Profile of a Private Sector Intelligence Analyst

A number of genres are represented within the private sector intelligence sphere, including technical, protective, business, and geopolitical intelligence. Thus, a variety of organizations benefit from these professionals. Technology firms, the oil and gas sector, media and entertainment conglomerates, startups, restaurants, hospitality organizations, and nonprofit businesses have all expanded to utilize private sector intelligence in their strategic decision-making. As a result, the cadre of professionals in the field has grown, and the profile of those who best fit the job continues to evolve. Today’s successful private sector intelligence professionals come from a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences - for example, former government personnel often have experience at organizing data effectively and identifying useful resources, while journalists are often adept at investigating themes, asking appropriate questions, and writing concise and compelling pieces.

This piece identifies five key attributes that cut across the private sector intelligence community to set an intelligence professional up for success. At the heart of an intelligence professional is a strong intellectual curiosity, a collaborative mindset, adaptability, and excellent communication and time management skills. When paired with core competencies such as research proficiency, analytic aptitude, and subject matter expertise, these attributes are the building blocks of success.

Introduction

Whether we think about supply chains, global markets, multinational partnerships or international technology platforms, the impact of geopolitics and the dynamic pace of business on companies - large and small - have increased in scope such that having an intelligence capability has become integral to strategic decision-making. In many companies, this capability helps to forecast key trends that could impact a business’s bottom line or mitigate personal security or brand risks; in others, it serves as a strategic advantage across sectors: identifying new markets, limiting liabilities, and enabling decision-makers to direct operations with greater insight. In this context, as the cadre of professionals in the private sector intelligence arena continues to grow, the profile of those who have the necessary skills to be successful in the field continues to evolve, as well. Moreover, given the number of sub-fields within this genre (including technical, protective, business, and geopolitical), many organizations benefit from these intelligence professionals. Technology firms, the oil and gas sector, media and entertainment conglomerates, startups, restaurants, hospitality organizations, and nonprofit businesses have all expanded to utilize private sector intelligence in their strategic decision-making. At the same time, many companies also maintain a unique organizational culture, meaning that there are a wide variety of backgrounds and experiences that can make an individual a best fit for a given organization, in addition to having the skills that will set them up for success.

According to Fahey and Herring, “an intelligence team is a group of individuals who work together to develop a deep understanding of a specific business issue with the intent of developing strategy-relevant insights, action possibilities, and recommendations.”[i] Fahey and Herring further note that team members are drawn from diverse functional departments or organizational units charged with generating insights that “add significant value to decision making.” There is significant latitude in this description, but the core component is an understanding of a company’s decision-making needs at any given time, and the ability to contribute relevant insights. Thus, when building an intelligence capability, identifying the right individuals with the requisite skills is a necessary first step. The intelligence field – both within the government Intelligence Community (IC) and the emerging corporate world of intelligence professionals - is full of individuals who have excellent research skills: people who know how to dig for information via both conventional and unconventional means, identify useful sources, and validate information. Most intelligence professionals also have a solid analytic competency, with the ability to synthesize large amounts of data into a digestible format that adds value for the consumer; these analysts know how to create insights and form accurate conclusions from varied data points while combating natural biases. Additionally, many people, particularly in talent acquisition, look to subject matter expertise as a measure of an individual’s capacity within the private sector intelligence domain. In-depth knowledge and understanding of a technological capability, a geographic region or geopolitical issue, or an aptitude in a particular protective technique or methodology can make a candidate significantly more attractive to a prospective employer - or significantly more valuable to a current one. Individuals who stand out in the field, however, tend to couple these competencies with softer skills - traits that showcase their ability to be a force-multiplier, regardless of where they reside within the field.

