0:12 hello and welcome to business lessons from the military I'm your host Kevin bemel and we are here every Tuesday at 10: a.m. Pacific Time 1 pm eastern time with an hour in for mountain and Central and uh my voice may sound a little bit lower than normal I I spent almost the entire day yesterday talking and the my voice hasn't quite come back yet but but here I am um business lessons from the military with my USS uh Ronald Reagan mug see that uh and there there's there's her Battle Flag um CVN
0:48 76 and uh ready to talk about intelligence the Spy versus spy kind um how we can use that part of Marine Corps Warf fighting Doctrine to Advance our professional lives so um we in in in this show we talk about um uh military Doctrine uh history the leadership attributes and philosophies of of of great military people now all by way of figuring out how can we apply this to running our businesses or to you know
1:25 helping um another business run that we're working for um more efficiently um more intelligently that's what we're talking about the last few weeks and and so on so um like the you know hopefully good military man that I am I have my PowerPoint because you you don't do things like this in the military without a PowerPoint of course and here we are um this is this has been a um a a somewhat um lengthy um presentation that we've been uh working on over the last I
2:01 think about five or six weeks so um everything we do of course on the way to wow shows relates to this graphic the three pillars of attainment and um we we operate primarily in the finances Realm of the Pursuits pillar but of course um oops um um our our self and our relationships always impact um our Pursuits indeed our finances and our work so um sometimes we delve into those um pillars and Realms as well so we started out
2:38 talking about objective the objective of intelligence um we defined it and then we talked about the inherent challenge of intelligence and how to deal with that okay um and then we talked about the characteristics of good intelligence and then the classes of intelligence okay and today so if you're interested in if you missed any of those shows uh feel please go to our YouTube channel uh youtube.com theeway to wow and you can see all of those previous episodes uh
3:15 along with um episodes of our other shows um we've been doing way to wow shows now for uh gosh um almost almost four years three and a half years I think so um we have a lot of um great topics there for you um that will help you figure out what does success mean and and how to gain that success both financially as well as um in our lives more generally So today we're going to talk about um three topics levels of
3:51 intelligence um intelligence requirements and then finally sources of intelligence so um excuse me talking about the levels of intelligence now um if if going back to um earlier discussions of Marine Core War fighting Doctrine one of the original Concepts we dealt with is the levels at which Warfare takes place and you see those here on the screen so tactical operational and strategic okay so when we talk about the
4:28 Tactical level and I'm I'm going to talk from a Warfare standpoint first and then we'll translate this into the business world so the Tactical level is typically where small units are actually going out they're pursuing um a a limited objective it may be to take a particular uh Hill that's sort of the classic one um but in in any event it's it's typically happening at the maybe the rif team or the platoon or perhaps the
5:03 company level okay this is activities in the field and and how they're the tactics they're using to achieve whatever limited objective they've been given operational then is is the next level up so at the operational level we're talking about coordinating probably multiple small units so that operationally their tactical activities are helping us achieve the larger objective that we seek in that
5:39 particular battle okay so think about tactical as a a limited oper a limited um uh limited activity to achieve a very uh small objective operational is the coordination of several small small tactical operations to a to to achieve a battle wide objective okay and then the next level up then is strategic so at the Strategic level
6:15 we're looking at planning and executing battles in order to win the war okay so that that just real briefly I wanted to review that so you can understand these three levels now you and and and and then understanding those levels then gives you an idea of the different types of intelligence that might be necessary in order for the particular units to uh to be able to achieve their objectives so what a platoon or or a
6:50 rifle team uh needs to achange to to achieve its tactical objectives is going to be very different than what the general of an army needs in order to determine and achieve the Strategic objectives of winning the war now it's it's not that knowing the Strategic objectives will not benefit the Tactical Unit leaders it it probably will because they'll have a sense of how they fit into the larger picture okay and and same with the operational um
7:26 however at the Strategic level the the general generally speaking no pun intended doesn't need to be aware of the tactics that a small unit Commander is using in order to achieve his objective okay he he and and probably by the way should not be involved with them he shouldn't be micromanaging his people that way okay so um as we look at this then from an intelligence standpoint translated to the business World okay so just this
8:04 morning um I read an article about Sherie Redstone who is the CEO of a company called National amusements now many of you may have never heard of national amusements but you probably have heard about one of the most important assets it owns Paramount Studios and you've probably heard of Paramount plus and Showtime and bet Network um and CBS television network these are all assets that are owned by national amusements at Le well at least partly owned by national Amusement so the
8:41 article was discussing what what that that well the article was was um was talking about that Sher Redstone um is um trying to decide whether she's going to sell uh her her interest in National amusements and and sort of get out of the media business and focus on other things non-media projects and her family or whether she's going to keep at it okay so in order for her to make that decision presumably she has
