works

Don Heathfield - Russian Spy?

2010-07-01T20:37:57Z

Intelligence consultant arrested

It does not happen every day that you recognize a face you know well in the papers under the heading "CEO 'spy' with S'pore link". Someone I met on multiple occasions provided me just that experience this week. Exciting? Hardly!

Having worked in the global Competitive Intelligence arena as a leading Intelligence Officer and as a Director of the Board of the largest Competitive Intelligence association the networks are colorful and interesting. Sometimes a bit too colorful it turns out.

As reported in the global media, Don Heathfield (as we know today that might not have been his name) was arrested this week among 9 other people on charges of spying for the Russian secret service. Having dealt with Donald over the years at conferences and business meetings as well as casual chats and even personal lunches it strikes me how much one can be tricked into false identities or circumstances.

Not wanting to comment on Don's potential involvement before he might even be convicted, the shock sits deep as I was actually under the impression to have dealt with a proper company and a reliable, solid and trustworthy CEO of FutureMap (Don's business).

I still remember last fall when I asked him during lunch we had in Basel, Switzerland where his weird accent came from he responded candidly that his mother came from Eastern Europe. Something seemed fishy there as Don knew about my upbringing in former communist East Germany because it seemed odd that he did not mention a specific country in response let alone Russia. I clearly identified his accent on the spot but did not want to elaborate further for politeness.

Sometimes I wonder though what might have happened had I pushed him further and nailed the question on this Russian shade more closely... or whether I should avoid opening his LinkedIn page (that also shows my lose connection with him)...

UPDATE 2010/07/09

Apparently Don and his wife confirmed the claims and have been swapped with agents and spies of interest to the US in the largest spy swap after the cold war. According to a Boston Globe article Don's Russian clear name is: Andrey Bezrukov or Андрей Безруков.

"Bezrukov and Vavilova have two sons, a 20-year-old student at George Washington University and a 16-year-old student of the International School of Boston. Both left the United States in the past few days and are in Russia awaiting the return of their parents..."

"The agreement requires Bezrukov and Vavilova to forfeit their $799,000 Cambridge townhouse, all the belongings and cash within it, and their US bank accounts and other assets.

They are also barred from profiting from any book or movie that tells their story, a common provision in such deals in American courts. In addition, they agreed to renounce any right to claim Social Security benefits they might have earned while living in the country.

They also agreed to never to return to the United States and to abandon any claim to US citizenship..."

Blog Title Swap for Blogger Pages

2010-06-26T06:55:54Z

Change Blogger.com title position

How to improve your blogger.com blog in search engine ranking and traffic generation based on the position that the individual page titles have within the title string that you see in the browser title line.

Recently I noticed a dramatic drop in traffic with all my blogger.com blogs that I run in blogger.com (umfinanzieren.com,undebt.org, viertesreich.info, kopfgeburt.info, intret.com, collectedspam.com). When opening any of the individual pages (posts, click at the post itself and the dedicated page opens for this individual entrance in your blog) I noticed that they all showed the blog title in front of the title string and the blog post titles were hidden behind the title.

As many of my blogs carry quite some keywords to attract targeted visitors in general the position of the individual blog post page titles (the name, titles of the various posts when they are posted) they would hardly be recognized by search engines and thus ranked very low in the search engine rankings.

Or in other words: the blog pages, based on their title did not differ much from any other in the blog and thus could not unfold the meaning of the pages content and attract the targeted traffic.

There is a simple trick to find out how search engines read and display back to users what they recognize in terms of your blog's page titles. Go to google.com and type: site:yourdomain.com (whereas yourdomain.com should actually be your real domain).

The result page will list all pages as recognized by Google and here you might notice, as I did, that all individual blog pages are "labeled" with the title of the blog in general and the individual page titles might be positioned at the end of that title.

See, search engines consider the beginning words of a page title most important and rank the pages accordingly in their index. So, if all your pages carry the same content in the first 5 or 6 words of the title string, they all rank equal and there is no targeting of content possible. This diminished the value of your blog pages and content and dilutes the entire value of the blog and its concept.

How to change

Fortunately there is a fix that you can apply which does not require specialist knowledge.

Open your blogger.com account.
Click at Dashboard.
Find the blog you are working with.
Click Design.
Click Edit HTML.

In the window that shows the template HTML code position your mouse cursor and copy the content of the template with the keyboard keys CTRL+C. Open your favored plain text editor and paste the content there by using the keyboard keys CTRL+V and save the file on your desktop so you can easily find this backup copy later and delete when done (this is just for backup, in case you mess up the HTML code so you can easily replace the messed-up code with the original backup content).

Next you need to find the string that handles the position of your title string. It might look like this:

<data:blog.pageTitle/>

...or simply like this:

<data:blog.title/>

Replace it with this string now by using above-mentioned copy/paste keyboard commands:

<data:blog.pageName/> |<data:blog.title/>

<data:blog.pageTitle/>

Now save the HTML template by using the orange Save button in your blogger screen and you are done. For testing, open your blog and click at an individual blog post page title and you should see the targeted, individual title now in your browser top tab or frame.

