Oldie but goodie

The way to do Intelligence has its styles depending on cultural backgrounds, local geographic patterns and a country's history.

The way Japan does its intelligence is different from that of England, as this later is not the same as the one practiced in Germany.

It is not new that Sweden is among top countries when it comes to Intelligence Economique, or Competitive Intelligence for the Anglo-Saxons. Finland has its place on the hall of stong CI too. Now Norway is a bit different, they do their CI too, but in silence....yet they rule behind the scenes.

Scandinavian countries have a history of battles, wars, commerce and logistic. After all, life was not easy those days, as they were never too many, had to work out their own solutions to protect themselves against nearby oppressors.
They also were great navigators, there are signs of vikings all over the coast of America, both north and south ones. Commerce was a part of their culture, once they had to prepare what they needed, transport it, and stock it for the long months of winter.

La veille - the watching - is based on ODA principle: observe, direct, act. And it has been like this since men started their battles for all different reasons. Vikings did no different.

We then start to see this intelligence heritage puzzle fitting into the big picture. But this is based on academic analysis, simple A + B reasoning with the aid of Geopolitics which leads us to plausible conclusions.

Then the confirmation of all above paragraphs comes in a form of a simple set of laws. True ones, today part of scands' ties with their past.

It is a small postcard, that has been hanging on my living room wall for over five years, souvenir of a lovely trip to Norway.

In fact I had never seen it that way. I thought it was cool, funny, perhaps clever way to tell how it was done back on those days.... But then I read it again tonight and saw it in a different way...

Those old Scandinavian warriors knew it all about intelligence! After all, they were the ones responsible for their own conquests, be it in commerce or the batte field. The observation of the world, direction for further local improvements and all the plans of action to execute the tasks at stake have always been part of their lives.

It only proved that Intelligence is, above all, "un état d'esprit". So, here its, a set of rules that explain why scand's are so good on doing Intelligence, as it has been around for well over a thousand years!

VIKING LAWS

1 - BE BRAVE AND AGGRESSIVE
Be direct
Grab all opportunities
Use varying methods of attack
Be versatile and agile
Attack one target at a time
Don't plan everything in detail
Use top quality weapons

2 - BE PREPARED
Keep weapons in good conditions
Keep in shape
Find good battle comrades
Agree on important points
Choose ONE chief

3 - BE A GOOD MERCHANT
Find out what the market needs
Don't promise what you can't keep
Don't demand overpayment
Arrange things so that you can return

4 - KEEP THE CAMP IN ORDER
Keep things tidy and organized
Arrange enjoyable activities which strengthen the group
Make sure everyone does useful work
Consult all members of the group for advice

Voilà, if we put these simple laws into today's economic perspective, we have what to work with.

Amazingly compatible. Oldie but goodie !!!
Things have indeed been the same for quite a long time!

These laws made me curious to find out if we would obtain the same by checking out the code or laws of the Samurai...

But that would be a subject for another post!