Information and
Business Intelligence Culture in Europe

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Contrary to popular belief, the Business Intelligence concepts were invented by the Europeans, not the Americans. Our historical heritage holds a wealth of good practices that simply require updating to the flavour of the month. Yves-Michel Marti researches the European Information and Business Intelligence culture openly as on-going work and is a keen recipient of additional information or inconsistencies.

The various plague epidemics that ravaged Europe during the Middle Ages convinced the English rulers that they no longer had the human resources (soldiers and craftsmen) to back up their ambitious territorial policy on the continent.

Towards the end of the 16th century, Queen Elizabeth I decided that the English might would be built on "information and trade". She even had herself represented by the corresponding allegorical symbols in official portraits. She asked Francis Bacon, one of the greatest philosophers of the day, to design a master plan for an efficient intelligence service. Francis Bacon would publish this as a philosophical novel, The New Atlantis, in which he describes a prosperous island of traders who organise secretly the gathering and processing of external information. This system may seem somewhat Taylorian to our modern eyes, but it has the advantage of promoting those information gatherers known as "merchants of light". It also envisages a specific organisation to action concrete projects based on the information and lessons learned.

Later on, these principles would lay the foundations for the Royal Society, that outstanding technology intelligence tool. The issue then was understanding the technology of the chronometer, used to calculated longitude accurately and therefore essential for long-haul navigation. The Royal Society financed English students for centuries in the best European universities, as well as scientific expeditions such as Cook’s voyage to the Pacific.

The information processing principle has not changed: outline presented before kick-off, a written report checked by a panel of experts, oral presentation to a large, critical audience, dialogue, debate and a magazine question and answer column.

Thanks to an intelligence system siphoning reports from thousands of informers, the English managed to maintain their grip on colonial India with a relatively small number of civil servants and soldiers.

Intelligence is therefore part of the make-up of the English ruling classes at the highest level. It is a far cry from the disgust of some high-ranking French civil servants who view such practices as degrading and compromising.

Cooperation between the State and business is made easier by the academic old-boy networks. Thus, information acquired by Lloyds insurance offices throughout the world was sent back to the Foreign Office.

Armed with this tradition, the English practice a hard-line, highly-aggressive business intelligence; one example is British Airways highjacking Virgin Airways’ customer database, another Shell and British Petroleum using the Hakluyt consultancy firm to plant informers inside Greenpeace.

Although the City of London consumes a vast amount of financial information, it rarely uses Business Intelligence. Sectorial information is very much in demand, but there is little requirement for “grey” information on targeted companies.

This may be explained by the fact that it is not necessarily an advantage to prove everyone wrong when playing the stock market. It is far better to be an intelligent follower and stick with the major trends. The press is more than enough for this. The specialist firm, Williams Inference, specialises in detecting weak signals in mass circulation magazines.

The Italian City States all relied heavily on intelligence. The Genoa police systematically debriefed foreign sailors. The Republic of Venice maintained a network of upper-class prostitutes to debrief visiting personalities.

The Venetian arsenals had developed a parallel engineering system (seemingly inspired by Carthage), allowing them to building galleys at record speed. This was a closely-guarded secret. Outsiders had no chance of making physical contact with workers familiar with the secret process, for the arsenals were laid out in virtually impenetrable concentric circles that the workers never left and in which they lived and worked.

These parallel engineering techniques were marketed in Europe by American firms as the latest and greatest innovation.

The Italians nevertheless saw their technical information being stolen, like the Murano glass manufacturing processes.

It is common practice in the Italy of today to share information between numerous specialised regional industrial centres. Relations between business and the State are however virtually nil in Business Intelligence, although a first meeting was held a few months ago to study cooperation opportunities between the public and private sectors.

We believe that the Italians have a natural talent for Business Intelligence and that we have much to learn from them.

There is a long-forgotten Portuguese tradition of intelligence dating back to Henry the Navigator, the brother of the King of Portugal. He set up a intelligence system for marine technologies which gave the Portuguese a distinct advantage for almost a century.

