SAICI Co-Executive Director Jay Nakagawa's The UnConventional Strategist Reaches International Bestseller Status
Jay Nakagawa, SAICI Co-Executive Director
Jay Nakagawa's The UnConventional Strategist
SAICI Co-Executive Director Jay Nakagawa's The UnConventional Strategist Hits #1 in Nine Categories Across U.S., Canada, and the U.K.
WASHINGTON, DC, UNITED STATES, May 27, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ -- The Society for AI in Competitive Intelligence (SAICI), a microsociety of the American Institute of Artificial Intelligence (AIAI), today announced that The UnConventional Strategist: Building, Keeping, and Thriving in Your Career — the new book from SAICI Co-Executive Director Jay Nakagawa — has reached international bestseller status, claiming #1 positions in nine categories and topping bestseller charts in the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom within weeks of its release. The book distills more than four decades of cross-functional leadership and competitive intelligence experience into a practical guide for leaders navigating an era of rapid, AI-driven change.
Drawing on Nakagawa's career, including more than 14 years as Director of Competitive Intelligence at Dell Technologies, where he built a global intelligence organization supporting over $100 billion in annual revenue and empowering more than 50,000 sales professionals worldwide, The UnConventional Strategist cuts through buzzwords and recycled frameworks to deliver what its author calls "real strategy, not strategic theater." The book examines how leaders can see strategic opportunities before competitors, escape career autopilot, make better decisions in the middle of chaos, and innovate inside environments that aren't built to reward creativity.
For SAICI, the book's reception marks more than a personal milestone for one of its founding leaders. It reinforces the intellectual foundation of the society's mission: forging a new kind of practitioner, the GenAI in Competitive Intelligence professional, who pairs disciplined human judgment with AI-native capability. Nakagawa's central premise, that "you can't outspend your competitors, but you can outsmart them," sits at the heart of SAICI's approach to redefining the profession around new tools and methodology, faster tempo, and a higher standard of strategic capability. The bestseller response signals that the questions Nakagawa is raising — about strategy, judgment, and capability in an AI-reshaped world — are resonating well beyond the CI profession itself.
"Strategy isn't a framework you memorize. It happens through awkward starts, wrong turns, and hard-earned scars," said Jay Nakagawa, Co-Executive Director of SAICI. "I wrote this book for the practitioners who refuse to operate on autopilot, the people doing the actual work of staying ahead. That same spirit is what we're building SAICI on. Whether you're leading a CI function, designing AI agents, or shaping competitive strategy, the discipline behind the work is the same. The tools just got more powerful."
"At AIAI, we build the professional infrastructure, the bodies of knowledge, credentials, and societies, that turn emerging AI capabilities into mature professional disciplines. That work depends on having leaders who already think at that altitude," said Dr. Al Naqvi, Founder and CEO of the American Institute of Artificial Intelligence. "Jay's book is a window into how he does it, and a reminder of why we partnered with him to lead SAICI. The competitive intelligence profession is being rebuilt around AI, and Jay is one of the few practitioners with both the operating experience and the strategic mind to help shape what that profession becomes."
The UnConventional Strategist: Building, Keeping, and Thriving in Your Career is available now on Amazon and through Barnes & Noble. Professionals interested in learning more about SAICI, the CGENAI® in Competitive Intelligence certification, or the broader AI CI community are invited to visit saici.ai.
About SAICI
The Society for Artificial Intelligence in Competitive Intelligence (SAICI) is a professional society dedicated to advancing the future of competitive intelligence through standards, certification, professional development, and community. SAICI serves professionals and organizations working to build stronger intelligence capability in an environment shaped by artificial intelligence and rising strategic demands. Through its certification and leadership initiatives, SAICI is helping define the professional standard for modern competitive intelligence.
Marya Naqvi
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