The Eight Questions – Intelligence, Security, and Business

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The Eight Questions series provides business leaders with tools to take a project or topic from inception to successful operation, spanning challenges from executive management to technology detail. These elements of the Butchko Solutions Process provide an introductory tool to guide leaders through the technology and business process lifecycle. Butchko, Inc. extends these Eight Questions to prioritize, design, implement, and verify enhancements that fit into your organizational culture, achieve balanced system performance, and meet sustainable budget and schedule targets.

We are often asked by senior level business executives: “What do I need to know to create an effective intelligence program?”

Although that can be a loaded question, here are eight questions to be the starting point for an intelligent and valuable conversation. Accurate and reliable intelligence can dramatically improve a company’s overall success.

  1. Do you have the intelligence data and analytical tools required to support informed decision-making in fast-moving environment?
  2. Are you able to see “over the horizon” via strategic intelligence products to guide corporate medium and long- term plans?
  3. Is your analysis capable of “connecting the dots” between market price volatility and geopolitical events?
  4. What are your plans and specific actions to implement your initiatives?
  5. Can you provide a description of your performance metrics system to better assure effectiveness in the following areas?
    • Risk Mitigation
    • Business Model Contribution
    • Operational Execution and Optimization
    • Budget Performance vs. Value Delivered
  6. How frequently should you participate with the senior management team to provide strategic guidance and show your performance metrics?
  7. How do you collaborate with our CIO to ensure we are not replicating systems; but more importantly, leveraging each other to provide a unified approach to logical and physical security?
  8. How are you leveraging external resources and organizations to meet your needs?

Butchko, Inc. can be an invaluable resource to proactively assess programs and assist leaders in answering these critical questions. We do this using the disciplined and success-driven Butchko Solutions Process.