This article addresses five attributes of a successful intelligence professional - intellectual curiosity, productive collaboration, adaptability, time management, and effective communication skills - that manifest themselves in a variety of ways, depending on scope of responsibilities, subject matter focus, and cultural dynamics, and are not all-encompassing. By understanding the profile of an effective and successful private sector intelligence analyst, practitioners in the field can continue to hone their skills to offer even greater contributions to the field – and to their respective companies; likewise, scholars and educators teaching future intelligence professionals will have additional data to use when crafting programs that guide and instruct those who will be the future of the profession. Additionally, those who lead teams of intelligence professionals can better understand – and capitalize on – the unique attributes on the team, and talent acquisition professionals will be able to more properly identify those with the requisite skills and appropriate backgrounds to achieve success. In order to ascertain which five key attributes should be identified in this article, the author relied on professional experience in both the private and public intelligence sectors, academic literature, and conversations with senior executives, private sector intelligence analysts and managers, and talent acquisition personnel. As noted, there are a number of sub-fields and areas of expertise encompassed within the private sector intelligence field; this piece focuses primarily on attributes that contribute to the success of a private sector intelligence analyst, though these attributes can also be found in other private sector intelligence professionals, and as such, “professional” and “analyst” are used interchangeably throughout.

Intellectual Curiosity

At the heart of an intelligence professional is a strong intellectual curiosity. It is this drive that inspires the questions that encourage the thorough research that leads to the formulation of purposed conclusions. Private sector intelligence professionals must continually be gathering information, assessing its validity, and refining conclusions, and it is intellectual curiosity that stimulates the iterative approach necessary to refine ideas and combat potential biases. Intellectual curiosity also encompasses strong critical thinking skills in order to discern and validate information and determine what warrants further investigation to establish pertinent facts. The importance of intellectual curiosity is not new; there are myriad examples throughout history of intellectual curiosity encouraging tenacity, innovation, and high achievement:

‘When Orrville (sic) Wright, of the Wright brothers fame, was told by a friend that he and his brother would always be an example of how far someone can go in life with no special advantages, he emphatically responded, “to say we had no special advantages … the greatest thing in our favor was growing up in a family where there was always much encouragement to intellectual curiosity.” The power of curiosity to contribute not only to high achievement, but also to a fulfilling existence, cannot be emphasized enough. Curiosity can be defined as “the recognition, pursuit, and intense desire to explore, novel, challenging, and uncertain events.” Curiosity has also been linked to happiness and creativity. [...] Having a “hungry mind” has been shown to be a core determinant of academic achievement, rivaling the prediction power of IQ.’ ^[ii] 

Early studies on the concept of curiosity distinguished perceptual curiosity (the desire for sensory experience) from epistemic curiosity (the desire for knowledge). Researcher Jordan Litman noted that epistemic curiosity, which most closely aligns with the concept of intellectual curiosity, has been related to “feeling-of-knowing and exploratory behavior”^[iii]. Litman’s research subsequently tied this curiosity to ambiguity tolerance and a need for closure.^[iv] Also tied to this intellectual (or epistemic) curiosity is a need for cognition - a person’s need to make sense of his or her experiential world. This “need for cognition” is ‘the tendency for an individual to engage in and enjoy thinking’.^[v] Measures of need for cognition ultimately identified three inherent factors, all of which are applicable to an effective intelligence professional: need for challenge, need for knowledge and understanding, and enjoyment of cognitive effort.^[vi] An inherent intellectual curiosity will allow for a private sector intelligence professional to research more thoroughly, to approach a problem from multiple angles, and to organically synthesize information. This intellectual curiosity often manifests itself in a natural interest in the subject matter, an instinctive comprehension of its complexities, and an ability to distill vast amounts of information into a coherent bottom line; all of these contribute to generating insights that add value to decisionmakers, which is ultimately the primary role of a private sector intelligence professional.

Communication Skills

Communication skills and collaboration go hand-in-hand, as effective collaboration requires effective communication. Moreover, exceptional communication skills are key to building relationships and morale, and to boosting productivity through a more effective understanding of consumer needs and increased ability to meet those information requirements without providing extraneous information or products. In short, “communication is essential if you want to grow a healthy, thriving company.”^[vii] Conversely, poor communication skills negatively represent the company, contribute to high stress levels, and often result in dissatisfied clients. As Stephen Covey writes in The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, synergistic communication, which entails high levels of trust, can produce the best solutions. This level of communication leads to creativity and a win-win mentality, rather than remaining attached to traditional paradigms.

