A study of strategic intelligence as a strategic management tool in the long-term insurance industry in South Africa

Abstract

Changes and challenges that have occurred in the past two decades have forced a radical shift in the basic foundations of how business is conducted. Internal, as well as external forces have forced organisations to constantly monitor their surrounding environment in order to create an awareness of opportunities and threats to allow them to survive in their competitive environment. Organisations need to gather all the information at their disposal, and turn the raw data into intelligence through a process of analysis and an exercise of human judgement. By utilising the potential offered by information systems in the process of generating intelligence and creating a corporate knowledge base to be used in strategic decision-making will lead to competitive advantage and constant innovation. Strategic Intelligence has information as its foundation. This research proposes that through its ability to absorb sources of information, the synergy of Business Intelligence, Competitive Intelligence, and Knowledge Management combined to form Strategic Intelligence, will allow organisations to incorporate all of their information and intellectual capital into a single database or system which will meet the intelligence requirements of management. The purpose of this study is to identify the current use of Strategic Intelligence in the Long-term Insurance Industry in the South African environment, and through the use of a survey questioned the benefits or problems experienced by executive management who have not yet implemented and used Strategic Intelligence as an input to the Strategic Management process, and identified the perceived value Strategic Intelligence could add in the decision-making process. The research study shows that organisations have not yet fully embraced a model for a cooperative global internal corporate Strategic Intelligence System or Portal that will incorporate all aspects of Strategic Intelligence into a single, easily manageable resource for management’s strategic planning and decision-making process, even though it could enhance their ability to withstand the onslaught of global competitors and expand their business into new markets, protect their local market or identify potential merger or acquisition targets, and increase innovation within the organisations.