Crayon’s Competitive Intelligence Spotlight is an interview series of chats with intelligence professionals to get a glimpse into their careers and gain unique insight into competitive strategy. In this edition of the Competitive Intelligence Spotlight Series, Paul Santilli, Worldwide OEM Industry Intelligence and Strategy at Hewlett Packard Enterprise talks about competitive strategy:

ED: What is your role, and what does your company do?

PS: I work for Hewlett Packard Enterprise and head up the WW OEM Industry Intelligence & Strategy effort. I’ve been with HPE for 24 years and spent ten years at Apple Computer prior to that in various Intelligence and Quality leadership roles. I also serve as the Chairman of the Member Advisory Board for SCIP (Strategic & Competitive Intelligence Professionals). 

ED: Competitive intelligence (CI) has changed so much over the years, going from strictly manual to automated, and it’s more widely practiced. How do you see CI evolving over the next 5-10 years?

PS: It is apparent that the whole function of data analytics and strategy development has transformed significantly over the past several years as a direct result of the Big Data revolution. The number of roles at organizations in leadership positions around “data-driven deliverables” has grown significantly, as well as industry business development offerings around managing company data both from a capitalization and an intelligence standpoint. One of the many challenges that companies face is really harnessing the value from the data they acquire at the speed that is necessary to out-perform their competitors. I continuously refer to the simple relationship that the time necessary to acquire and act on the data has to be faster than the competition for any growth proposition. So the continued evolution of data science towards automated collection and taxonomy, accurate veracity assessment, and quick execution of deliverables has to occur essentially in real time. And having an IT infrastructure and, moreover, an organizational culture that universally supports this “data management paradigm shift” is absolutely essential to survival and growth.

Read the full interview on the CRAYON blog: https://www.crayon.co/blog/competitive-intelligence-spotlight-series

By Emily Dumas  Aug 5, 2020