9:19 she has gained intelligence information about the overall media industry okay and not not just her own company not just Paramount and Showtime Etc so in order for her to understand the difficulties that she faces okay and and the the article discussed some of them for example um National amusements is is heavily involved in cable um cable television in providing content to Cable
9:57 uh companies okay Showtime bet Etc okay the traditional Cable business has is in what's called structural decline meaning it's not it's not um uh failing because of um you know bad shows or something like that it's it's it's declining in importance because um viewers are leaving cable in order to go to streaming services in order to um
10:32 watch videos on YouTube etc etc so this is a shift away from cable and they're not going to come back that's the bottom line so whether it takes five years 10 years 15 20 years I I I I can't say but over the Long Haul cable is going to continue to decline okay in the same way that um landline phones declined started to decline with the Advent of cell phones and have and has accelerated over the years to the point
11:07 where you see for example you don't see payones anymore okay so as she looks at for example the structural decline of cable and as she looks at the challenges of making streaming profitable okay she needs intelligence at the Strategic level in order to make those decisions and figure that out okay so how a particular show needs to be
11:43 launched I mean it's not that it's completely irrelevant but in terms of making these highlevel decisions tactical intelligence isn't particularly helpful for her okay she needs to look at the bigger picture right so for example example she needs intelligence about what is the Disney Company doing in order to make their streaming services um financially profitable okay Disney has lost billions of dollars over the last several years between Disney plus and um ESPN plus and
12:19 all these other things they have not been able to crack the code either on how to make streaming profitable in fact only Netflix um May is is profitably streaming okay all the other big players are not yet they they've lost I I I don't remember what the figure is but it's it's it's in the tens of billions of dollars I think since launching these various Services trying to figure out how to how to make money through streaming okay so um sh Redstone needs
12:54 to she needs to gather strategic intelligence in order to make those highlevel decisions now depending on what decisions she makes then operationally that will require a different kind of intelligence in terms of making the decisions about how to execute on that strategic Vision so let's just say for the sake of argument or not for the sake of argument for for the sake of um illustration that um she decides to keep
13:29 naal amusements and and and you know sort of dedicate herself to figuring out how to make these various media assets work okay so next she needs to what kind you know how do I make how do I deal with the structural decline of cable what do I do there is cable going to become something else am I just going to have to live with the fact that in maybe you know 10 to 20 years it's it's not going to be generating any kind of cash flow or profits anymore how
14:05 do I do that and again at that point she'll want to gather intelligence first of all what are other cable um uh content providers doing what what are the cable companies themselves doing okay like for for example many of the cable companies have gotten into providing Broadband um access broadband internet access ACC right and so even though cable TV as a business is in structural decline they may be doing okay because as people engage in more streaming they
14:42 need ever more robust broadband and so while you know cable is going like this Broadband is going like this and so on in some ways they're kind of you know evening each other out and the cable companies are can you know can stay profitable over all okay so she needs to gather intelligence then at that operational level okay in order to decide how she's going to meet her strategic objectives now having said that she may gather operational
15:17 intelligence before she makes the Strategic decision so she may she may need to have a sense of what will we need to do or what are the options for what we can do sort of battlewise operationally if we decide on one strategy or another okay and so typically um you'll want to you you'll want to consider um knowing or or having the intelligence I should say available to you at least one level up or down from where you're
15:53 operating now someone in the middle in operations is probably going to they're probably going to be concerned with both tactical and strategic intelligence because both are going to impact them since they're in the middle we I talked about a minute ago someone dealing at the operational level probably does not need to engage in in in tactical Gathering or or evaluating tactical intelligence okay on the other hand now at the third this third level tactical right so um once the operational decisions have been made
16:28 then the people the lieutenants if you will to use a military term applying it to business the lieutenants then they have to actually take on pursuing that that you know battle plan for the company and so they're going to need to gather um T tactical Intelligence on how best to for for example let's let's look at streaming so maybe streaming can be made more profitable or can be made profitable not more profitable because it's not profitable yet but maybe
17:03 streaming can be made profitable if better marketing decisions are made with regard to various shows okay so how can the people at the Tactical level do that well again they're going to need to gather intellig they they may want to look at at at show shows that have been streamed that have been very very successful right there been there've been many shows streamed shows that have been very successful it's just overall they haven't now switching from
