Reasoning your Organizational Intelligence with Denise Carter
Dec 22, 2023
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Denise Carter, Founder of DCision Consult, talks about working in a non-hierarchical company and the role of interpretation and creativity in business intelligence. She discusses the importance of building organizational intelligence, understanding motivations, identifying gaps in intelligence, and asking the right questions.
Investing in knowledge management practices and systems is crucial to prevent loss of valuable information within organizations.
Effective intelligence work involves identifying information gaps, making informed assumptions, and asking the right questions to understand clients' true needs.
Deep dives
The Importance of Knowledge Management and the Role of Information Professionals
Denise Carter discusses her passion for information and knowledge management, reflecting on her 35-year career in the field. She emphasizes the importance of capturing tacit knowledge, the kind of information that often remains unwritten or unrecorded within organizations. Denise highlights the need for organizations, both big and small, to invest in knowledge management practices and systems, as valuable information can easily be lost or overlooked. She recommends seeking training in critical thinking and business intelligence to develop the necessary skills for effective knowledge management.
Identifying and Filling Information Gaps
Denise emphasizes the significance of identifying and filling information gaps in the field of intelligence. She explains that intelligence work requires not only verifying and validating existing information but also identifying what is missing and making informed assumptions or suppositions. Denise stresses the importance of critical thinking and intuition in this process, as well as the ability to ask the right questions to understand what information clients truly need.
The Challenges of Acquiring Accurate and Relevant Business Intelligence
Denise shares her experience of working with organizations that lack comprehensive business intelligence. She highlights the common misconception that knowledge is readily available and free within organizations, stressing the need for structured knowledge and information management systems. Denise also addresses the limitations of relying on paid sources or single databases, advocating for a holistic approach that considers multiple sources and validates information to mitigate risks and prevent redundant spending.
The Value of Insights and the Role of an Intelligence Professional
Denise emphasizes the significance of insights in intelligence work and describes them as rare but highly prized. She explains that providing meaningful insights requires one to go beyond the evident information and navigate information gaps. Denise also touches on the importance of critical thinking, perspective-taking, and the ability to see beyond surface-level observations. She concludes that the work of an intelligence professional involves bridging gaps, making suppositions, and providing valuable insights to guide decision-making within organizations.
Denise Carter MSc FCLIP
Denise is based in Geneva, Switzerland. Her company DCision Consult, provides research, competitive intelligence and qualitative analysis to pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies in Switzerland, France, Germany, and the U.S.
Before setting up her own business 10 years ago, Denise worked for 15 plus years for a small biopharmaceutical company in Geneva, latterly as part of the global business intelligence team. Prior to that Denise designed and implemented a new global information unit for the company, creating new services and resources. She was awarded a Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Award for customer service in 2006. Denise began her career at ICI Chemicals & Polymers in the UK bringing an information service back in-house to support 1000 research chemists.
Denise has published multiple articles on different information topics and presented at international conferences. Denise consults as a Senior Analyst for JInfo for Competitive Intelligence projects. She is on the Editorial Board for Business Information Review and conducted four of their annual Business Information Surveys. Denise is currently serving on the Board of the Association of Independent Information Professionals (AIIP). She also serves on CILIP’s Knowledge & Information Management (K&IM) special interest group committee.
When she finished her library degree at Aberystwyth/University of Wales (in the time before the internet), Denise really wanted to be a human “Google” working in the reference department of a public library, but somehow got side-tracked into information management in industry and she has loved every second. But… rooting out that obscure but relevant piece of data for a customer still gives her a buzz.
Denise.carter@dcisionconsult.com
www.dcisionconsult.com
https://www.linkedin.com/in/denise-compintell/
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