Market Intelligence

Interview with Paul Santilli. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SCIP. Chair Emeritus of the SCIP Advisory Board.


Jacqueline Sala


"My role as CEO is to develop Strategic Consortium of Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) into a global Intelligence Thought Leadership Association that promotes and equips the worldwide community with the knowledge and tools necessary to implement the data-driven Intelligence discipline. My priority is to both serve our expanding member community for individual and organizational enrichment and health, and to expand our presence and share the wealth of content and Thought Leadership on a worldwide basis."




Paul Santilli has an impressive background and currently holds high-responsibility positions. Here is a summary of his background and current status :

  • Education: Paul Santilli graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in Engineering from the University of Michigan and obtained a Master’s degree in Engineering and Business from Stanford University.
     
  • Professional Experience: Initially worked at several semiconductor manufacturing firms which led to 10 years at Apple Computer in various leadership positions, including New Products Development, IT Infrastructure Applications, and Quality Management Programs.
     
  • At HPE: Paul’s 27 year employment was pinnacled as head of Economic Intelligence and Customer Insights for HPE’s global Original Equipment Manufacturer (OEM) business. He was responsible for modeling economic and competitive intelligence and customer insights analyses, and presided over HPE’s OEM global Executive Customer Advisory Councils.
     
  • Strategence LLC: Over the last 5 years, Paul has also been CEO and founder of Strategence LLC, a consulting firm specializing in data-generated insights for strategy development, especially for SMB and start-up organizations.
  • Current Role at Strategic Consortium of Intelligence Professionals (SCIP): Paul Santilli was elected chairman of the SCIP board of directors in 2019 and was recently appointed  in 2022 as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SCIP, in addition to his role as Chair Emeritus of the SCIP Advisory Board. He is committed to strengthening SCIP’s mission and supporting the execution of its strategy “Enabling Personal and Organizational Growth through Intelligence”.
He is also a recognized speaker, author, and thought leader in the field of intelligence and insights. He has over 30 published papers on Data Insights and related Intelligence topics and has received numerous awards for intelligence and leadership recognitions. He regularly contributes in global industrial events as a keynote speaker, leadership expert, and Executive advisor.

We thank him for agreeing to answer our questions.

Can you introduce us to SCIP and explain what your role as CEO entails ?

SCIP is the world’s largest Intelligence Thought Leadership Association with over 10k members and 350K social outreach. Our Body of Knowledge consists of thousands of assets, tools and content related to the data-driven insights and intelligence discipline.
Our primary value proposition is to equip those individuals and organizations with the data and intelligence training and tools to drive innovation and competitive strategy for business, personal, academic and institutional growth.
 
My role as CEO is to develop SCIP into a global Intelligence Thought Leadership Association that promotes and equips the worldwide community with the knowledge and tools necessary to implement the data-driven Intelligence discipline.  My priority is to both serve our expanding member community for individual and organizational enrichment and health, and to expand our presence and share the wealth of content and Thought Leadership on a worldwide basis.
 
We are the “Intelligence Consortium for the betterment of people and planet”.
 

What are the main strategic objectives you have established for SCIP under your leadership ?

Interview with Paul Santilli. Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of SCIP. Chair Emeritus of the SCIP Advisory Board.
We have 9 distinct value propositions that all contribute to our overall goal as stated above – to be the Leading Global Intelligence Thought-Leadership organization.
 
  1. Established pioneer in Competitive Intelligence methodologies
  2. Recognized leader of Community Intelligence Thought Leadership
  3. World-class developer of Training and Certification Programs
  4. Establishing Global Forums of Intelligence Centers of Excellence
  5. Providing comprehensive programs around Digital Transformation and Data-First Thought Leadership
  6. Leading global repository of Intelligence Body of Knowledge
  7. Expansion of world-wide Partnerships and Intelligence Affiliates
  8. Pioneering Intelligence-driven Sustainability and Social Responsibility Initiatives
  9. Being the industry standard for Intelligence Code of Ethics

How does SCIP contribute to the evolution of the economic and competitive intelligence landscape ?

SCIP has undergone a major transformation since I’ve taken the leadership role – our name “Strategic Consortium of Intelligence Professionals” inherently indicates the expanding role of intelligence beyond the traditional Competitive and Market Intelligence applications.
This Consortium we are building consists of a vastly wider data-driven Intelligence perspective, including the global data landscape around Internet of Things (IoT), Big Data, and the digital revolution (transformation), especially important via a pre/post reflection of Covid impacts and priorities.

Therefore, SCIP builds on our Competitive Intelligence foundation and redefines the overall application areas as the “Intelligence EcoSystem”, whereas all data-driven areas are part of our Intelligence Thought-Leadership playing field.