17:39 Paramount to Disney for a minute one of the decisions that Disney has made with respect to trying to get their streaming business profitable is they've decided that rather than doing just tons and tons of content which um costs a lot of money to produce and and you know a much of which is not particularly successful and is not particularly good quality they're going to refocus on quality so make fewer shows of a higher quality
18:15 that presumably then they can Market more successfully and have a better chance of retaining streaming viewers etc etc so that's operationally what they've decided to do so then tactically how do they do that okay how do they decide which are the the shows that are you know that are likely to be you know result in a much in in a higher quality presentation okay so is it um focusing on particular writers is it focing on
18:51 focusing on particular genres how do they do that so what is it and what does it mean for for a show to be higher quality is that higher production values is that um more well-known um actors and actresses in the show so what do what does all that mean okay and so they'll need to gather intelligence at that uh operational and then down to the Tactical level in order to make those decisions okay and then to operationalize those decisions okay so that's how levels of intelligence play
19:27 into the decisions we make um you know in the business world now you may say well that's obvious that's just what we do yes I I I would imagine so however I think it's good to think about these three categories so that we don't get Lo if we're trying if we're working to make strategic decisions we really don't want to get too wrapped up in tactical intelligence because that could Cloud the picture of strategically what we need to be
20:03 deciding okay so if if as we get information in we can sort it into these three categories we can better we can make a better decision at whatever level we're operating at okay without being overwhelmed by too much information which is which is a big issue these days okay so let's move on now to intelligence requirements so here's the reality we never have unlimited time to make decisions now in some cases we have
20:39 more time than others of course but we never have unlimited time to make a decision okay talking about shie Redstone again so she's got to make this decision um and by the way deciding not to do anything is a decision right it is okay it's just a you know it's it's a decision to just continue on as as things have been going however um in in neither in the business world or on the battlefield if we're not
21:15 winning to continue doing just what we're doing is almost inevitably the wrong decision okay and that's the problem is is Paramount's share price has dropped considerably um and and investors are unhappy okay so when we talk about intelligence requirements what we are what we mean is what intelligence do we need in order to make the decision that needs to be made in the time frame that it needs to be made
21:51 okay and that will inevitably mean I will inevitably uh require I should say identifying intelligence gaps what are we missing in order to be able to make this decision okay so let's go back to the battlefield for a minute let's talk about on the Tactical level if you're a small group Commander you're a you're commanding a platoon okay and you're told that you need to take that Hill okay and one of the things you would really like to know is what is available
22:30 to the people you're attacking to defend their positions do they have machine guns do they have artillery right pretty much you know you you may not necessarily care how much food they have or how much water because that's more of a long-term thing you're You're In the Heat of the battle or you're you're supposed to launch your attack in the next whatever it is hour or two the most important if you don't know what you're going to be facing in terms of the defender ability to defend themselves you're really at
23:08 you know you're you're really at a disadvantage um in terms of planning your attack and making it successful okay so while there's lots of information you may want what you really need is to know what am I going to be face or what what is my platoon going to be faced with when we launch attack okay and so those intelligence gaps need to be viewed through the lens of priority intelligence requirements what is most important for me to know in the time I
23:44 have available before I have to either make a decision or take action to in order to make it most likely that I'll I'll make a good decision or I'll be successful in taking the action I need to take okay so when we talk about intelligence requirements what's what you know summarizing this um idea real just real fast is breaking it down into priority intelligence requirements this is what I I really have to have in
24:21 order to do whatever it is I need to do okay and then let's let's say that let's say that you've got uh a week in order to make a decision okay so if you if if in the first three or four days you're actually able to get the priority intelligence requirements filled right so but there's still going to be some other intelligence gaps okay so then you might go down to your second level intelligence gaps and see if you can fill those since you have the time to do
24:56 that okay you may even get down to your third level intelligence gaps but you're probably not going to fill them all in the time required um and and of course it depends but often times we you know the tendency is to try and you know cover as many of our bases as we can and we and in doing so we give up being thorough in understanding the most important issues so generally speaking we're better off focusing our resources on priority intelligence requirements
25:33 and making sure we understand those as well as possible and we fill those as well as possible rather than broadening out okay so we need to be careful in identifying the priority intelligence requirements among the multiplicity of intelligence gaps that we have okay finally sources of intelligence so the the key concept to understand about sources of intelligence is they need to be appropriate to the nature of intelligence requirements okay so I'm
26:11 going to take it to the battlefield first and then we'll apply it to uh to the business world so one of the big open questions about what happened on October 7th um in in in Israel between Israel and and Hamas is how was Hamas able to launch this surprise attack how could the the IDF the is Israel Defense Force not know that that this was being planned and and and and going to be
