Shell’s mention of CI in its antitrust primer (Question 9)



Sample Training GuideCompetitive IntelligenceGlossarydisinformationmarket researchcounter-intelligenceintelligence mappingantitrust or anti-competitive practicescompetitive intelligenceunethicalEconomic Espionage ActResourcesSCIPASICBelow are 20 examples of competitive intelligence, where Company A and Company B are competitors. Review the list and answer the following questions: a) Are there examples listed that you feel do not qualify as competitive intelligence? If so, explain why for each. b) Are there examples of competitive intelligence missing from the list? Add the examples and briefly explain why each belongs. c) What legal issues, if any, arise in each example? For which of the 20 should you approach counsel or someone else for advice?d) Which of the examples aren’t illegal but are unethical? Which examples are both legal and ethical? Use your answers to distinguish ethical from unethical behavior.e) For each of the 20 examples, consider whether you or your organization engages in or otherwise benefits from the specific act of competitive intelligence. If so, has what you’ve learned in this module convinced you to change or end the behavior? Why?1) Company A hires a consultant to visit Company B's facilities and report back with any valuable, nonpublished information. The manner in which the consultant gains access to Company B avoids any suggestion that Company A will receive a report about Company B's facilities. 2) Company A hires a market research firm to acquire valuable, nonpublished information about Company B. The specific manner in which the firm acquires the information is to outfit one of its researchers with business cards, letterhead, and other materials suggesting she is a purchaser with a (fictitious) company seeking to buy Company B's products. The woman visits Company B and, under the pretense that her (fictitious) employer is a potential new customer, asks the questions necessary to obtain the information Company A seeks. 3) A one-year initiative is developed by the industry trade association to which Company A and Company B belong. The initiative will involve participants from 13 other companies and intends to promote the industry's interests. Because the initiative will require confidential discussions about some parts of companies' strategic plans, each participant is required to sign a nondisclosure agreement. Company A executives, in a meeting with the employee who will be the company's delegate to the initiative, tell him to use his position to gather valuable, nonpublished information about Company B. 4) Company A learns that Company B is interviewing applicants for an important job. Company A asks a loyal employee, who has no intention of leaving Company A, to apply for the job on the (false) pretense that he is dissatisfied with Company A. He uses the interview process to gather valuable, nonpublished information about Company B and to spread disinformation about Company A.5) Company A is hiring for a specific job. An employee from Company B applies for the job. Company A hires the employee from Company B. Though Company B required the employee to sign a nondisclosure agreement, Company A presses the new employee to share valuable, nonpublished information about Company B that qualifies as proprietary based on the language of the nondisclosure agreement. 6) Company A (falsely) publishes it is hiring workers for a desirable job--in reality there is no job available. Employees from Company B apply for the job. Company A uses the interview process to press the Company B employees for valuable, nonpublished information about Company B. 7) Company A has a summer internship program that hires full-time M.B.A. candidates from a high-profile business school. Company A asks one of the interns to gather valuable published and nonpublished information on Company B. Company A asks the intern to present himself as a student doing research as part of his academic program and to avoid any suggestion that the information will go to Company A. 8) Company A has developed relationships with key securities analysts among the world's largest investment firms. Analysts often specialize in a certain industry and benefit greatly from access to important employees in companies from the industry. Company A persuades a key analyst to provide valuable, nonpublished information about Company B in exchange for Company A providing exclusive, valuable information about itself that will help the analyst prepare uniquely superior industry forecasts. 9) Some up-and-coming managers in Company A have developed relationships with executive recruiters/headhunters. Recruiters often specialize in a certain industry and benefit greatly from access to important employees in companies from the industry. Company A persuades a key recruiter to provide valuable, nonpublished information that she gathers about Company B in exchange for Company A committing to use the recruiter for its next lucrative executive search. 10) One of Company A's distant subsidiaries buys products from Company B. Company A asks its colleagues at the subsidiary to use their position as a customer to learn valuable, nonpublished information about Company B and then share it with Company A. 11) Company A's salespersons embark on a customer satisfaction initiative. They approach customers who also buy from Company B and, in exchange for specific commitments to improve service, gingerly ask the customers for valuable, nonpublished information about Company B. 12) Company A and Company B are collaborating with other companies on a government-sponsored R&D initiative. Though the initiative requires each participant to sign a nondisclosure agreement, Company A asks its delegate to seek and then report back valuable, nonpublished information about Company B. 13) Company A approaches Company B with a (false) proposal to merge the two companies--in reality Company A has no intention to merge. Company A manipulates the valuation and due diligence process such that moving forward requires Company B to provide valuable, nonpublished information. 14) Company A is a very important customer of several industry suppliers who also serve Company B. Company A carefully leverages its power as a customer to ask each supplier to provide valuable, nonpublished information about Company B. 15) Company A and Company B each receive a request for proposal from a state government for a large contract. Given that it’s a government contract, all bids will be made public after the award. Company A chooses not to submit a proposal but Company B does. After the contract is awarded, Company A contacts the state and legitimately arranges to pay for copies of each of the proposals. The state purchaser affirms the request but adds that Company B's proposal is stamped "proprietary," leaving it available for public view but unavailable for photocopy. Company A sends an employee to the state capital to read and take notes on the content of Company B's proposal. 16) An employee of Company A telephones key departments within Company B, carefully asking questions (under a variety of false means) intended to produce valuable, nonpublished information about Company B. Company A pursues its goal by seeking young, new, and/or na?ve Company B employees who may understand the implications of revealing the valuable information. 17) Company A asks an attractive young woman in its marketing department to complete a special assignment. It moves her temporarily to the city where Company B is headquartered. Company A prepares a (false) rèsumé for the woman that she uses to earn a job as a waittress in the exclusive restaurant down the street from Company B's headquarters. The woman—over time, presenting herself only as a “witless” waitress, and by offering alcohol liberally—charms Company B employees into revealing valuable, nonpublished information that she brings back to Company A. 18) Company A identifies a consultant who earlier this year completed work for Company B. Company A hires the consultant for a project that requires her to reveal valuable, nonpublished information that she learned about Company B. 19) Company A and Company B are headquartered in the same geographic area, where many persons travel to work via train. Company A learns that two, important Company B managers travel on a certain train each morning. Company A sends one of its employees to ride the train as a means for gathering valuable, nonpublished information that rises in conversation between the two Company B managers. 20) Company A faxes a (false) key strategy document to Company B under the pretense that the fax was intended for an important customer both companies serve. In reality, the document contains false information and is an act of disinformation by Company A. ................
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