It worked for me, let me know if it did for you or if you tweaked it any other way.

Another farewell

2010-03-03T19:39:30Z

Ending SCIA Board Membership

After a couple of very fruitful, active and rewarding years at the board of the Swiss Competitive Intelligence Association (SCIA) new ventures in my professional life dictate another mile stone to be completed.

With my relocation to Valais and the new challenge to build a new, global contract management function for the world's largest Contract Manufacturing Organization in Pharma, Biotech, Life Science I had to hand over my board membership to two new SCIA board memberswho are in fact very well known CI seniors and will enrich SCIA greatly.

To my former fellow board members Maarit, Urszula, Kurt, Robert and Thomas I would like to say: "It has been a great honor and pleasure to serve our Swiss Competitive Intelligence practitioners and collaborate with so many consultants, scholars and partners over the years. I will miss the friendly and productive, creative discussions at board meetings and in pubs, the gatherings at global SCIP conferences and the occasional chat in between. I am sure you will continue to have fun and success and be able to build this society stronger and more robust over time. You have become great friends, advisors and colleagues and I am proud having been part of the SCIA success story for some time."

To Monika and Chistian I would like to express my congratulations and thanks for the nice hand-over experience and our other encounters over the years as CI professionals.

You all are welcome at any time down here in beautiful Valais.

To the SCIA members, sponsors and partners I would like to express my deepest gratitude to be loyal, forthcoming, demanding at times and always friendly in any way. Serving you, learning with you, driving the Swiss CI community forward has been a pleasure beyond words and I thank you for that experience and the unforgettable evenings in Zurich the past years.

SCIA workshop

2009-11-25T22:18:30Z

CI Roadmap by GIA

As a long time Global Intelligence Alliance customer I have grown familiar with their services and impact. The CI Development Roadmap had helped me in my former function to establish a CI function for a global chemicals conglomerate.

This new installment of workshop, Competitive Intelligence Magazine article and White Paper on the GIA Competitive Intelligence Roadmap plus my personal experience with it in a corporate setting was sbject of the November 24 workshop in Zurich for the Swiss Competitive Intelligence Alliance.

As you can find in below's documents GIA describes a CI function's evolution in 5 potential development stages across 6 distinct success factors. The matrix they use compares the functions of CI organization, scope, process, culture, tool and deliverables.

As a global Market & Competitive Intelligence executive I turned this matrix into a sophisticated survey and program for my former management to determine the status quo of the then CI function, compare with best practice whereas the gap analysis resulted in firm mandates by these very executives.

Have fun studying the material and let me know if you have any questions.

Roadmap Presentation GIA
Ciba Case Study
Transforming into Project Initiative
GIA White Paper
CI Magazine Article

Markintell.com sold

2009-11-18T21:33:47Z

New Owner: Digimind

It is always hard to give up a project. Due to my career move this was a no brainer though as the new owner is on top of the CI solutions provider list.

Having created and grown Markintell.com into a global competitive intelligence resource with my own and the user's experience in the field it was a tough decision to hand it over. Here is my last message I posted at Markintell:

"Dear Markintell.com community,

Over the past couple of years you have come to know me as the founder and owner of Markintell.com, a regular speaker at SCIP and SCIA events, publisher of various intelligence related works and (some of you at least) a CI colleague and friend.

With a very recent career change I have decided to transfer Markintell.com into the hands of a very professional, traditional and well embedded CI solutions provider - Digimind. I was just not in the position to contribute enough anymore as my private live and career options shifted quite substantially (incl. relocation, new industry and job position).

Sad and nostalgic at first, both the personal changes and the new ownership for Markintell.com excite me now very much as you, the user, will be served much better from now on with valuable, frequent content and I can concentrate entirely on the new field.

As a member of the Board of Directors of SCIP I will still remain well connected with CI and continue to serve the global CI community. Especially within my function as SCIP’s Chairman of the International Advisory Committee (IAC).

Please feel free to follow me on the established business networks, contact me in any regard (both via www.thie.me) and receive my gratitude for having been an excellent audience to me on Markintell.com.

Finally, please continue to support the new owner of the site with ideas, suggestions, contributions and challenges to the site will continue to grow along your needs as CI professionals.

My best wishes for your future both personally and professionally, Jens Thieme (www.thie.me)..."

So, that was it - but wait: check out the very first post by the new owner and you will absolutely know that: more umph means more value for the Markintell community and this, my friends, is the best wrap up of a success and fun story for me - and undoubtedly a new era and success for Digimind and Markintell.com for many years to come!

SCIA Workshop

2009-11-17T21:47:43Z

Lean version of EuroSCIP

November 24 I will run a leaner version of the half-day workshop I gave in Amsterdam at the European Competitive Intelligence Summit by SCIP November 4th.

Hope to greet you there and this time I also hope to be able to run the show with Hans Hedin who needed to stay back home this time around.

