1.1. Introduction

Volume 2 of Strategic Intelligence for the Future focuses on information, information research, analysis and the integration of information in decision-making processes. In the first chapter of this work we will, before addressing the technical aspects, attempt to demonstrate the role of the “information function” within organizations. We will consider this “information function” in a broad sense, that is information collection, analysis and creation from the results of analyzing “knowledge for action”. Although everyone agrees that the “information function” should be placed at the heart of economic intelligence, it is rare to find work that analyzes the role of this function in the “evolution” of organizations, businesses and indeed individuals. This aspect is especially important as in many cases, a part of this function, searching for and collecting information, is often outsourced or confined to internal structures remote from decision-makers. We will therefore analyze this function’s role, not in the classical framework of the intelligence cycle (or the information cycle according to the authors), but by exploring more deeply its impact on the behavior of individuals, which forms the substrate for development and the action of institutions and businesses. To do this, we will refer to different works in the information domain metabolism on the one hand, in the context of the individuation of actors on the other hand, and finally in epigenetics in the sense of their action on the world around us, as Joël de Rosnay underlines. We will thus be able to consider that the role of the “information function” is to become a vector for learning within the organization, lying within, in Vygotsky’s sense of the term, a proximal zone of development. Indeed, it is through learning that the organization will be able to generate transferable “self-criticisms” that will promote a new form of development. Thus, the “information function” finds a central place when it is the result of endogenous work, engaging all members in the organization. We thus reach a very strong analogy with the Japanese concept of “ba” and its impact on businesses at the level of their coordination, cohesion and efficiency.

1.2. Information metabolism according to Timothy Powell

The concept of a living being metabolizing food compared to the metabolism of information within an institution, was described for the first time by Timothy Powell in 1995 [POW 95]. Since this date, the “information function” environment has changed considerably. This change is twofold:

• – on the one hand, advances in technology which, in this domain, now trigger profound change;
• – the appearance of new governing systems, supported by methods and tools such as economic intelligence in France or competitive intelligence in the Unites States.

In this context, it is useful to revisit the concept of information metabolism by considering the most recent advances in the domain of biology and genetics, but also by referring to older work with roots in psychiatry and psychology.

In the analogy between the metabolism of food and information metabolism, Timothy Powell made the following comparison:

In this presentation, we therefore find the main stages of the information cycle as it is generally described in economic intelligence. This analogy reveals two aspects that will be important in the rest of this book: cellular chemistry as well as the aspect of taking decisions and taking action, rests in economic intelligence on a “maturation” of strategic information by experts so by human beings) after decisions have been taken. The macro and micro functions are analogous to cellular anabolism and catabolism¹ [WIK 18a]. The information function for generally describing this process is not therefore a simple recourse to documentation, rather it engages complex processes, based among others on expertise, lived experience and some understanding of the world around us. It should also be noted that Timothy Powell refers in a short bibliography to works on strategy [TOF 93, TYS 95], to post-capitalist society [DRU 93] and the value of information [POW 94, PET 92] but does not address the relationship of information with biology and the psyche.

1.3. Let us examine this concept in more detail

In a remarkable though sometimes contested work, Kepinsky, in his book Melancholia² [GRA 75, KEP 74], develops the concept of information metabolism at the cellular level. He develops a psychological theory of the interaction of living organisms with their environment, based on information processing [BIE 15]. He also believes that living beings are characterized by their ability to grow and maintain their own negentropy [WIK 18b], which leads to the notion of equilibrium, and in fact of harmony, in the sense found in Chinese philosophy [CHO 07]. The involvement of entropy in the system is also underlined by Germine’s work [GER 93]. But living beings, as Bielecki [BEI 15] underlines, exist under a number of conditions:

• – to reproduce and evolve;
• – they are constructed from organic chemical components, based on organic chemical synthesis;
• – to interact dynamically with the environment;
• – they are open, dissipative structures significantly displaced from thermodynamic equilibrium;
• – they conduct electrical circuits on cellular and molecular level;
• – they are hierarchical, open systems;
• – they are self-organized systems characterized by increasing organization over time; and
• – they are systems processing information, matter, and energy in a specific way.

