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In a recent article in the Society for Competitive Intelligence Professionals journal, Benjamin Gilad defined competitive intelligence as finding the holes in competitors’ armour. The ‘holes’ are anything that makes them vulnerable - geographic limitations, projects that have gone awry, missing technical expertise, failure to read market signals, etc. The trick, he suggested, is to position one’s strengths to capitalize on those gaps.

Every organization has gaps that need to be filled.

There is a message here for corporate librarians. Every organization has gaps that need to be filled. It may be that the right people do not exist in the organization, or perhaps the need for a service or product has not yet been recognized.

Although we are not competing with others in our own organization, we can easily turn missing links into opportunities if we have the vision. Here are just a few areas in which we have strengths that can evolve into great leadership opportunities - communication, market research, knowledge management and partnering.

Communication
Librarians are among the best people to facilitate the flow of information among individuals and groups. They often do not belong to specific business units, but serve the entire organization. Who knows better what people are interested in, what they are best at, who are the company’s specialists or contacts for a topic, or who is working on what project? We acquire the knowledge easily just by carrying out our normal duties.

Librarians... facilitate the flow of information

This broad familiarity with people is a strength that can be capitalized on. Information specialists have created inhouse-experts databases, served on cross-departmental teams, helped edit their company newsletters, created and managed corporate Intranets. They have influenced business direction because of their knowledge of the ‘big picture’ - the direction in which the various parts of their organization and industry are going.

Most librarians I know are good writers, who read voluminously as children and continue to do so for pleasure as adults. We may not realize it, but we sometimes have better writing skills than many of our non-librarian colleagues.

Those skills can be used in many ways. Web and database design requires excellent verbal and written skills. Articles need to be written for your company newsletter. Colleagues appreciate it when you offer to edit their reports and other publications. Does your company have a regular news service updating employees on industry trends? If not, why not create one? Don’t undervalue your skills, but become known as one of your organization’s best writers, and assignments will flow.

Market Research
While many companies lack market research departments, those that have them still rely heavily on their information centers for research. We can take that research further by analyzing, editing and packaging the data well, suggesting further areas for investigation, offering to provide ongoing research on the topic, or preparing a database to track the topic in depth.

Send off that strategic report and have the courage to call it that

Sift through the Nexis search, the annual report or the EDGAR or SEDAR filings for the information you know your client really needs. Acquire analysts’ reports and include some of their findings in your report. Prepare a handsome template for your research (often a simple MS-Word table with well-designed header and footer will suffice), so you can provide attractive presentations quickly. Then send off that strategic report and have the courage to call it that.

Knowledge Management
We have the tools, the skills and the experience to become our companies’ knowledge managers. Is it part of our job to design and even maintain databases and Webs for other units of our companies? It could be a new area of business for us! Using DBText, the Simons Information Center has created databases for other departments for use on our corporate Intranet, and the demand from other departments is increasing as our Intranet grows.

Partnering
Large projects can often lead to long-term relationships with other departments, which may include shared information product creation, joint projects, or at the very least, a level of cooperation that creates valuable synergies for your organization.

Conclusion
People generally feel well-disposed to their librarians because we help them. We make our colleagues look good by giving them a competitive information advantage. We understand how they search for information, and at our best, we give them the information they need before they realize they need it. As Wayne Gretzky says, the trick is to skate to where the puck is going, not to where it is.

There is always somewhere we can fill a gap, which is just another way to say "add value" and take leadership roles within our organizations.

Jan Wallace is manager of the Information Center at Simons International Corp., a global engineering, contracting and related professional services firm with companies and offices in more than 30 locations worldwide.