Communication entails both the conveyance and the receipt of information, and it is both verbal and non-verbal: understanding the facial expressions and body language of an executive struggling with a decision as well as using appropriate nonverbal cues to emphasize key points. Nonverbal communication provides important contextual cues that can punctuate what is said verbally, but explicit verbal communication is also imperative, as studies have shown that many employees leave meetings lacking an understanding of what the next steps are. Explicit, clear communication can eliminate confusion and bring clarity and efficiency to operations. This is doubly important when intelligence analysts provide assessments to decision-makers. In a confusing and muddled environment, the ability to bring clarity is a rare asset that an intelligence professional is responsible for providing to an executive.

A key to being an effective communicator is truly understanding the audience of a product. An executive oftentimes does not have significant amounts of time to spend reading an in-depth intelligence product; he or she may only have five minutes to be briefed on the most salient points of a given issue before moving on to the next concern or meeting of the day. This means that the intelligence professional needs to have a thorough understanding of what the decision-maker’s priorities are, and he or she must be able to distill the content of his or her research and assessment into a concise format. This understanding primarily comes through being an active listener and seeking out details from a multitude of sources that speak authoritatively to the issue and that speak specifically to the executive’s interest in the issue. Additionally, as in most fields, intelligence tends to employ jargon and acronyms which may or may not be clear to recipients. Through effective communication – and specifically through active listening - the effective intelligence analyst will have the ability to view a product from the audience’s perspective and understand where additional detail or explanation is warranted.

Communication is also important because, “in truth, we can’t really know anything that we can’t communicate. To assert that we can possess knowledge, but are unable to designate what it is, is nonsensical.”^[viii] The very definition of communication is the imparting or exchanging of information (and “knowledge” at its core is facts, information, and skills acquired by an individual). Thus, having knowledge, but being unable to convey it, adds no value. “What is critical in any communication is what the sender meant and what the receiver understood,”^[ix] or, in other words, effective communication occurs when these two are virtually identical. For the person conveying information, the process of establishing common meaning hinges upon understanding the frame of reference of the recipient, or as the intelligence adage says: know your audience.

Effective Collaboration

Intellectual curiosity rarely contributes value without the ability to collaborate effectively - not only with other professionals in the field, but also with information providers and consumers. According to the Harvard Business Review,

“[c]ollaboration is a way of working that attracts and involves people outside of one’s formal control, organization, and expertise to accomplish common goals. Yet for many intellectuals, teamwork can often feel inefficient (search and coordination costs eat up time), risky (can I trust others to deliver for my client?), and low value (our own area of expertise always seems most critical). However, many of today’s most important challenges are so complex and multifaceted that they can only be tackled by teams of experts from disparate domains. To solve them, professionals must be able to harness ideas, people, and resources from across disciplinary and organizational boundaries.”^[x] 

Thus, in order for the intelligence professional to meet decisionmakers’ needs, he or she will likely need to operate in a cross-functional manner, actively communicating with – and using information from - sources in a variety of disparate domains. When working on these teams, however, it is important to note that collaboration and consensus-building are not the same thing. Collaboration opens the aperture to a broader range of possibilities and perspectives, and can help to identify the expertise an intelligence professional needs; at the same time, it also allows for discernment in determining what perspectives run outside of the scope of the project.

Collaboration is also integral to filtering the amount and type of incoming information by effectively communicating with vendors and information providers to refine collection requirements based on consumer needs. In order to collaborate effectively in this domain, an intelligence professional must have a strong understanding of others’ expertise, and must also trust their ability to fulfill expectations. When collaborating with information providers, clarity is key. The ability to specifically spell out requirements and expectations will result in better data and lead to higher quality products. Similarly, it is also imperative for any intelligence professional to be able to understand the audience with whom their information is being shared. This collaboration enables the intelligence professional to intuit customer needs when they are not clearly stated and to respond effectively to shifting levels of interest. Thus, the ability to liaise effectively with the consumer to understand their needs and refine products so that they are purposeful and practical is key. In this sense, collaborative communication also needs to be ongoing in order to effectively implement feedback.