In these eight conditions, we find a considerable analogy with the conditions that will influence the evolution of organizations (meaning businesses, institutions, etc.) and which are broadly considered in the process of economic intelligence. These should evolve and interact with their environment. They can include hierarchical or open organizations. They may also self-organize; an example of this is institutions or autopoietic networks [MIN 02, ZEL 01, ZEL 92] that change according to constraints in their environment. This analogy, which goes further than the one suggested by Timothy Powell, supports the comparison between living organisms and information which, in Kepinsky’s sense, includes anabolic and catabolic processes [DIF 18]. These processes are equivalent to the processes of researching and accumulating strategic information, then analyzing this to produce knowledge for action. This process can also, always by analogy, be compared to the camel, the lion and the child [WEI 10], stages described by Nietzsche in Thus Spoke Zarathustra [DOU 19, NIE 15].

1.4. Organizations and human beings

An organization, whatever it is, is formed by human beings the sum of whose actions will form the institution’s movement, its way of being; the institution evolves its richness through change. It is therefore important, always remaining with the analogy with life and its psychological interactions, to tackle individuation [ORT 18]. Various definitions are possible depending on the field in which this concept is used:

• – general definition: distinction between one individual and another in the same species or group and the society of which they form a part of, which makes them exist as an individual;
• – embryology: induction process that leads to the formation of complete organic structures;
• – linguistics: process by which a group is characterized as opposed to another group thanks to consistencies in linguistic activity;
• – philosophy: creation of a general idea, of a type of species within an individual;
• – psychanalysis: process of becoming aware of profound individuality, described by Jung [DUC 18].

1.5. Change within organizations via the information function and an epigenetic approach

Epigenetics [BER 09] is a new science that has been the subject of constant interest for 10 years or so [SCH 15]. It was popularized among others by Joël de Rosnay in his book La Symphonie du vivant [ROS 18]. Epigenetics shows that we are not only the product of our genes, but that we possess a real power to act on them. As far as this work is concerned, we will limit ourselves to indicating that an “unused” part of our DNA may be “motivated” to cause transmissible and reversible changes both to our body (health), but also to our psychological behavior. As Joël de Rosnay, emphasizes, the way we eat, engage in physical activity, our emotional and familial equilibrium are actions that will direct our health and personality. It is in this way that considerable research activity has developed asking how epigenetics can be used to act on a number of diseases, including among those that are not contagious [FAR 15, KIM 17]. What is particularly important at the level of epigenetics and its effects on ourselves, is that these actions are transmissible, but also reversible, in the sense that a change in behavior can have inverse effects and that (partial) transmission from one generation to another is not fixed and the “traits” transmitted may be lost.

But we can go beyond biology and since “epigenetics acts on a system as complex as living organisms, can we not apply it to complex systems such as the society in which we live, work and act?”, as Joël de Rosnay emphasizes. De Rosnay explains in La Symphonie du vivant how the principles of epigenetics can act on our societies’ DNA and therefore modify their expression. Among other suggestions, he suggests establishing a relationship between epigenetics and epimemetics to make modifications at the societal level, in businesses and in all forms of human organization. Social networks direct our behavior and create a “participative citizens’ co-regulation”.

This then leads us back to the subject of this book, the role of the “information function” within an organization and especially within businesses. In fact, it is from this function that the creation of knowledge for action will be organized, toward the business’ strategic objectives. But in our opinion there are two ways to proceed. The first, which is without doubt the worst, is to acquire information entirely externally, without being able to intervene regarding its content, coverage, or the successive repeats through which we learn to become better informed, to develop training and to create a serendipity which will in many cases make the difference. The second calls upon what we call the “endogenous information function”⁴ internal to the business, which makes it possible to create a climate of curiosity and surprise that will make it possible to confront decision-making consistently and endogenously.

Of course, not all information may be available simply because of the exploitation of varied sources of information by the organization, but if much of it is acquired through efforts from the whole of the institution, and it will create the “self⁵ criticisms” that will promote its mutation. Moreover, supplied by a joint effort in accessing information and analyzing it, the archetypes acquired over the course of the business’ past life can be modified, the “non-human” world, that is the business’ interface with the external world then becomes more understandable and generates new behaviors. In fact, the creation of an epigenetic dynamic within organizations has been emphasized by the work of Gómez Uranga [GÓM 14] in the context of multinational IT firms. The meme, or the cultural equivalent of the gene, is described as an “element of a culture (taken here in the sense of a civilization) that may be considered to be transmitted by non-genetic means, in particular by imitation” [JOU 05]. This is why access to information and its processing, carried out endogenously, within a business or organization will, beyond the evolution of archetypes, create habits that can be transferred by imitation. But be warned, this process is reversible and if the effort to acquire information ceases, regression will follow.

