Many organizations do little (if anything) to protect their most valuable information. I don't know why. The first objective of Confidential is to explain what an effective intelligence gathering system is and does. The second objective is to explain how companies can effectively protect the intelligence they possess. Drawing upon more than twenty years of extensive prior experience in intelligence and counterintelligence, Nolan offers a number of “tools” and “techniques” from which to select those most appropriate. (He even helps with the selection process.) Perhaps the best place to begin is to complete what he calls an “intelligence audit.” It consists of two different clusters of basic questions. First: What do we need to know? Why? What do we need to know that we do not as yet know? How and from which sources can we obtain what we lack? Finally, what are our strategic objectives? For example, what kinds of intelligence will we probably need within the next 12-18 months? Why? Then: What does our own intelligence consist of? How is it organized? Which of it is most valuable? Why? From whom should our most valuable intelligence be protected? How?

The “good news” is that any organization can (with appropriate modifications) implement a system base on Nolan’s Integrated Business Intelligence Model. The “bad news” is that any organization lacking such system remains vulnerable to adversaries who have such a system in place. Organizations claim that their “most valuable assets walk out the door at the end of each day.” As Nolan explains in Confidential, the implications of that statement often involve much more than generally realized. Stated bluntly, those "most valuable assets" could well include proprietary information that should not be removed (usually having been photocopied) at the end of a business day. 

One final point: Nothing that Nolan recommends is either illegal or unethical. Indeed, most organizations make it so easy for competitors to obtain the information desired that there is no need for illegal or unethical initiatives. Purchase this book, follow its advice, and thereby enable your organization to obtain the information it needs while protecting from its competitors the information they would love to have. Why wait?

Order Confidential here. 

Find the full list of Robert Morris's Business Nuggets featured by Eastbook.com here.

 

Confidential 1999 Hardcover Edition	Confidential 2000 (March) Hardcover Edition

 

Search	Find Books  Keywords
Search	Find Books  Keywords