Strategic Intelligence for the Future 2: A New Information Function Approach

By Henri Dou, Alain Juillet and Philippe Clerc

Information in all its forms is at the heart of the economic intelligence process. It is also a powerful vector of innovation and, more than ever, a balance between economic and societal forces.

That is why a large part of Strategic Intelligence for the Future 2 analyzes the various aspects of information, from traditional processing and research to the psychological and epigenetic aspects of its development. This leads to a new vision of its integration into organizations. In addition, new technologies offer extensive access to information, including social networks which are critically analyzed here.

In a complex world where geopolitics and the new concept of information warfare are becoming increasingly important, it becomes imperative to better apprehend and understand our environment, in order to develop critical thinking that will reinforce the different global aspects of security in economic intelligence.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Wiley
• Release date: Apr 10, 2019
• ISBN: 9781119612537

Book preview

Preface

Information and information research, interpretation and use can no longer be considered within a strictly national framework. This brings some urgency to understanding other cultures and prompts the use of tools that permit a multilingual vision of knowledge. Information is becoming more and more open and accessible, going hand in hand with the need for a multidisciplinary approach to the problems that need to be solved. This requires looking beyond very specialized but closed systems and integrating into strategic thinking multiple aspects of intelligence: scientific, technological, economic, organizational, societal and cultural.

At the same time, technology enables the research, analysis and diffusion of information in real time to multiple stakeholders. This dynamic is becoming an essential lever in the transformation of business and organizations by opening up their capacity for world intelligence, new innovation ecosystems and unprecedented ruptures.

One of the significant consequences of this mutation is that it obliges the decider to place it at the heart of their system for decision making and strategic governance. It in fact obliges them to adopt a resolutely anticipatory posture, to define a realistic and detailed vision placing data control and analysis at the heart of all strategies.

Digital transition has always accompanied the evolution of economic intelligence, but technological evolutions, changes in the international environment and intense competition are leading to a real rupture. This is acquiring a critical character which must generate within businesses a capacity for resilience through this breakthrough innovation.

In particular, strategic information, its collection, analysis and understanding will create, within businesses and organizations, self-criticisms, which are transmissible and generate the mutation needed to understand, interpret and act in a moving and ever more complex world.

Henri DOU

Alain JUILLET

Philippe CLERC

January 2019

Introduction

Future economic intelligence will be centered on, among other aspects, information, information research and its analysis and integration in decision-making processes. We first wrote a general reflection on the endogenous integration of the information function within organizations. This way of imagining this function’s role leads individuals to develop a different way of thinking, to acquire informative but also critical reflexes that will enable institutions, organizations and businesses to confront the new situations with which they are faced. It is often said that one of the ways for businesses to develop in an uncertain environment is to innovate, whether on the level of technology, administration, management etc. This is why we have examined innovation and its consequences in organizations’ behavior. But, to innovate, that is to move from research to market level, different kinds of information are needed. This why a focus has been placed on holistic research, to properly mark the difference between a reductive vision of information research, and the ever greater need to control the environment through more open research. In this context, various examples of information processing are brought to light. They then follow social networks, since they are currently increasing in importance, mainly due to the advertising for which they are used. It is necessary to understand fully the mechanisms by which they work and the actions of the robot systems within them, so as not to consider social networks only as simple IT systems. Malicious noise and other attacks on an organization’s integrity are also examined as it is necessary to react quickly and prepare for action using maturely thought-out simulations. Finally, information holds great importance for the lives of businesses. It must be secured and defended. Constant attention should be paid to this subject: the threats are multiple; it is a good idea to recognize them and develop internal reflexes to head-off attacks or react to them. The level of protection goes beyond classical information and now covers IT security. The survival of business is at stake and beyond awareness, basic action is needed. Fully understanding the risks involving information is becoming a necessity for businesses, and this is the aim of this book: to make the reader aware of a crucial problem and provide them with a number of key elements to create an appetite for this function.

