Strategic Intelligence Management and Decision Process: An Integrated Approach in an Exponential Digital Change Environment

Introduction

The dynamic changes that are taking place in the current turbulent and disruptive environment of exponential change, have motivated us to carry out a conceptual review of the methodology to define strategies and supports for effective, efficient and innovative decision making, in order to allows the strengthening of the management processes and the leadership.

The current world is being hit by a series of very dynamic and energetic changes. Changes occur in a turbulent and disruptive environment, are occurring at an unprecedented rate, and their patterns are very difficult to predict and adjust to a previous pattern (Mafudza, 2018). This is a real paradigm shift in the vision and projection of strategies that are seriously affected by many different events of social, economic, cultural, technological and political. Thus, the environment in which businesses, public institutions and citizens interact is substantially different from what is known, and all have to face intense changes from all areas (Fernández-Villacañas, 2016).

In this new situation, the main catalyst for change and cause of this continuing acceleration is the digital revolution, driven by the expansion of the Internet, information technology and communications as well as universal employment, which is implying in turn the transformation of our lifestyle, of the management models and leadership. So, we are today intertwined in a process full deployment of disruptive technologies that are profoundly changing the business world, the decision analytics practice and society in general (McDaniels, 2019). Currently, the functions of prevention, anticipation, and early assessment of threats, risks and opportunities, constitute the core functionality of a new strategic approach. It seeks to optimize individual and institutional performance in complex and uncertain environments with highly critical factors, as well as developing adjusted to reality strategies, but that can produce results of high benefit provided through effective, efficient and innovative decision-making, a new management style and a new leadership.

This impact is even more noticeable in the fields of senior management, which requires decision-making processes to be fully timely, rigorous, transparent and credible in the face of growing demands from customers and the public. In this situation, strategic intelligence has become a key element, requiring a specific methodology for its collection, processing and use (Fernández-Villacañas, 2017). It is necessary to be able to build more probable future scenarios, anticipate potential conflicts and critical situations, evaluate future threats, reduce risks, identify future opportunities, discover hidden opportunities in the most complex difficulties, create added value, etc. (Clark, 2019).

In this context, the skills acquired by managers regarding the management and use of strategic intelligence in decision-making, are of great relevance and are complementary to the knowledge of the most advanced technological tools that support decision making. Therefore, emphasizing the need for trained professionals to analyse the information visually and strategically, especially with regard to the development and implementation of scientific data (López-Robles et al, 2019).

This chapter focuses on the revised study of the concepts of strategic intelligence management and decision-making processes, within the book Leadership, management and adoption techniques for innovation of digital services, with a complementary approach to the field of methodologies and of digital tools, and proposing new approaches to the turbulent environment of exponential change. After an introduction that allows the reader to understand the new situation described above, the chapter is divided into four parts. In the first part, the concepts of strategic intelligence are examined. In the second part, the systemic approach and organizational behaviour are reviewed as sources of significant doctrine to guide the organizational response to the exponential and digital change of the environment. The third part focuses on the decision-making process using strategic intelligence. Finally, the fourth part develops the analysis of the strategic decision and the management processes applied.