26:48 executed right and there there's a lot of speculation of course there's a lot of hand ringing and and blaming going on but it appears that at least one of the reasons is Hamas stayed very low Tech in how they planned and executed this operation so for example in in knocking down the barricade between Gaza and Israel they just got some bulldozers and went through when you know at the start of the battle okay so they didn't get any kind of
27:23 sophisticated um um um Munitions to blow it up or anything like that okay at the same time Israel was using a lot of very Hightech monitoring in order to know what was going on at that border so you see there's a a um I guess an imbalance if you will Israel's using high tech to try and figure out what's going on and Hamas probably on purpose is staying low Tech
27:58 so that the high-tech Israeli surveillance doesn't really yield them any information right so so that was that created an intelligence Gap okay that Hamas was was able to take advantage of okay and and it it highlights that there were decisions made if if this is in fact turns out to be the case then certain um commanders made made bad decisions in assuming that they could use high-tech surveillance in order to keep track on
28:34 on Kamas um and and and not even consider that there were ways to sort of hide what was going on from all this high-tech stuff okay so now let's take this to the business World okay there are lots of sources of intelligence in the business World okay one of them is is is is right here Wall Street Journal right this is what we would call Open Source okay so and and by the way here's the uh so here's I don't know if you can see
29:09 this but it here's here's the article Redstone Way sale a media Empire that was the article I read that I was just using as an example okay so open- Source intelligence is is great okay um but let's let's say that um I want was interested in particular in in talking with uh shie Redstone about you know a a acquiring National amusements right so while open- Source intelligence is all good and well it's not going to be
29:44 sufficient for me to understand the Dynamics of what's going on so I'm I would need to know now the article mentions uh two or three companies um or and and private Equity groups that you know have had talks with her um one of the and and by the way I'm not going to be launching you know I'm not gonna be looking to buy National amusements but but I'm just using this as an example if I were I would need to be connected into sources of information that could tell me as much
30:21 as possible about the the various negotiations or meetings that others have had to really understand the Dynamics of what it would take in order to be able to buy National amusements okay so open- Source intelligence just wouldn't be sufficient um and and if I don't understand what other biders interests are how they propos to take National amusements to and use it and and you know use it to to their profit then I could be overpaying
30:59 for the company if if I try to beat them out in a binning war or um I might um lose out to them because I don't understand the profit potential that National um amusements presents to them and so you know I I'm not willing to to bid as high a price as they might be able to bid so as well by understanding what they're thinking they're going to do with the company okay I might be able to you know meet
31:34 with SH R and say well you know such and such a company I I I I I understand you're having talks with them and and they're thinking that you know they're gonna buy it and they're going to do this and they're going to do that and and you know they're going to split up the company maybe and and sell off pieces and all of that and I don't you know in the long run I don't think that's going to work number one number two it's it's a desecration of your legacy or you know blah blah blah blah blah whatever whatever it is but having that um non-open Source intelligence if
32:11 you will um puts me would put me in a much better position to form a strategy for acquiring National amusements and would also inform operationally and and then and then down to tactically what I would need to do in order to make that goal happen Okay so th those are the three concepts then levels of intelligence intelligence requirements sources of intelligence you can see they all work together fairly organically to help us understand what
32:47 information do we need in order to make a good business decision okay so GNA stop the sharing here um so that's our show for today and um we will be back a week for from today with our final show on not only intelligence but on Marine Corps War fighting Doctrine so we've we've gotten through um really the the entire text this this is the book and by the way you can find a PDF of this online if you want to read um in more
33:23 depth about some of the concepts that we've spoken about over the last several months so um tomorrow at 10: a.m. that's our new time on Wednesdays 10: a.m. Pacific um we my guest will be William elams IV and he's going to talk about how he went from being an Uber driver to having his own private car service so uh I I think you will really enjoy hearing Williams story and so I invite you to tune in again new time 10:00 a.m. Wednesday Pacific time 1 p.m. eastern
33:58 time all of our shows now are at 10:00 Monday through Wednesday so we we'll we have an opportunity to be together at the same time each morning okay next week on Monday at 10:00 a.m Pacific will be the next edition of trust and Estates weekly and then as I mentioned we'll be back a week from today with our final show on Marine Corps War fighting Doctrine so I thank you very much for joining me I hope you enjoyed it if you have any thoughts comments please feel free to drop them um drop them in in our
34:33 uh you know social media all the links will be in the show notes you can always send me an email as well my email address is in the show Notes too always happy to hear from uh viewers and hear your thoughts good and especially bad how I can improve improve what we're doing and make it more useful for you so I thank you again very much for watching wish you a wonderful rest of the day and signing off Marie you are my bell all the best folks