The silk and spice trade with China was then the issue at stake. Arab and Persian merchants controlled this trade and demanded exorbitant customs’ duties. Several attempts were made to avoid them by sailing round Africa, but they all foundered at Cape Bojador on the West African coast which seemed impassable. Sailors believed then that the Earth was flat and that beyond Cape Bojador the ocean waters flowed into an intersidereal void.

Henry the Navigator therefore decided to set up a technology watch centre in a southern Portuguese castle. Here he assembled the best Europe had to offer in shipbuilding, map-making, astronomy and so on. He required his captains to maintain meticulous logs, detailing the most minor difficulties. The captains subsequently had to report to a gathering of experts who analysed the problem and suggested new technical solutions. The caravel was the result of these intensive debriefings over several decades, a vessel capable of sailing into the wind and very cheap to build.

Portugal was thus the first nation to open up trading posts in India. The Portuguese Jesuit, Matteo Ricci, was one of the first to establish relations at high level in the Chinese Imperial Court.

If you ask the Germans whether they know or practice Business Intelligence, their response implies that they do not. But if you fine tune the questions in terms of actual practices, it becomes clear that Business Intelligence is simply part of their everyday life. For them it is just "good marketing".

For example, German employers have been logging information on Eastern European decision-makers for over one hundred years.

One public-private collaboration dates back to the First World War. The Kaiser’s generals knew the production processes and capacities of French factories insured by German insurance companies.

Our investigations suggest that Business Intelligence is only practised by major companies. However, overall, little progress appears to have been made on this topic.

This could be explained by the lack of a true military tradition, and therefore the absence of collusion with political and military intelligence.

This may be compared with the German situation, for the Northern European merchant guilds created the "Hanseatic Leagues" to organise their trade.

To build up networks of trust designed for the sharing of information, merchant families exchanged their heirs who spent several years learning the business with the families of fellow merchants in other towns.

Powerful connivance networks exist in Switzerland, created during tours with the Swiss Army reserves throughout professional life.

However, even more surprising is the paranoia surrounding secrecy. Apparently a double hierarchy system exists in some Swiss banks - a leadership hierarchy and an informer hierarchy. Every decision-maker is monitored by a member of his department, a bit like the Soviet commissars.

Switzerland is also the European country with the most Anglo-Saxon firms due to the presence of the major multinationals.

The notion of National Defence has been extended legally in Sweden and now embraces almost 80% of industry. 80% of Swedish industry can therefore benefit from information supplied by government departments.

The Wallenberg industrial dynasty was thus organised around business intelligence, with a powerful international network of informers.

Spain’s conquest of the Americas made it a super-rich nation, a bit like some of today’s Gulf States. The King had formed the "Casa de Oro", which recorded all gold transactions and which provided business intelligence on other European countries.

There is an astonishing naivety about Business Intelligence in Spain. Note particularly the strong family networks and powerful Opus Dei, a sort of super-power of intelligence (it comprises 100,000 influential figures in 475 universities, 604 newspapers and magazines, 52 radio and television networks, 38 press agencies and twelve film production companies).

Remember that Spanish businessmen are very focused on Latin America and could be our natural allies on this continent.

France is a rich country, which prior to Louis XIV accounted for one third of the European population.

When you are rich and powerful you have no cause for anxiety or need to join forces with someone else. France has long been depicted by the autarchic farmer tending his fields.

And yet business intelligence examples do exist.

The French bank Crédit Lyonnais and the Pereire brothers manufacturing dynasty were extensive users of business intelligence in the late 19th century.

When railway lines were being built across the country, the French national railway company (SNCF) required accurate information on regional economic potential to plan its infrastructure. Every station master doubled as an information officer, as he was required to send a detailed economic report on the activities in his region every fortnight.

After years of debate and little action, it is generally admitted that the majority of major companies in France today have introduced structures devoted to Business Intelligence, with small and medium-sized companies beginning to follow suit.

France also occupies a unique position in terms of training, for the number of diplomas awarded in this field at master level is snowballing. There was cause for concern a few years ago over job openings for recent graduates, but this proved groundless and the average level of students is increasing.