From that bit of information, the salesperson was able to determine which product his competitor was pitching and to tailor his

From: Richard Sampson <rjsa@sprintmail.com> Subject: IP: Casual Talk Can Produce Wealth of Corporate Intelligence Data Date: Tue, 08 Sep 1998 22:42:21 -0400 To: "ignition-point@majordomo.pobox.com" <ignition-point@majordomo.pobox.com> Casual Talk Can Produce Wealth of Corporate Intelligence Data Sep. 6 (The Record/KRTBN)--"Spies are the most important element in war, " Sun Tzu wrote in "The Art of War," "because upon them depends an army's ability to move." The man in this story is one such spy, but his battlefield isn't a blood-soaked Third World country, and his army wears no uniforms and carries no guns. His battlefield is the grand panorama of world commerce, his army a well-known, high-tech company in North Jersey. This man -- he spoke on condition of anonymity -- for four years has been the company's director of competitor intelligence. His job is to study competitors and gather information his company can use to make strategic decisions on everything from mergers to new-product launches to pricing. Unlike covert operatives -- who engage in all sorts of skulduggery to gather information, from phone taps to undercover work -- he relies on public sources: the Internet, government documents, published reports, and trade shows. Beyond that, his greatest resource is the eyes and ears of company employees: the salesman who regularly encounters competitors on the plane, the executive who hobnobs with officers from other high-tech companies, the company spokesman who deals with the media, the secretary who answers the phone. "Eighty percent of what you need to know about your competition is already in your company," he said. "You just don't know where it is." On the Internet, this corporate spy will monitor competitors' Web sites, and also his company's own, using software tools that allow him to determine who is visiting the site and which pages they're viewing. Since many competitors use aliases, additional research is necessary to determine who is targeting the site. He also monitors chat groups on the Web to determine who is discussing his company in cyberspace. Within the company itself, "several dozen" people are assigned competitive intelligence functions, including human resources personnel, secretaries, and press officers. But everybody is in on it. Airline tickets issued to employees carry a suggestion to be "competitor aware," a subtle reminder to keep eyes and ears open at all times and to make sure they don't inadvertently leave documents where competitors can find them. And, according to the spy, it works. Here's how: In one instance, a salesperson preparing to demonstrate a product for a customer was asked if any special equipment was needed. When the salesperson requested a specific type of monitor, the customer said it wouldn't be a problem, since a competing high-tech company had recently requested the identical monitor. presentation to point out the weaknesses in the competitor's product, allowing him to close the sale. In another instance, a salesperson called up a customer and discovered that another company had begun offering a deep discount on a competing product. The move was initially interpreted as a "full court press" to gain market share, and the company began contemplating deep discounts of its own. But within 24 hours, the competitive intelligence unit -- using media reports and the Internet -- was able to determine that the competitor was trying to decide whether to discontinue the product. Salespeople were dispatched with instructions to inform customers of that fact -- a so-called FUD mission, since it instills "fear, uncertainty, and doubt" in customers -- and a potentially devastating price war was averted. "It was a bullet avoided," he said. The corporate spy's true forte, however, is the trade show, where dozens of companies gather to hawk their wares, and schmoozing is the order of the day. As many as a dozen operatives will be employed to gather information at a trade show, each one assigned to a specific exhibition booth, panel discussion, or press conference. One might sidle up to a human resources representative at a competitor's exhibition booth, start a conversation about the difficulty of finding good employees, and walk away minutes later with the number of employees the company hired for a specific unit. Another might collar a reporter for the trade press and pump him for information. Another might be assigned to stake out the restaurant where the executives from a competing company gather for breakfast every morning. Another might hurl questions at a competing executive who is speaking at a panel discussion. "A lot of times you can ask them a question from the floor," he said. "You never hear them say, 'Who do you work for again?' " Within 24 to 48 hours, all the operatives will write down what they have learned, which is then analyzed and condensed into a document for distribution within the company. The corporate spy says his operatives adhere to a strict ethics code that prohibits them from misrepresenting who they are and what they are doing. The code also prohibits theft, trespassing, and other illegal acts. But he said the inability of most people to refrain from casual conversation with a friendly stranger makes such tactics unnecessary. What remains vitally necessary, however, is making the best use of the information at one's disposal. "You're not seeing Reds under the bed," he said, an allusion to Cold War-era spying that targeted Communists. "You're trying to extend your product cycle by six months. And you have to be aware that information can sink you in a hurry." By Louis Lavelle -0- Visit The Record, Hackensack, N.J., on the World Wide Web at http://www.bergen.com (c) 1998, The Record, Hackensack, N.J. Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News. END!A$9?HK-BIZ-SPY News provided by COMTEX. [!WALL+STREET] [ARMY] [ART] [COMMERCE] [CONFERENCE] [CORPORATE] [GOVERNMENT] [INTERNET] [KRT] [MARKET] [MARKET+SHARE] [MEDIA] [NEWS] [NEWSGRID] [RESEARCH] [SOFTWARE] [TRADE] [USA] [WAR] -- ----------------------- NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and educational purposes only. 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