Foresight, Competitive Intelligence and Business Analytics - Tools for Making Industrial Programmes More Efficient

Creating industrial policy and programmes, especially in technology, is fraught with high levels of uncertainty. These programmes target the development of products that will not be sold for several years; therefore, one of the risks is that the products will no longer be in demand or will have been overtaken by more advanced technologies. In several cases, the authors have seen these programmes fail because the intended targets of the programme did not apply to use the programme funds (poorly targeted program) or did not use the programme properly. An integrated programme involving foresight, competitive intelligence and business analytics assists in decreasing the probability of the risks and problems described above, resulting in better designed and more successful industrial policy. These techniques can also be used to create a dashboard for monitoring programme use so that any problems can be corrected early on. The dashboard uses advanced analytics to assess programme applications and programme inquiries to assess whether the programme is being used properly. Via an integrated intelligence process, it monitors the external environment to ensure that programme assumptions in terms of what technologies are most appropriate remain valid. The dashboard relies on information available in open sources and available to the government.