The Problem With Competitive Intelligence Training

As the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) 08 Conference gets ready to kick off this week, it has me thinking -- can we improve the ways corporate CI practitioners are trained? Finding the right CI training formula has been one of the most persistent challenges of the CI community for a long time. No one seems to have been able to come up with a consistent approach to training new practitioners, and further developing experienced ones. A good CI training program has to transfer and reinforce the skills necessary to excel at CI, and provide employers with well developed CI practitioners. To date, the profession's approach to training has been inconsistent to say the least, comprising a mix of one-off courses, informal networking, and other piecemeal approaches.

What can we do to fix this? Do business schools need to be more involved? Should SCIP become a certifying body for the CI profession? What are the essential skills all CI practitioners need to possess? We welcome your thoughts.