The "Business Intelligence" Challenge in the Context of Regional Risk

The world of intelligence is about understanding external factors we cannot control in order to reduce the risk and increase the reward. Indeed, business intelligence (BI) flourishes today in the United States because market economics and, even more important, the way business is done here, pump out information 24-7-365 the way a heart on steroids pumps out blood. In this article, I offer an overview of BI within the context of four countries that are the subject of in-depth study in this issue of Thunderbird International Business Review: Iraq, the United Arab Emirates, Croatia, and Bosnia and Herzegovina. All four nations offer interesting and varied examples for the international manager doing business in countries where risk is often a key factor that must be considered when making business decisions. (C) 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.