Finding the people to staff the function who can keep abreast of changing demands and develop the function's own learning capacity is a demanding task. There are two basic strategies for staffing an emerging information function. One is to develop a cadre of specialists who spend much of their careers within that function (for convenience we shall call this the 'analyst strategy'). The other is to recruit high-potential generalists for whom the function is a development assignment, sensitizing them to certain skills and frameworks that will add to their personal portfolio of management skills (the 'fast-tracker strategy'). The epitome of a staff function using the analyst strategy is probably economic analysis; the fast-tracker strategy is most common in strategic planning. The profiles of the two types emerged clearly in response to the question, 'What do you like most about your job?' 'Analysts' tended to respond with statements of how much they enjoyed the challenge of putting information together, solving 'puzzles,' and learning. 'Fasttrackers' tended to cite the interaction with top management, the excitement of understanding the competitive environment, and the opportunity to 'make a real difference to this company' as the key aspects they enjoyed. The advantages of the 'analyst strategy' to the CA function itself probably outweigh those of the fast-tracker strategy. Having people build up expertise over time, and holding them in the function, improves CA capabilities as a whole. The fast-tracker strategy creates not only rapid turnover in the function; it may also create an incentive structure for the individual that may be inimical to building learning curves in the function. Fast-track generalists tend to achieve personal gratification and high evaluations by initiating new programs or approaches, rather than by institutionalizing and consolidating those begun by their predecessors. The rewards in most Western companies are greater for innovation than for institutionalization. On the other hand, for the company overall the advantages of the fast-track strategy in this function are considerable. Of the 'fast-track' analysts we interviewed, most stated that one of the things they liked best about the job was that they gained a strategic overview of the competitive environment and of their own company, an overview they could not have obtained anywhere else in such junior positions. Most said their way of thinking about the business had been permanently changed (in their opinion enhanced) by their experience. Even for the CA function, the long-term advantages of having fast-track managers sensitized to the importance of CA may well outweigh the continuing loss of expertise in rapid turnover. As one manager of the function pointed out, in analogy to marketing research, to understand the uses and limitations of any type of intelligence function, one had to have some personal experience of how the intelligence is generated. The production of managers with such an understanding may be one of the most important long-run contributions of the CA function.
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发表于 2010-4-17 13:29:37
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