Our resultant focus areas in this EcoSystem space now integrates Economic, Social, Market, Financial, Human and many other Intelligence areas into the landscape where data and insights are used to develop Intelligence-based strategies for greater impact and improvements to individuals and organizations as a whole.

A more delicate question, which of course you don't have to answer. "On the occasion of the commemoration of D-Day on June 6, President Joe Biden declared "France is our first ally". As an international expert in competitive and collective intelligence, would you have one or two words of advice for French players in these disciplines and practices ?

As a global Association, SCIP has established several partnerships with France in the Intelligence Space. France and the francophone speaking nations of the world are integral parts of the SCIP global expansion and collaboration community. These French organizations are helping educate and promote Competitive and related Intelligence applications to the masses and have been key allies with SCIP for many years.
As such, global (and French!) players in these disciplines should continue to recognize the importance of understanding the data-centric role in organizational and institutional growth and the resultant applications of Intelligence as being paramount for business leaders to understand and apply.  
Being a continued partner in the SCIP Consortium supports this perspective.

What tools and processes does SCIP provide to support business growth through intelligence?

SCIP has a vast array of webinars, podcasts and workshops that are continuously offered as part of our “SCIP Member Advanced Resources and Training” (SMART) Center. In addition, SCIP is rolling out our “SCIP Intelligence Certification” (SIC) program that offers 3 levels of Intelligence certification upon completion of a number of courses and testing requirements.
Additionally, we are also developing a series of training curriculum focused on Generative AI applications for various business applications and are coupling that with a new Executive Intelligence Education program for senior leadership.
 
Lastly, as mentioned earlier, we have a vast repository of extremely useful tools, templates, processes, presentations and related content in our Body of Knowledge that is available to members of the SCIP Community. Literally numbering in the thousands, this content has proven to be invaluable to individuals at both ends of the Intelligence-maturity spectrum – from entry to Executive Leadership personnel.
 

As a thought leader in the field of intelligence and insights, what emerging trends do you see influencing the future of the industry ?

As I’ve discussed, the world is a very different place than it was 20 years ago. And there are many transformational initiatives that are having tremendous impacts on not only organizational practices but on individuals’ behavior as well. Obviously, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is on everyone’s radar, but how to utilize these AI algorithms in the best and most accurate manner towards data analytics and Intelligence generation is really the challenge.

Additionally, the effects of constant (perpetual) disruption activities through the world (like pandemics, wars, and resultant supply chain issues, etc) requires our intelligence strategy to be anticipatory in nature, and the requirement of organizational flexibility in responding to these changes almost real time.
This is where tools like AI and Machine Learning can hopefully assist in providing that degree of foresight in order to better position companies for the future.
 

What challenges has SCIP recently faced and how has the organization overcome them ?

I view our challenges as opportunities within the global intelligence community !

We are rapidly expanding our sphere of influence and are growing our Intelligence Consortium through a combination of Partnership, Affiliations, and expansion of our Intelligence Centers of Excellence throughout the globe.

Additionally, we are focused on responding to our member community needs by offering more content around training, education, and certification programs that can further individual’s career and ambitions.
Add to this our further development of additional tools and resources, especially in new tools like AI and Generative learning applications. And we want to do this on a global scale with multiple language capabilities and diversity of Intelligence maturity perspectives.

Lastly, we want to promote the usage of Intelligence in Sustainability and Social responsibility causes. This includes not only preservation and improvements around Earth’s natural resources, but inclusion of human development and social causes like homelessness, poverty, and overall improvement in developing country resources and GDP.  
 

How would you define SCIP’s success and what key indicators do you use to measure this success ?

Aside from the traditional KPIs around membership, sponsorships, and related metrics, I would rather have SCIP be measured on our impact to the global community and how through our passion around data-driven Intelligence applications, we have made significant impacts to individual and organizational wellness and prosperity, and how SCIP demonstrates through action as being the “Intelligence Consortium for the betterment of people and planet”.

Perhaps you'd like to make a more personal comment ? The floor is yours.


Never before in history have we as a society, been faced with the level of information and data that is available to us. The speed and complexity of global interactions can impact and determine the rise and fall of huge organizations literally overnight.  

Only by harnessing the power of Intelligence from this tidal wave of data can one overcome global complexities and be able to not only understand, but to use these global fluctuations as growth enablers within their environment.
SCIP is the global organization that can prepare you for these challenges and provide you the opportunity to differentiate yourselves from the masses.

Learn how at www.scip.org and see how you can become part of the “Intelligence Consortium for the betterment of people and planet”.
 

Paul Santilli, thank you for accepting this interview for veillemag.com.