1

From Information Metabolism to Economic Intelligence

1.1. Introduction

Volume 2 of Strategic Intelligence for the Future focuses on information, information research, analysis and the integration of information in decision-making processes. In the first chapter of this work we will, before addressing the technical aspects, attempt to demonstrate the role of the information function within organizations. We will consider this information function in a broad sense, that is information collection, analysis and creation from the results of analyzing knowledge for action. Although everyone agrees that the information function should be placed at the heart of economic intelligence, it is rare to find work that analyzes the role of this function in the evolution of organizations, businesses and indeed individuals. This aspect is especially important as in many cases, a part of this function, searching for and collecting information, is often outsourced or confined to internal structures remote from decision-makers. We will therefore analyze this function’s role, not in the classical framework of the intelligence cycle (or the information cycle according to the authors), but by exploring more deeply its impact on the behavior of individuals, which forms the substrate for development and the action of institutions and businesses. To do this, we will refer to different works in the information domain metabolism on the one hand, in the context of the individuation of actors on the other hand, and finally in epigenetics in the sense of their action on the world around us, as Joël de Rosnay underlines. We will thus be able to consider that the role of the information function is to become a vector for learning within the organization, lying within, in Vygotsky’s sense of the term, a proximal zone of development. Indeed, it is through learning that the organization will be able to generate transferable self-criticisms that will promote a new form of development. Thus, the information function finds a central place when it is the result of endogenous work, engaging all members in the organization. We thus reach a very strong analogy with the Japanese concept of "ba" and its impact on businesses at the level of their coordination, cohesion and efficiency.

1.2. Information metabolism according to Timothy Powell

The concept of a living being metabolizing food compared to the metabolism of information within an institution, was described for the first time by Timothy Powell in 1995 [POW 95]. Since this date, the information function environment has changed considerably. This change is twofold:

– on the one hand, advances in technology which, in this domain, now trigger profound change;

– the appearance of new governing systems, supported by methods and tools such as economic intelligence in France or competitive intelligence in the Unites States.

In this context, it is useful to revisit the concept of information metabolism by considering the most recent advances in the domain of biology and genetics, but also by referring to older work with roots in psychiatry and psychology.

In the analogy between the metabolism of food and information metabolism, Timothy Powell made the following comparison:

Figure 1.1. Information metabolism according to Timothy Powell

In this presentation, we therefore find the main stages of the information cycle as it is generally described in economic intelligence. This analogy reveals two aspects that will be important in the rest of this book: cellular chemistry as well as the aspect of taking decisions and taking action, rests in economic intelligence on a maturation of strategic information by experts so by human beings) after decisions have been taken. The macro and micro functions are analogous to cellular anabolism and catabolism¹ [WIK 18a]. The information function for generally describing this process is not therefore a simple recourse to documentation, rather it engages complex processes, based among others on expertise, lived experience and some understanding of the world around us. It should also be noted that Timothy Powell refers in a short bibliography to works on strategy [TOF 93, TYS 95], to post-capitalist society [DRU 93] and the value of information [POW 94, PET 92] but does not address the relationship of information with biology and the psyche.

1.3. Let us examine this concept in more detail

In a remarkable though sometimes contested work, Kepinsky, in his book Melancholia² [GRA 75, KEP 74], develops the concept of information metabolism at the cellular level. He develops a psychological theory of the interaction of living organisms with their environment, based on information processing [BIE 15]. He also believes that living beings are characterized by their ability to grow and maintain their own negentropy [WIK 18b], which leads to the notion of equilibrium, and in fact of harmony, in the sense found in Chinese philosophy [CHO 07]. The involvement of entropy in the system is also underlined by Germine’s work [GER 93]. But living beings, as Bielecki [BEI 15] underlines, exist under a number of conditions:

– to reproduce and evolve;

– they are constructed from organic chemical components, based on organic chemical synthesis;

– to interact dynamically with the environment;

– they are open, dissipative structures significantly displaced from thermodynamic equilibrium;

– they conduct electrical circuits on cellular and molecular level;

– they are hierarchical, open systems;

– they are self-organized systems characterized by increasing organization over time; and

– they are systems processing information, matter, and energy in a specific way.