SCIP BoD Election

2009-11-14T07:50:01Z

Board of Directors Slate

As every year the Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals (SCIP) elects new members of the Board of Directors.

Dear SCIP members, please consult SCIP's strategic plan and the background information on this year's candidates to support your vote.

As you know, the society will take a quantum leap after the successful, member supported strategic alliance with the Frost & Sullivan Inistitute has been activated. International CI communities will require more professional support, global and regional competitive intelligence events will have to be created and run.

With the help of the mentioned alliance and the elected board the SCIP/FSI teams will be in a much stronger position than ever to enable improved membrship and partnership services for vendors and academics alike.

Please cast your vote to have your requirements covered in the next years going forward.

This year's candidates are:

Michel Bernaiche, Dunkin' Brands, CI Practitioner

Paul Kinsinger, Thunderbird School of Global Management and Managing, Scholar

Peter Shaw, Midwest Employers Casualty Company, Executive

SCIP Amsterdam Registration

2009-08-26T16:30:10Z

Competitive Intelligence Summit

Registration for the 2009 European Competitive Intelligence Summit in Amsterdam, The Netherlands, is now available. Please come and join me at this conference which might become the largest Competitive Intelligence professionals gathering ever in Europe.

After last year's huge success in Rome (yeah, in the middle of the economic downturn shockwave) here is another installment of the European version of SCIP's annual CI conference.

Running a pre-conference workshop this time with my friend Hans Hedin of the Global Intelligence Alliance (GIA) I will be in best company with scores of global CI experts.

Check out the program here and register via the brochure or at SCIP's website.

SCIA Education Day

2009-08-19T06:34:18Z

Half Day CI Event

At the Swiss Competitive Intelligence Association (SCIA) we are preparing a half day event to support our national members in their efforts to gain traction for their Competitive Intelligence related career paths.

We were able to win quite a number of top notch speakers to the topic and I certainly hope that our members and additional interested CI professionals will join in numbers on September 29, 2009 in Zurich.

Monika Giese (Switzerland) will talk about a case of an internal annual CI education program at a large global corporation and focus on the implementation of the Prescott/Comai CI model there.

Stefan Schuppisser (Switzerland) is a leading business school professor and is just about to ramp up academic efforts here in Switzerland to support CI professionals and companies much more intensely as in the past.

Rainer Michaeli(Germany) will introduce ICI's options to support your educational needs as a CI practitioner.

So will Toni Nagle (United Kingdom) of ACI, SCIA members and interested visitors will learn about their opportunities to become better educated CI pro's from various angles.

SCIP will support SCIA with material and a featured reading/commentary via phone by Bonnie Hohof (US) of SCIP.

And finally Alessandro Comai (Spain) and John Prescott (US) will also dial in to introduce their World Class CI Model, share their experience in CI education and provide insights into career path supporting CI training options.

All speakers in the room and on the phone will finally join forces in a major panel discussion fed by SCIA members questions (via survey as mentioned above) and live questions in the room and from the sessions.

Event Flyer.

Join the events via this link.

SCIA Event June 25

2009-07-08T07:13:39Z

World-class CI Organizations

The Swiss Competitive Intelligence Association (SCIA) invited members and other interested Competitive Intelligence professionals to the 2009 summer evening event “World-class Competitive Intelligence Organizations: Academic Model vs. Reality” presented by Monika Giese, Basel (Switzerland).

In her presentation Monika provided exciting insights in her decades-long experience as a leading Competitive Intelligence executive in the pharmaceutical industry at Smith Kline, Roche and Novartis among others.

Sharing some best practice tips in terms of exposure within the own organization Monika introduced various models she recommended to develop and run Competitive Intelligence departments or functions within large corporate settings.

With friendly permission of Jan Herring of ACI and world renowned business school professor and Competitive Intelligence scholar John Prescott of Katz Graduate School of Business Swiss Competitive Intelligence Association (SCIA) members learned about their models to evaluate internal Competitive Intelligence capabilities, identify gaps and generate solutions for sustainable Competitive Intelligence operations.

At the Swiss Competitive Intelligence Association (SCIA)’s Education Day September 29, 2009 Monika will dive into Novartis’ example of organizing and running Competitive Intelligence education events featuring the world’s most known Competitive Intelligence consultants and scholars for all Competitive Intelligence professionals inside Novartis to excel in their tasks and Competitive Intelligence activities.

John Prescott and Alessandro Comai will also join (by phone conference) the Swiss Competitive Intelligence Association (SCIA)’s Education Day September 29 among some other high profile Competitive Intelligence scholars and other speakers.

Please find your way to Swiss Competitive Intelligence Association (SCIA)’s events via this events link. Monika Giese is in the process to establish her own business these days. John Prescott and Alessandro Comai are the authors and scholars of World Class Competitive Intelligence.

Feel free to comment or post questions on or about Swiss Competitive Intelligence Association (SCIA)’s events as I might be in a good position to respond exhaustively as a member of the board of the Swiss Competitive Intelligence Association (SCIA).