CriticalKnowledge takes a fundamentally different approach to the traditional title driven techniques on which search has relied for more than four decades. The essence of what we do lies in our ability to amass comprehensive intelligence in specialized areas in ways other firms cannot. Through our investigations, we develop intelligence with respect to talent in specific areas and build sophisticated assessments covering every relevant player and identified interest within given relevant sub-segments.

Intelligence-Led Sourcing (ILS) is a formal methodology that leverages a variety of advantages and advances in strategic intelligence in the context of human capital sourcing and deployment.

ILS provides extremely robust capabilities to source talent in the most difficult situations. It is significantly more precise, with substantially greater reach, than the title driven sourcing methods.

ILS investigations are highly 'target-centric', and concentrate, first and foremost, on developing an extreme level of precision through the comprehensive gathering of relevant intelligence. ILS methodology provides us the capability to determine with a very high level of precision exactly what we are looking for and analyze the specific pools we can access to get it. We develop an exceptionally high level of specificity around the strategic business needs that drive a given position through an intensive operational modeling process. This process derives from operational process modeling and value stream mapping in the context of value chain analysis.

ILS leverages an array of advanced Structured Analytic Techniques (SAT's) derived from analytic intelligence operations. ILS also takes advantage of developments within the intelligence sphere surrounding distributed analytic networks that allow operations analysts to construct collaborative shared pictures of critical issues. It depends on fusing multi-source elements from the intelligence gathering process into a comprehensive picture of a best-in-class target or targets and the key elements that define success in given roles.

Another of the key defining characteristics of ILS, and intelligence driven sourcing generally, is the capability to leverage so-called 'HUMINT' or primary source human intelligence as collection assets in the intelligence gathering process. In the context of increasing interconnectedness, globalization and advancing technology, CK has focused on building and exploiting a comprehensive distributed human source intelligence infrastructure.

A central characteristic of CriticalKnowledge ILS is consequently a robust, distributed global human intelligence infrastructure of more than 5000 sector specialized experts who provide key primary source intelligence.

This distributed infrastructure allows us to:

           Significantly expand and deepen the operational models we              develop in the problem definition stage in conjunction with our              clients’ internal operational personnel.

           Construct comprehensive market pool analyses so that we              are able to identify and prioritize specific market              segment pools based on the parameters of the operational              model.
          
           Funnel rapidly and efficiently towards specific key targeted              individuals who are precise matches through the deep sector              relationships these experts hold.

           Access intelligence and target talent on a highly localized, yet              global basis.