In these eight conditions, we find a considerable analogy with the conditions that will influence the evolution of organizations (meaning businesses, institutions, etc.) and which are broadly considered in the process of economic intelligence. These should evolve and interact with their environment. They can include hierarchical or open organizations. They may also self-organize; an example of this is institutions or autopoietic networks [MIN 02, ZEL 01, ZEL 92] that change according to constraints in their environment. This analogy, which goes further than the one suggested by Timothy Powell, supports the comparison between living organisms and information which, in Kepinsky’s sense, includes anabolic and catabolic processes [DIF 18]. These processes are equivalent to the processes of researching and accumulating strategic information, then analyzing this to produce knowledge for action. This process can also, always by analogy, be compared to the camel, the lion and the child [WEI 10], stages described by Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathustra [DOU 19, NIE 15].

1.4. Organizations and human beings

An organization, whatever it is, is formed by human beings the sum of whose actions will form the institution’s movement, its way of being; the institution evolves its richness through change. It is therefore important, always remaining with the analogy with life and its psychological interactions, to tackle individuation [ORT 18]. Various definitions are possible depending on the field in which this concept is used:

– general definition: distinction between one individual and another in the same species or group and the society of which they form a part of, which makes them exist as an individual;

– embryology: induction process that leads to the formation of complete organic structures;

– linguistics: process by which a group is characterized as opposed to another group thanks to consistencies in linguistic activity;

– philosophy: creation of a general idea, of a type of species within an individual;

– psychanalysis: process of becoming aware of profound individuality, described by Jung [DUC 18].

1.4.1. Individuation according to Jung

We will, in the remainder of this work, prefer the process of individuation described by Jung and Simondon for two principal reasons:

– Jung, in his analytical work, considers the collective unconscious that liberates, within the individual, a vital energy that Jung calls archetypes, this is by analogy with the impact of lived experience and history, both for individuals and by analogy for organizations within businesses and institutions;

– because Jung’s process of individuation can be amplified when the balance of the relationship between the non-human world (the environment, for example, the Internet, connected objects, etc.) and the human world evolves erratically. So, we will return to the notion of stability, explored previously. We thus come back to the dysfunction that crops up in an organization that does not know how to or cannot control the non-human environment it must face.

In the process of individuation, the individual identifies rather with the orientations that come ‘from the self’ – vulgarly defined by the archetype of the self, that is, the totality of the individual personality – than with behaviors, orientations and values that emanate from the social environment around them [NEV 11]. In this context, we should also list, though on another level, the work of John McGonagle who, in his book entitled A New Archetype for Competitive Intelligence [MCG 96] emphasizes the major role of information and its processing in the evolution of organizations. But the meaning of archetype used in the book’s title cannot be compared to that of Jung. For the author, what he means by the archetype is the fact that organizations, under the effect of the evolution of information technologies and nascent globalization (the book was published in 1996), should mutate, that is, enter a new state, one not necessarily desired, but imposed by the environment. The metaphor used by the author describes a dinosaur that, with a small brain, cannot control its entire body, however, it is suggested to the dinosaur (as for some organizations) to decrease its total volume to improve control, without thinking that the better solution would be to become more intelligent. In the book, the author presents a set of stimuli all based on the processing of varied information that will induce the business to change. We may note shadow benchmarking, actual management analysis and other techniques based on the mathematical analysis of information as a series of central points around which change will develop, and the entirety of these stimuli are called cyber intelligence by the author.

1.4.2. Individuation according to Simondon

Simondon [FRA 18], while still adhering to Jung’s analysis, differentiates his work from it however by the fact that he believes that the exterior environment and among others, the technological environment will play a more important role for Jung in the individuation process.