The intelligence cycle in the private sector is not unlike that of the government, but in the private sector, collaboration is necessary in every phase. Requirements are rarely handed down from “on high” with little context, but instead often entail collaboration across sectors (for example: finance, brand, security, and human resources). Input from each of the various business lines helps to refine requirements. In the collection phase, collaboration plays a significant role – particularly for those organizations who work with vendors or third-party collectors. Ensuring that vendor capabilities are understood and precise needs are properly articulated to the third-party collector ensures that the information gleaned is relevant and useful and maps most closely to the information needed by the analyst. During the processing, exploitation, analysis and production phases, continued back-and-forth between analysts, vendors, cross-functional teams, and other experts helps to refine conclusions and understand context. Collaboration is also key in the final dissemination phase as communication with the consumer allows for the integration of feedback into products and thus, further refinement of ongoing requirements for future use with vendors and collectors.

Time Management Skills

Most intelligence professionals find that the amount of work to be done and the amount of information to be synthesized is far greater than one person is capable of. Thus, an intelligence professional must exercise exceptional time management. At its core, time management is the ability to accomplish core responsibilities in such a way that aligns with the expectations and needs of the organization and leaves it in a better state than before. Adding to the flood of information, today’s pace of global business can easily lead to the tyranny of the urgent - a concept in which matters that demand attention can often take priority over truly important issues. The “urgent”, though less important, is thus prioritized over the truly important, merely because it demands attention.[xi] The result can be overwhelming. Time management skills, however, include the ability to discern truly important matters and prioritize accordingly.

Many people believe that time management skills go hand-in-hand with the ability to multitask. However, doing more than one task at a time, especially more than one complex task, takes a toll on productivity. Psychologists who study what happens to cognition (mental processes) when people try to perform more than one task at a time have found that the human brain was not designed for heavy-duty multitasking. What many perceive as multitasking is actually rapid “switching”, or moving quickly from one task to another, and often results in a slowdown in cognitive processing. Psychologists tend to liken the job to choreography or air-traffic control, noting that in these operations, as in others, mental overload can result in catastrophe.^[xii] Given the mental complexity of most intelligence-related tasks, time management skills for a private sector intelligence professional rely heavily on effective prioritization of tasks based on an understanding of what is most important to the consumer.

Time management is imperative, and yet there is no perfect, one-size-fits-all approach to managing time. A successful time management model for one person may be entirely ineffective for another, because the scope of duties and work environment can differ greatly. In fact, along with substantive expertise, time may be the most important commodity an intelligence professional has. Time management is an effective articulation of priorities - how time is spent should be indicative of the organization’s broader goals and vision which should set the stage for resource allocation:^[xiii] “Although it may not be possible to ‘do it all’ every day, it is possible to do the things that are most important.”^[xiv] Given the fast pace of business, juggling a multitude of competing priorities is often commonplace for a private sector intelligence professional: at any a given time, he or she may be simultaneously tasked with identifying brand risk associated with a new venture, making security recommendations associated with planned executive travel, and assessing opportunities within a proposed new market. Knowing which of these issues is of greatest value to decisionmakers and the timeline for any resulting decisions will help to prioritize these tasks.

Furthermore, time management is directly related to an intelligence professional’s productivity, which is ultimately the measure of an analyst’s ability to add value to an organization. It is no less true in the private sector than in government that intelligence must be both timely and relevant in order for it to be impactful. In order for it to be timely, it must be curated and disseminated to the appropriate consumer in a useful and digestible format to allow them to make key decisions before those decisions are no longer viable.

