The Evolving Nature of Intelligence

  Business Intelligence   Strategy  

I write this as I sit on a plane returning from a conference with the Santa Fe Institute in New Mexico. For those of you who have not been exposed to the Santa Fe Institute, it is an academic research group that is dedicated to the study of complexity in a variety of systems.

The conference covered a hodge-podge of topics from quantum information science to non-human primate interaction, but really focused on the flow of information throughout a variety of different networks. While the conference topics did not have any direct correlation to business intelligence, it said a lot about the evolving nature of intelligence.

The fact is that as we begin to explore complex systems such as corporate entities, biological systems and quantum systems, at the end of the day it is intelligence that propels us forward in new innovation. While for many years now business intelligence within organizations has focused on the question of "what is," the questions that emerge from the study of complex systems is more of a question of "what will be." Those companies that can use intelligence to understand "what will be" are the ones that will be able to adapt to our rapidly changing environment.

We have been focused on the questions of "what is" for the past 10 years of business intelligence. At any given time, we want to know how many of product X that we …

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