ISUM Competitive Intelligence System
K e s t i n g V e n t u r e s C o r p.
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Situation 1
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Question by Chairman to Division President:
 “How do your strategic products compare with your competitors’
products in both cost and performance?”
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Division President’s Answer:
 “I don’t know!”
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Chairman’s Directive:
 “Well then, I don’t understand how you can manage your business. I
want you to find out where your division stands and then develop a
technology program that enables your division to lead. And don’t
forget ‘Blue Sky’ thinking.”
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Solution: ISUM Competitive Intelligence System
K e s t i n g V e n t u r e s C o r p.
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Situation 2
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Division President’s September Statement :
 “Every year when we begin our planning cycle, I ask whether we
know our competitors’ costs. And every year we say that we don’t
know. Once and for all, I want this question answered and I don’t
want to ever have to ask this question again.”
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Solution: ISUM Competitive Intelligence System
K e s t i n g V e n t u r e s C o r p.
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Knowledge = Information + Judgment
Knowledge blocks
consist of intelligence
plus knowledge.
Intelligence is corroborated
structured information.
Knowledge (below the
water) is >3x intelligence.
K e s t i n g V e n t u r e s C o r p.
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What are Knowledge Blocks?
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Knowledge blocks are multi-page spreadsheets,
which correlate value judgments and intelligence
about the properties of product (or service), economic
value and influence with market share, pricing and
other market and financial parameters.
Knowledge blocks contain
supporting evidence,
intelligence,
value judgments
glossaries and
use instructions.
K e s t i n g V e n t u r e s C o r p.
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ISUM Competitive Intelligence System
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Kesting Ventures® Corp.’s ISUM Competitive Intelligence
System is a managerial accounting system that is capable of
modeling manufacturing processes so thoroughly that plant
managers and engineers can use the models to optimize their own
plants.
Most cost accounting systems that have been designed for the
purposes of financial reporting are not useful for managerial and
competitive intelligence purposes. For example, period costs
assigned to products, which are typically >50% of product cost,
mask the comparison of alternatives.
Managerial systems are made possible through KVC’s proprietary
experiential modeling methodology, which converts value
judgments into numerical data.
K e s t i n g V e n t u r e s C o r p.
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Experiential Modeling
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Each project begins with thorough background
analysis. The client’s information is sorted and
corroborated to produce the client’s intelligence and
then supplemented with additional secondary
intelligence and engineering analyses.
Next, Kesting Ventures® Corp. designs a complete
knowledge block structure that includes all possible
manufacturing operations. This is required because the
processes of the client and its target competitors must
be compared with each other as well as an estimate of
the low cost optimum process.
Next, Kesting Ventures® Corp. writes the knowledge
block workbook.
K e s t i n g V e n t u r e s C o r p.
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ISUM Standards
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Kesting Ventures® Corp. forms a strategic partnership
with its client to bring all information, know-how and
experience into the ISUM Competitive Intelligence
System.
A critical step is the creation of the client’s ISUM
standard that precisely correlates with the client’s
financial cost system.
An added benefit of the ISUM standard is that it
provides the client with a managerial system that can
be used to optimize the client’s process.
K e s t i n g V e n t u r e s C o r p.
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Expert Panel Experiential Modeling Session
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All of Kesting Ventures® Corp.’s field research is
accomplished through intense experiential modeling
sessions with world class technology experts.
World class technology experts want to participate
because they recognize that they will have the
opportunity to learn a great deal. In fact, experts don’t
want to be excluded from experiential modeling
sessions.
Research methodologies, such as telephone
interviewing don’t produce the level of detail that is
required for competitive intelligence.
K e s t i n g V e n t u r e s C o r p.
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Expert Panel Invitation
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“My experience with other industry panels has been that members
enjoy the work and learn from the session. No one will be asked
to divulge any proprietary or confidential information, but all
participants will have the opportunity to interact with other
experts in the industry and discuss experiences and judgments.
Each panel member will receive a comprehensive workbook and
become familiar with the models and methodologies that bring to
the surface unique opportunities for optimizing manufacturing
processes.
Panelists comment that they ‘get more than they bring’ to the
panel session and leave with a better understanding of the needs
of the market in which they participate. The panel is not open to
the public and nothing from the panel work will be available for
publication. “
K e s t i n g V e n t u r e s C o r p.
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ISUM Competitive Intelligence System
Intelligence:
(Corroborated Information)
ISUM
Structure
ISUM
Structure
ISUM
Structure
Client
Intelligence
Knowledge
Block
Analysis
Knowledge
Block
Analysis
Knowledge
Block
ISUM
System
Secondary
Intelligence
KVC
Intelligence
Client
Intelligence
Expert
Panel
Intelligence:
(Corroborated Information)
K e s t i n g V e n t u r e s C o r p.
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Benefits of the ISUM CI System
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Most competitive intelligence projects result in a point
in time approximation of manufacturing costs with
very broad confidence limits.
ISUM CI provides a managerial and engineering
system that is a true knowledge block. ISUM CI is
relatively easy to keep current, which means that the
client’s maintenance cost is dramatically reduced.
ISUM CI costs no more than other competitive
intelligence research methodologies.
K e s t i n g V e n t u r e s C o r p.
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Include Kesting Ventures® Corp. in Your
Next Request for Proposal
The ISUM CI System
K e s t i n g V e n t u r e s C o r p.
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