Adaptability

Change is inevitable – and in a day and age of increasing globalization and technology, the ability to recognize change, grow with it, and learn from it is crucial. In reality, “if we fail to adapt, we fail to move forward.”[xv] Adaptability is what allows an individual to ascertain what is needed for success and to create a game plan to ensure those objectives are met while dealing with an ever-changing playing field. In many ways, the attributes of an adaptable person mimic those of someone who is intellectually curious. He or she is not wedded to a specific perspective or methodology, but is open-minded and willing to experiment – and is even willing to do so in uncertain circumstances. To be willing to view a situation from an innovative perspective requires first and foremost, a willingness to identify and set aside biases.

According to Jeff Boss in his 2015 Forbes Magazine article, “14 Signs of an Adaptable Person”,

“The need for adaptability has never been greater than it is now. The ability for people, teams, and organizations to adapt to changes in their environments, stay relevant, and avoid obsolescence is the defining characteristic between success and failure, growth and stagnation, business and bankruptcy.”[xvi]

Adaptability is what allows an intelligence professional to remain relevant in a time of risk and instability. Many of the traditional paradigms in the intelligence and security realm assume stability. Indeed, a strategy assumes the identification of a pattern that allows for predictability and mitigates known risks. The ability to apply these frameworks to the unknown – or even to consider possibilities outside of the norm, is where adaptability comes into play. [xvii] Adaptability also allows an intelligence professional to identify opportunities in the midst of the myriad of risks they address daily. For example, while researching infrastructure concerns that could limit the efficacy of a high-tech telecommunications business venture in a specific country or region, adaptability could also lead an intelligence analyst to identify an opportunity for another line of business in the same company that operates in the radio broadcasting or capacity-building space. This requires a level of resourcefulness, mental fortitude, and forethought. Underpinning the ability to be adaptable, is a combination of resilience and a strong moral compass. In order for individuals to feel confident adapting to the new or the unknown, they must have an anchor that allows them to know what they stand for, what their boundaries are, and when to stand their ground. Private sector intelligence professionals are frequently challenged at many levels – by peers, executives, and decisionmakers – on their perspectives, opinions, assessments, and methodologies. These challenges serve to make assessments more useful, effective, and authoritative, and should be welcomed, though it is imperative that they know when to adapt and when to remain firm, and this comes from an ability to read and understand the signals of change.

Moreover, as the environment or the needs of the consumer shift, the intelligence professional must be able to recognize, reassess, and realign. For example, an intelligence professional may find that a specific line of business is eager to pursue a potentially lucrative opportunity in a region where there has been significant political instability or heightened terrorism concerns. If the intelligence analyst concludes, after a thorough assessment of the security environment, that the risk exceeds the company’s acceptable threshold, the professional must be willing to stand his or her ground despite the potential challenges. That said, if steps are subsequently taken to limit instability or security concerns, the intelligence professional must adapt to the changed environment by folding this information into an updated assessment that may include mitigation strategies to reinforce stability where applicable.

Conclusion

Given the breadth of the private sector intelligence field and the variety of sub-fields that it encompasses, any of a number of backgrounds, including journalism, government, military, or academia could provide the background and experience that would set a professional up for success. However, intellectual curiosity, communication skills, effective collaboration, time management, and adaptability cut across all disciplines within the field and are integral to a successful private sector intelligence professional. While by no means all-encompassing, these attributes make up the intellectual framework that, when paired with excellent research skills, solid analytic competency, and significant subject matter expertise - and core professional requirements like hard work, honesty, and integrity – contribute to the profile of a successful private sector intelligence professional.

Intellectual curiosity is the driver that inspires iterative questions, encourages thorough research, and ultimately results in the formulation of purposed conclusions. In order to collect and pinpoint the most critical information to inform these conclusions, however, the professional must collaborate effectively across functions and in disparate domains. The intelligence professional must also adapt to changing environments and shifting consumer needs, recognizing, reassessing, and realigning in order for conclusions to remain both timely and relevant in a fast-paced business environment. Maintaining this timeliness requires that the intelligence professional exercise effective time management in order to ensure that resources (time) are allocated in line with company objectives. Finally, these conclusions must be conveyed to consumers and decisionmakers through clear communication that eliminates confusion and brings clarity and efficiency to operations. In a confusing and muddled environment, the ability to bring clarity is a rare asset that an intelligence professional is responsible for providing to decisionmakers.

