Fans of Dilbert should turn to the next page, because I’m just not in the mood to have fun poked at me today.

     They gone? OK, for those of you left, today’s column topic is corporate intelligence.

     Darn, I can hear somebody tee-heeing in the corner. Hey! I don’t even want to hear the word oxymoron. OK, Buster?

     Now, we are actually going to have a serious business column about some people who want to help you find out ethically what your competitors are doing and how to avoid any illegal snooping they might do. ( This kind of corporate intelligence is not about whether Ernie down the hall has an IQ level warmer than the break room refrigerator.) 

     Corporate intelligence is of particular importance for South Florida executives who do business in foreign countries where the laws of protection are different and often much more lax than in the United States.

     For that reason, the Corporate Intelligence of the Americas Conference is being organized for November at the Miami Beach Convention Center. How the conference came together is as interesting as the topic.

     One organizer is Fred Rustmann, Jr., chairman of CTC International in West Palm Beach and a 24- year veteran of the CIA. His nine- member firm is a boutique for companies seeking corporate intelligence information.

     World Expositions President Dale S. Robbins Sr. approached CTC about doing a security conference, which later turned into the idea of corporate intelligence conference, Rustmann said.

     Rustmann also teamed with consultant Larry Casey, nephew of Bill Casey, the late CIA director. Larry Casey was close to former U.S. Sen. Malcolm Wallop, the Wyoming Republican who was on the Select Committee on Intelligence for 10 years.

     Wallop is chairman of the conference and enlisted Steve Forbes as a speaker and his magazine as a sponsor. 

     The group is working at signing up more speakers and hopes to have 500 exhibitors. Admission will start at $25 for the exhibition and up to $1,000 for the keynote speech, seminars and private receptions.

     During an interview this week, Wallop said a basic example of corporate intelligence is a supermarket looking at its competitor’s pricing and promotion strategies. The stakes for corporations include issues such as protecting computerized information and proprietary marketing strategies. International businesses have to figure out how they can enter a market and compete with less scrupulous competitors.

     On a basic level the problem might be guarding your briefcase so it doesn’t get rifled. At the worst it can involve governments helping them wreak havoc.

     The former senator has more than a politician’s view on the issue from being on corporate boards of directors, including Houston-based El Paso Energy Co.

     “El Paso, being a major pipeline company, has to run its pipeline through computers. Any power distribution company, whether it’s Florida Power or elsewhere, their computer systems are vulnerable. They have to take some care to protect themselves,” he said.

     Latin American companies don’t generally pose as much of a threat of espionage as European and Japanese companies, but there is a lot of piracy, Rustmann said. There’s also the issue of “teaching American businessmen how to operate in unfamiliar environments. You have a large variety of environments in Latin America and they can’t be treated as one. Operating in Panama is not the same as operating in Ecuador. Business intelligence is like a flashlight. It doesn’t eliminate any obstacles, it illuminates them.”

     Rustmann likes to quote Sun Tzu, the Chinese general of 2,500 years ago: “If you know the enemy and know yourself, you need not fear the result of a hundred battles. If you know yourself but not the enemy, for every victory gained you will also suffer a defeat. If you know neither the enemy nor yourself, you will succumb in every battle.”

     Rustmann said business intelligence can help pick a fight on your terms. 

     “The worst thing that can happen is you that you not engage.”

     Even Dilbert might agree.