Covert Influence: When, Why, and How Private Enterprise Should Think Like an Intelligence Agency

There are environments where playing defense isn't enough. In contested markets, influence is often the terrain-not the weapon. And increasingly, the private sector is being forced to operate like an intelligence service, whether it wants to or not.

Covert influence doesn’t always look like propaganda or disinformation. It can be a quiet whisper campaign, an orchestrated stakeholder shift, or a pre-emptive narrative seeded long before a contract or regulation hits the table.

When Influence Moves Into the Private Sector

In 2024, the Department of Justice dismantled a covert Russian foreign influence campaign operating inside the U.S., targeting domestic sentiment around elections and policy with the support of cutouts and fabricated networks (DOJ).

That same year, OpenAI and partners reported multiple state and non-state attempts to use generative AI for subtle influence operations-ranging from seeding content into online communities to shaping discourse around corporate targets (OpenAI Report).

This isn't just a geopolitical problem. As Engelsberg Ideas noted, private intelligence firms have now become the modern spymasters-offering narrative shaping, stakeholder disruption, and reputation-level influence operations for corporate clients (Engelsberg).

Influence Is Already Being Used Against You

If your organization is being regulated, lobbied against, shorted, protested, or positioned as a public villain-you are already a target of influence. The question isn’t whether influence operations are happening. It’s whether they’re being mapped, neutralized, or countered effectively.

Most PR firms aren’t equipped for that. Most legal teams don’t see it coming. Most boards won’t even know it happened.

Cheshire’s Approach: Strategic Influence With Discipline

At Cheshire Institute, we provide discreet influence advisory for clients navigating regulatory battles, stakeholder pressure, or reputational targeting.We help answer questions like:

• Who is orchestrating this campaign—and why?

• Where is the message coming from, and where is it going next?

• How can we shape-or contain-the narrative surgically, without escalation?

We don’t take on everything. But when influence becomes operational terrain, we help clients engage with intelligence-grade discipline, precision, and restraint.

Because in complex environments, perception becomes policy-and policy becomes profit or loss.