While the aforementioned attributes are a starting point for identifying the profile of successful private sector intelligence professionals, they are, as noted, not all-encompassing. This article addresses, albeit briefly, the importance of research acumen, analytic proficiency, and subject matter expertise as core competencies. Significant research has been done in the analytic and educational fields in identifying how these skills are acquired, and could easily serve as the basis for additional research into how to identify and apply them in the private sector intelligence field. Further, most talent acquisition teams look for professional requirements like hard work, honesty, and integrity, though it is important to note that organizational culture also plays a significant role in how a professional performs and whether these characteristics are reinforced. Because the private sector intelligence field is comparatively new, it may be worth studying its role in buttressing overarching organizational values. This article also discussed the value of collaboration, though collaboration should not be seen as a panacea. In some organizations, over-collaboration takes place, resulting in endless meetings, debating ideas and [a struggle] to find consensus.^[xviii]One of the most important aspects of the ability to collaborate effectively is knowing when not to collaborate. This issue could also serve as a data point for further research – understanding the extent to which collaboration is beneficial for a private sector intelligence professional, and at what point it becomes detrimental to efficacy. Finally, given the private sector intelligence professional’s ongoing efforts to understand the needs of decision-makers, it stands to reason that these professionals will ultimately be well-positioned to one day become these decisionmakers. Thus, it would be worthwhile to investigate what career development needs to take place in order to move into these positions of authority.

As the private sector intelligence field evolves, it will be imperative for professionals in the field to continually evolve as well, honing their skills and reinforcing their expertise with attributes that increase their effectiveness and encourage a growth mindset. Appropriate skills turn an individual intelligence professional into a force multiplier with an outsized impact on business and strategic decision-making and ultimately establishes the capability for these professionals to become future leaders.

Angela Lewis is the Manager of the Global Intelligence and Threat Analysis Team at The Walt Disney Company, which is tasked with strategic forecasting – understanding how geopolitical events around the world could impact The Walt Disney Company’s various lines of business from a security perspective. This includes ABC News reporting from conflict zones, assessing potential locations for film productions and business endeavors, identifying risks to Disney Cruise Line, ensuring the security of Adventures by Disney and National Geographic land tours, and informing ESPN’s coverage of worldwide sporting events. Prior to joining the private sector, Ms. Lewis served as a Senior Counterterrorism Targeting Officer in the CIA’s Directorate of Operations, including serving two tours abroad in Central Europe and in the Middle East. She earned a Master’s degree in International Relations with a focus in Foreign Policy from American University and graduated from the University of Cincinnati with bachelor’s degrees in International Affairs and Political Science. She is currently a PhD student at Pepperdine University.  Ms. Lewis’ opinions are her own and do not represent the Walt Disney Company.

Have a piece you’d like to submit to The Cipher Brief?  Drop us an email at Editor@thecipherbrief.com

Read more national security insight, perspective and analysis in The Cipher Brief

[i] (Fahey and Herring 2007)

² (Gardner and Ibarra 2017)

^[iii] (Litman, Curiosity and the Pleasures of Learning: Wanting and Liking New Information 2005)

^[iv] (Litman, Relationships Between Measures of I- and D-type Curiosity, Ambiguity Tolerance, and Need for Closure: An Initial Test of the Wanting-Liking Model of Information Seeking 2010)

^[v] (Cacioppo and Petty 1982)

^[vi] (Powell, Nettelbeck and Burns 2016)

^[vii] (Atchison 2018)

^[viii] (Satell 2015)

^[ix] (Nahavandi, et al. 2015)

^[x] (Gardner and Ibarra 2017)

[xi] (Hummel, 1967)

^[xii] (American Psychological Association 2006)

^[xiii] (Farrell 2017)

^[xiv] (Nahavandi, et al. 2015)

[xv] (Impelman 2017)

[xvi] (Boss 2015)

[xvii] (Reeves and Deimler 2011)

¹⁸ (Gardner and Ibarra 2017)