Individuation can therefore be envisaged: "according to Simondon, the perspective is rather philosophical, built upon a principle of basic ontological analysis in the sense that internal processes between the self³ and the ‘I’ can be applied to the links between human beings and technical objects, especially to those that possess a high level of complexity or materiality (see the new links with digital support)" as José Pinheiro Neves describes [NEV 11].

To illustrate the statement better, we return to the example cited by Neves [NEV 11] that makes it possible, through the concept of individuation, to understand post-modern society better as well as the technical and social environment that characterizes it. A patient teaches courses at a private university but there is no fixed contract for the work, and because of this he cannot envisage a clear and stable future. His wife is in the same situation. They have no children. This unstable financial situation is affecting his relationship with his wife. Therefore, a previously stable relationship is becoming strained in a system where flexible contracts are gradually undermining stability.

In this context there is an epidemic that is infecting and affecting the imaginary, the spirit of the times. The previous individuation based on a link between security and a regular and daily occupation in space and time (the time of material work in the Taylorian world) tends to disappear gradually. In this context, the Internet and its decontextualized links, without face to face interaction, such as those in digital social networks, play a decisive role in the postmodern imagination and the transformation of the notion of the individual, of the subject. As Neves emphasizes, with neo-liberal capitalism and the emergence of post-modern society there is an image that acts as an epidemic that surrounds us all and which may increase with the new chaotic and anomic ways of living daily life in post-modern society [MAF 00].

In this approach, we find the fears generated by uncertainty over employment, by the evolution of some cities (smart cities) to the detriment of interstitial space, by deserts of all kinds affecting rural spaces, etc. This consideration of the removal of former archetypes cannot be made without posing serious problems, as modifying archetypes in the process of change within organizations has not been the subject of in-depth studies and appears to be difficult [CAR 02]. In fact, Greenwood [GRE 93] emphasizes that organizations are structured in terms of archetypes (considered as organization templates) which are derived from their institutional practices, but it is change that requires moving from one archetype to another and is highly problematic. In the work of analyzing different case studies, Ploesser [PLO 09] distinguishes four types of archetype to be introduced into organizations to prepare them for change depending on the external circumstances. He thus defines the following archetypes: elements of synergy, change of tendency, oscillation and incremental learning. In his conclusion, he underlines the need to develop meta-models that will make it possible to situate archetypes with different levels of abstraction: immediate, internal, external and in the environment.

1.5. Change within organizations via the information function and an epigenetic approach

Epigenetics [BER 09] is a new science that has been the subject of constant interest for 10 years or so [SCH 15]. It was popularized among others by Joël de Rosnay in his book La Symphonie du vivant [ROS 18]. Epigenetics shows that we are not only the product of our genes, but that we possess a real power to act on them. As far as this work is concerned, we will limit ourselves to indicating that an unused part of our DNA may be motivated to cause transmissible and reversible changes both to our body (health), but also to our psychological behavior. As Joël de Rosnay, emphasizes, the way we eat, engage in physical activity, our emotional and familial equilibrium are actions that will direct our health and personality. It is in this way that considerable research activity has developed asking how epigenetics can be used to act on a number of diseases, including among those that are not contagious [FAR 15, KIM 17]. What is particularly important at the level of epigenetics and its effects on ourselves, is that these actions are transmissible, but also reversible, in the sense that a change in behavior can have inverse effects and that (partial) transmission from one generation to another is not fixed and the traits transmitted may be lost.

But we can go beyond biology and since epigenetics acts on a system as complex as living organisms, can we not apply it to complex systems such as the society in which we live, work and act?, as Joël de Rosnay emphasizes. De Rosnay explains in La Symphonie du vivant how the principles of epigenetics can act on our societies’ DNA and therefore modify their expression. Among other suggestions, he suggests establishing