Introduction (Toni Wilson – Chair, SLA CI Division)

We’ve discussed a number of important competitive intelligence concepts and applications during CI Week on the FR365 blog – including the importance and value of analysis and industry-focused practices – all leading to the future readiness of the information professionals responsible for CI tasks and the organizations we serve. Our final post is a fitting wrap-up for the week – focusing on the highest goals of the CI process and its execution.

By Derek L. Johnson

How are you planning to elevate your competitive intelligence game in 2012?

One of the reasons I love fall so much is because it’s a reminder that we need to get our plans in place for the year ahead and get ourselves ready to meet an uncertain future as well-prepared as we can be.

Another reason I love autumn is because it’s football season; and football has important lessons to teach us about competitive intelligence being Future Ready. No football team takes the field without first giving their players the very best preparation before game day. Pre-season training camp focuses players’ attention on the field where they relentlessly drill each position even while strength training in the gym. But effective training also means working together to master the plays necessary to win. Then, throughout the season, preparing together to face each opponent, players unite to study film, keep healthy and stay fit so that, on game day, they can perform at their best.

CI teams are similar to football teams in many ways, particularly the competitive part, but with one critical difference: intelligence managers rarely have their players train together as a team. I hope you’ll help change that by investing in your people as one of the many things you can do today to elevate your game in the year ahead. But you should also be working on mastering your budget cycle, globalizing your perspective, building your internal human network and going beyond competitors.

To help understand how to achieve these goals, we’ve put together a couple of videos we hope you enjoy – part one here and part two here – that we hope encourages you to let your reach exceed your grasp and elevate your intelligence game in 2012. Enjoy!

Derek L. Johnson, CFA is Chief Executive Officer of the competitive intelligence firm Aurora WDC.

Summary, recordings, and editing by Karen Huffman, Past Chair, SLA KM Division

Listen to what leading SLA KM members have to say in these short video recordings on the following KM topics:

KM Role Models: Introductions and Overviews of Roles (6:18 minutes)

Interviews: Patrick Lambe, Denise Chochrek, Dianna Wiggins, Ulla de Stricker, Richard Huffine, Nerida Hart, and Stephanie Jordan.

Description: Selection of ideas shared by knowledge management professionals about who they are and what they do (and love!).

KM Success Stories and Challenges (8:48 minutes)

Interviews: Ulla de Stricker, Mary Talley, Richard Huffine, Nerida Hart, Denise Chochrek, Patrick Lambe, and Dianna Wiggins.

Description: Seven leaders in KM from around the globe tell their success stories and challenges.

KM: Skills, Compentencies, and Experiences (6:14 minutes)

Interviews: Patrick Lambe, Denise Chochrek, Ulla de Stricker, Mary Talley, Richard Huffine, Nerida Hart, and Dianna Wiggins.

Description: What skills, competencies and experience do you think are important for your role as a knowledge professional? Learn what leaders in the field have to say.

URL: http://youtu.be/TlxcVR0c6Sk

Cindy Romaine is the current SLA President and is focused on Future Ready 24/7 in 2011.

Have you ever watched the TV show “Man vs. Wild?” It follows a British Special Forces veteran who survives in all manner of extreme environments. For example, one scenario might feature the frozen Arctic tundra or a humid equatorial jungle.  Listening to the show’s star describe the challenges he faces, with no food, shelter, or fresh water, I had an epiphany. Everything he was saying about being in the jungle metaphorically applies to modern information professionals. We have to be alert, we need to know the terrain, and we have to know how to adapt our tools to the situations we face. The Future Ready Video is inspired by the “Man vs. Wild” TV show with a bit of “Indiana Jones” thrown in.

In talking to SLA members and visiting chapters, several members have shared stories about new roles for their MLIS—roles that our predecessors never would have imagined. Some information professionals are now working in data management jobs, and some librarians are pulled into archiving and curation.

We all know, it’s a jungle out there and this video, sponsored by Reprints Desk, is all about finding the information explorer each of us. Sit back and watch as Mia Finder, a fictional information professional, sleuths out high-value content for her clients—without going bananas. It really is a jungle out there, and librarians can help their clients survive it. As information professionals we know that if we use our wits and our high-tech analysis skills, we will find that we are indeed, Future Ready!

