About 4Knowledge...
4Knowledge was started in 2007 by Dalene Duvenage after 19 years in South Africa’s civilian intelligence community as an intelligence analyst and intelligence training specialist. She identified the business opportunity for a company which provides generic and customised certified intelligence analysis training and consulting to the broader intelligence community as well as the private sector. I closed 4Knowledge in 2013, to go back in to the practice of managing intelligence analysis.
We see intelligence as a non-negotiable core function of all stakeholders in the knowledge economy. All organisations need to have “foreknowledge” to minimise uncertainty and risks. We have to understand what those issues and threats are that might impact on our operational and strategic plans. This requires skills in planning, collecting, interpreting, analysing and communicating information from various sources – intelligence that is on-time and on-target. These processes, tools and techniques are being applied in national security, law enforcement, compliance, risk management, security, competitive and general business.
Knowledge workers are those in the market who think for a living. They do research, analyse trends and markets, conceptualise strategies and products, and assess the efficacy of policies and processes. Knowledge workers require high conceptual and communication abilities to identify the salient issues and translate that to address the needs and requirements of the decision-maker. In short, knowledge workers provide decision support. They help you understand what the risks and dangers are, they look for multi-dimensional solutions to problems and they provide foreknowledge of the implications and consequences of decisions. Intelligence products should reflect an in-depth knowledge of not only the subject or issue at hand, but also the methodologies and thinking skills to map scenarios or direct project or operational needs.
In our four years of existence, we have trained nearly 600 people from 42 clients (government departments, private companies and NGO’s) from 13 African countries and earned an excellent reputation and goodwill among a wide range of clients and decision-makers in South Africa, Botswana, Namibia, Nigeria, Ethiopia, Uganda, Malawi etc.
In addition to learning opportunities, 4Knowledge also provide consulting services which include:
- customised OSINT reports to analysts and decision makers to assist in the situational awareness of their mandate area. The SA Intelligencer is an example of what we can do for you.
- setting up analysis and intelligence units with the proper processes and products that will make your intelligence unit a value asset for your organisation
- a bureau-type analysis service to clients who have limited analytical resources. We use state-of-the-art analysis tools such as Starlight Visualisation Suite to provide you with a comprehensive strategic and operational perspective of your problem and intelligence issues.