Tracey's blog . sales & marketing edition .

I read an interesting paper titled 'Memes, CI and Marketing: A Preliminary Framework' published by The Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals. Author Mr. David O'Gorman offers a logical theory whereby analyzing memes inputs collected from speeches, interviews, in-person observance, or writings of top managers one can accurately predict the mid-long term strategic direction of a given organization.

My thoughts: In addition to the competitive advantage we can realize by undertaking this type of research there is another key take-away. Given the topic of the paper surrounds 'competitive intelligence' it may seem counter intuitive to say this but, 'organizational transparency and line of sight' are critical to achieving our goals. Bear with me. Where do most plans fail? Execution. Therefore, if we want success... our vision, values, and direction must emulate throughout our organization. Every member of our team needs to be on board. For this reason I say competitors be darned. Proudly and loudly define the road ahead. As long as everyone's on the same page [and we're not broadcasting IP] our lesser inspired competitors will be playing catch up while we are running toward the finish line.

Citation:
Thank you to EcoAlign for publishing Cracking the Green Code: Using a Values-Based Model to Improve Customer Communications and Marketing. Not only a good paper in-and-of itself but also what drove me to investigate the research of Dr. Clare Graves theories of "Emergent, Cyclical, Levels of Existence" or in simpler terms 'psychographic categorizing system (the seven levels of psychological evolution)'. Which then led me to the 'Memes, CI and Marketing' paper I discussed in this post.