1. Environment Intelligence: An Innovative Service for Libraries Shaheen Majid and Zhang Xue

2. Library Services Books, journals, reports, newspapers, databases, magazines, reference materials User Services Standard Information Needs Non-traditional Information Needs Websites, blogs, RSS, exhibitions, radio, TV, customers, distributors, etc.

3. The Turbulent Environment Technological innovations (new products) Economic changes (recessions, mergers and alliances, interest rates, stock markets, oil prices …) Political changes (elections, sanctions, industrial and nationalization policies, etc.) Natural and human disasters (wars, tsunamis, hurricanes, earthquakes, bird flu …) Demographic (ageing populations, immigrants, changing income levels, etc.) Regulatory/ legal (controls and regulations, competition restrictions, consumer protection, etc.) Social and cultural (social classes, family structure, lifestyle changes, living standards, etc.)

4. Why Environment Intelligence? 1.Creates awareness about the emerging trends (early warning system) 2.Helps an organization capitalize on emerging opportunities 3.Provides an early signal to possible problems/ threats 4.Helps avoid surprises and provides competitive advantage over other organizations

5. Environment Intelligence Government Depts. Business Companies NGOs Academic Inst. Charity Organizations International Agencies

6. Scope of Environment Intelligence Competitor Intelligence Competitive Intelligence Business Intelligence Social Intelligence

7. Some Applications Problem Solving Daily Decision-making New Initiatives Strategic Planning Organizational Learning

8. External Environment Organization Near Environ. Competitors Far Environ.

9. Two Levels of Scanning Competitors Customers Suppliers Technological factors Other stakeholders A. Domain or Near Environment Includes those factors that may immediately and directly influence an organization:

10. Two Levels of Scanning Demographic Factors Economical Factors Political Factors Social and Cultural Factors Regulatory/ Legal Factors Technological Factors B. General or Far Environment Includes those factors that may indirectly or in the long run affect an organization:

11. Needs Identification - Current & potential competitors - Factors likely to impact the org. - Info needed for decision making & strategic planning - Overall environment changes - Identify most useful sources (databases, publications, websites) - Staff connected to the environment - Customers, suppliers and other stakeholders - Filtering - Repackaging - Value- added features - Classification & categorization - Storage: paper- based system, portal, intranet, specialized database Intelligence Gathering Info. Products & Services Info. Processing & Storage Information Use Information Distribution Environment Scanning - Steps - Daily briefings - Environ. intelligence alerts - Weekly or monthly reports - On-demand intelligence - Face-to-face - Push (Email, handouts) - Pull (Intranet, databases) - Daily decision making - Strategic planning (SWOT and PEST analysis) - Organizational learning

12. Who Should Conduct the Intelligence? Business, marketing, sales, management experts LIS, information management experts Traditionally, competitor & business intelligences have been undertaken by business experts Recently, LIS and IM professionals have started taking interest in this discipline OR

13. Business & Marketing Professionals Directly involved in decision-making and strategic planning, and know what type of information is needed Educated in market research & analysis and can properly understand and interpret the environmental information Regularly come across different information sources – competitors’ products, pricing structures and strategies; business reports, trade newsletters, etc.

14. LIS Professionals Claim EI is not just collection of information rather it is a complete process Processing essential for making environment information more meaningful and actionable Processing desirable - moving from a time of ‘Information scarcity’ to ‘Info. abundance’ LIS professionals are trained to do: o Can conduct needs analysis o Familiar with the scope & coverage of info. sources o Can assess authenticity and accuracy of information o Can help reduce ‘information overload’ o Understand ethical and legal issues involved in EI

15. Hybrid Professionals - Trends in Education Many academic programmes have started realizing the importance of so-called hybrid professionals Many Business and LIS programmes are now offering courses which were traditionally not considered part of their disciplines No doubt, individuals possessing business and LIS competencies are the best to undertake EI

16. Hybrid Professionals – LIS Schools University of Brighton covers environment scanning in its course on “Managing Information Services” Nanyang Technological University, Singapore - environment scanning is focus of ‘Information Management’ course Specialized course in Business Information Sources at many universities EI as a Course Component

17. LIS Schools Loughborough University – a full course on ‘Competitor Intelligence’ University of Tennessee – ‘Business Intelligence for Information Professionals’ University of Maryland – ‘Environment Scanning for Information Managers’ Nanyang Technological University – ‘Business Intelligence’ Drexel University – ‘Competitor Intelligence’ courses for PhD, Masters, and undergraduate students Full Courses

18. Hybrid Professionals University of Michigan – dual degree program leading to a MBA and a MSc in Information Dalhousie University Canada – dual degrees in MBA and MLIS Kent State University - dual degrees in MBA and MLIS Nanyang Business and Communication & Information Schools offer a joint MBA (KM) Joint & Dual Degrees

19. Conclusion Environment intelligence is an information intensive activity and LIS professionals have an edge over other professionals However, LIS professionals need additional competencies to provide such services LIS programmes also need to introduce certain non-traditional LIS courses If we are unable to act swiftly, these jobs will be gone to other professions

20. Environment Intelligence: An Innovative Service for Libraries Shaheen Majid and Zhang Xue