1.6. The zone of proximal development

The concept of a zone of proximal development (ZDP) [BRU 11] was developed by Vygotsky [VIG 04, WIK 18d] in the context of his research on the educational development of children. He believes that transmission is not always genetic, but that it sometimes may be cultural. In this sense, he returns to the concept of memes; a unit of information that can be exchanged within society. The concept of proximal development can, in our opinion, be extended to an organization. In fact, according to Vygotsky, three essential zones can be established:

• – a zone where the child can act alone, this is the equivalent of a business’ profession where information is normally known and mastered;
• – a zone where the child cannot do anything, even with assistance, so by analogy, actions taken at international level by a country to help its businesses with export. The Advocacy Center [WEI 06], created in 1993 in the Unites States to promote export is a good example;
• – a third zone called “proximal development” (ZDP) is also present. This is a zone where the child can progress with outside help. Here we return to “information function’s” role of endogenous development, where the business should learn to research, master and analyze some of the information needed for a better knowledge of its environment, its potential competitors (new arrivals in Porter’s sense) and above all develop a prospective attitude. It is from these elements that there will develop within the business a knowledge for action and from this “internal mechanism”, the business will mutate.

If we believe that some of the information function rests on the appropriation of technical objects (for example, acquiring mastery of software and IT systems that allow access and statistical analysis of information), we return to ZDP, where mastery of the technical object will occur through training, by analogy with the appropriation of the object by others. This is in step with the work of Pierre Steiner [STE 10]:

“Once grasped, the technical object plays a formative role in our capacity for action, reasoning or even perception […]. Incorporation: the user tests the technical object as a part of themselves; the object is thus a transparent extension of their own body (by means of appropriation), increasing their power for action and perception”.

The concept introduced by Vygotsky leads us to ask an important question in economic intelligence: what happens if a business sub-contracts the whole of its information research, even if the results provided to it are pertinent? In our opinion, the act of not practicing, and of not internalizing research, information sharing and analysis deprives the business of an important lever for its evolution. This also leads to a sometimes tricky question: where should the group (or, in a very small business, the individual) in charge of the “information function” be situated? It is clear, that to be effective, this function must be located close to decision-makers. It would be a grave error only to introduce too many levels of hierarchy between the information and the center(s) where decisions are made. The zone of proximal development and its impact on child learning can also be linked to the concept of the learning business or organization, that is with an internal desire to acquire the means of mastering all or part of the [WIK 18c] information needed for constant surveillance of factors critical to the business’ success [TAM 09] and the mastery of its areas of influence. Thus, the organization will remain in step with its ecosystem.

1.7. Conclusion

In the context of this study, we have not tackled the question of going into further detail about the relationship between the “information function” and its involvement in changing the behavior of institutions and businesses. Much headway is still needed to be able to understand how we could, using the theory of information metabolism, individuation and epigenetics, understand the impetus for change. However, these different orientations are starting to become the subject of research, which although rare, underlines the possibilities offered by such an approach. The “information function”, through its complexity and its direct relationship with strategy, is the Gordian knot of economic intelligence. Because of this, understanding this function’s involvement in the evolution of organizations, among others in the context of a technological evolution moving with increasing rapidity, is becoming a challenge. We wished to emphasize too that classical presentations of the information cycle or its use in economic intelligence, were reductive at least and merit deeper analysis. Bringing into play both the practices of the institution based on archetypes acquired throughout its long history and the involvement of personnel responsible for this function⁶, it indeed seems that understanding the impetus for change brings into play the interaction between these two aspects, hence the recourse to psychology and epigenetics. If, as Simondon underlines, the individual is in a permanent state of tension because of the relationship between the “non-human” (including technological) world and its deeper aspirations, change management will necessarily have recourse to deeper analyses and different methods from those classically applied at present.