Seeking information superiority: strategies for business in the commercial application of information operations

Information superiority is a condition that many businesses attempt to attain without truly understanding what it is, or how to get there. This paper presents an overview to help businesspeople recognize the road to information superiority, and some of the essential strategies to implement along the way. Information operations is a concept described to enable information superiority, when used with a network form of organization (as opposed to simply being networked). This paper describes information operations across their fundamental structure of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR); and suggests a separation between industrial espionage and legitimate business information gathering. A model for establishing information superiority is presented, outlining the importance of ‘cradle-to-grave’ implementation throughout the business lifecycle. This brings together key doctrinal points from the information security, information operations and information warfare fields. Supplementary material is drawn from sociology, risk analysis, and business management theory to complete the applicability of the text to business readers.