Behind the scenes of the Future Ready video, the director’s perspective

by Mike Greene

It’s 6 a.m. and like most directors, I’ve got a camera bag and sound setup layered on my back, a folder carrying the well thought out Future Ready script in my left hand, a hot cup of joe in my right, all while doing a balancing act with a cell phone against my ear. Meanwhile, my sound guy is going over the checklist so we don’t forget anything important… like a microphone to capture the sound. Trust me, things get a little crazy on the first day of a shoot.

Upon arriving we meet with our lead, Mia Finder, played by Catalina Lavalle, and the rest of the crew. Griffith Park is the picture perfect location, full of lush forests and vegetation to hide us from the real world. Filming was as smooth as butter: the actors and crew really brought their A-game. At one point, Catalina was climbing a jungle vine, our office workers were jumping out of trees, and Cindy Romaine,the President of SLA was imitating a chimpanzee. Talk about a fun set! Even after hearing me say, “That was great, back to one, let’s do it again,” everyone brought just as much energy as the first take. Working on this production was a treat, and I enjoyed it from beginning to end.

Cast & Crew with Cindy Romaine

I joined SLA members at the first screening of the Future Ready video at the SLA Annual Conference in Philadelphia. There’s nothing more gratifying than sitting with a live audience for your video’s premiere. Future Ready is an adventurous piece that brings out the Mia Finder in all of us: someone who is determined, eager to use technology, ready to climb the fallen trees, push the brush aside and accomplish their goals.

Viewing the Video at SLA Annual Conference 2011

Mike Greene is the owner and director of GreeneCastle Entertainment; his vision to compel and inspire his audience is reflected in the projects he undertakes. After graduating from Texas A&M University, Mike ventured to Los Angeles to pursue directing. Mike’s training and creative eye integrates business and entertainment into projects that exceed the norm. Furthermore, his ten years of formal training in both the acting and modeling industry provides innovative avenues to his vision as a director. GreeneCastle Entertainment is a source through which he can illustrate his vision by capturing his audience and inspiring imagination.

by Doug Fine

Ever wonder what would happen if you popped into the Quickie Mart for a quart of juice and some batteries and found the shelves were empty…permanently? I do. Here’s an essay I wrote on this issue, which I’ve thought about for several years and which partly explains the Digital Age Carbon-Neutral life I’m attempting here on the Funky Butte Ranch. It ran in theWashington Post’s Sunday Outlook section, and has since been picked up by the Denver Post and other publications. It’s scaring a few people, judging by some of the feedback I got from the Beltway. Heck, the essay’s scaring me. That’s the point. That’s why I wrote it. It seems that my first three or four decades on this planet have, against all odds, turned me into a –gulp– survivalist.

Not that I’m rooting for a collapse. Comfort is good. But it seems mainstream to at least wonder about it, given the goings-on of the last two thousand years. Or the last two. Meanwhile, cross your fingers that building a Green economy is going to help the world thrive into the foreseeable future and beyond.

http://www.youtube.com/leafrockfeather#p/a/f/0/evjICqDFXgI

Doug Fine is best known as the author of the petroleum-free bestseller Farewell, My Subaru.  From his Funky Butte Ranch in New Mexico, where he posts Dispatches From the Funky Butte Ranch, he often speculates on whether he is equipped to survive if Digital Age Box Store Consumerism ever went away.

by R. David Lankes, iSchool, Syracuse University

Why “what is the future of libraries” is a bad question, and a way to start an agenda.

Future Ready from R. David Lankes on Vimeo.

R. David Lankes is an associate professor at the iSchool as well as director of the Information Institute of Syracuse (IIS) which houses several high-profile research efforts, including the Educator’s Reference Desk and projects for NSF’s National Science Digital Library. Dr. Lankes co-founded the AskERIC project in 1992 and also founded the Virtual Reference Desk project and was the first fellow of the American Library Association’s Office for Information Technology Policy.