courses in competitive intelligence functional areas that can transform you CI shop from an also run to  best in class.

Trade Show and Conference Intelligence Operations

Companies and public agencies spend a great deal of money annually on trade shows and conferences.  When all the normal costs are added up such as registration fees, travel and time away from the office, the investment is substantial, especially so if it also involves running a booth or other promotional activities. However, too many managers find the traditional approach to be too unstructured (or ill-prepared).  Conference goals and objectives may not match operational or strategic objectives.  The less organized and prepared manner in which this is done minimizes the opportunity of achieving the real return on investment, the reason your company sent a team.  The essential value of a conference or trade show is twofold, gathering valuable information and influencing key people (i.e., such as buyers, suppliers, distributors or vendors).  Ironically, companies rarely invest on preparing their team of attendees to effectively conduct these essential tasks, and this oversight too often makes these events lost opportunities. For a company team attending a trade show or conference, there are both offensive and defensive actions that should be undertaken, and if this is a managed process it requires skilled “quarterbacking” and “linebacking” support for the team.  KIPP provides training with tools for gathering information without “showing your hand,” while at the same time preventing competitors from gathering from your firm’s “crown jewels” of proprietary trade information in exchange. Learning how to most effectively approach, converse and “network” with other attendees is the key to turning any trade show or conference into an intelligence and influencing bonanza.  KIPP provides its clients with a range of services from training to active involvement with company/agency teams on-site, especially detailed preparation and planning.  For firms attending trade shows or conferences in Southern California and the Southwest, Washington DC, Atlanta, and other key cities, KIPP is ideally suited to augment your competitive intelligence team by providing skilled, cost-effective operatives from the local area as needed.

Government Intelligence Activities

Since 9-11, there has been a vast increase in the amount of attention and resources being put towards “intelligence.”  Many times, these mandates are well meaning, but also needlessly vague.  Intelligence is not just an information product, nor having a technical sensor system in place.  It is a combination of products, process and people, all of which must be developed and managed effectively and efficiently to achieve the return on investment our public officials expect.  Many times “intelligence” is confused with being seen as synonymous with investigations, or simply providing a stream of on-line emails or notices, both of which end with frustrated officials and an angry public when “intelligence” fails to deliver as promised.  KIPP looks at the entire intelligence process, from Prioritization and Direction, Collection, Fusion and Synthesis, Analysis, Dissemination, Utilization, and Feedback.  It incorporates the practical application 4^th Generation Warfare concepts from the famous Col John Boyd’s OODA Loop (Observation-Orientation-Decision-Action) in demonstrating how or why threats, people or organizations act or react.  It looks at decision-makers, key influencers and “triage” managers in an organization to assess intelligence (product) “consumption,” and what is the truly best fit for their needs.  KIPP provides a wide range of expertise from the intelligence community, military, public safety and law enforcement, business and non-profit sectors that can develop and conduct training, exercises, strategic planning and consultative support for either developing or managing government intelligence activities. KIPP principals and associates have worked in a wide range of federal, military, state and local intelligence activities spanning decades of experience, and much of this developing new programs matching requirements to resources. 

Terrorism Surveillance Detection

Originally developed for a high profile national security facility, KIPP and Ascendancy Strategic Consulting have developed a training course that amalgamates best practices in surveillance detection by having participants comprehensively understand detecting such terrorism intelligence collection activities.  This highly interactive, hands-on one-day training event is aimed at supervisors, managers and other personnel responsible for site security, counterintelligence, law enforcement or investigations.  Terrorism Surveillance Detection is a three part building block program that starts with learning terrorism pre-operational intelligence gathering and surveillance practices (to include citing real-world examples), then has participants "role playing" terrorists conducting these activities, and finally is capstoned by a thorough review of lessons learned for development of both soft and hard deliverable results for incorporation into their site's anti-terrorism and security or force protection program. Participants are taught "tools" that can be used to not only harden their sites against terrorism surveillance, but also dramatically improve their ability to develop indications and early warning of such threat operations. Terrorism Surveillance Detection training is aimed at critical infrastructure, transportation, public event venues, government or corporate facilities, schools and universities, shopping centers and stores, historic symbols, or just about any site that could potentially be surveilled and attacked by terrorists.

Community Early Warning of Terrorism (CEWT)

Community Early Warning of Terrorism (CEWT) is a three-part program covered in 3-5 days for developing a strong intelligence indications and warning program in communities, whether these are extensive facilities (i.e. military bases, tribal areas, large-scale facilities, etc.), major neighborhood areas, cities, counties or regions.  CEWT's three-parts are best described as students or participants becoming enabled to sequentially:

 1) Understand the Terrorists

 2) Be the Terrorists

 3) Find the Terrorists

Understand Terrorists: Participants initially get a solid understanding of terrorism, terrorist groups and networks, and terrorist planning, intelligence, logistics, financing, structure and operations.  This block of training is oriented towards the threats and terrorist groups that a particular community is realistically facing. 

Be the Terrorists:  Participants role-play terrorists and terrorist cells by selecting targets, method of attack, resources and intelligence needed, and then how they will put all this together for conducting threat operations in their community.  This could include individual field work based on client's desired level of interactivity.

Find the Terrorists:  Combining all that the participants have learned, community specific terrorist operational signatures, activities, requirements and transactions are identified.  Then these are synthesized for developing a community specific terrorism intelligence collection plan that provides priority and direction along with indications and warning of these community specific threat activities. Often this will include an executive style wargaming session to further identify or validate the intelligence collection plan.