IP: Casual Talk Can Produce Wealth of Corporate Intelligence Data

[Vladimir Z. Nuri]

From: Richard Sampson <rjsa at 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 at majordomo.pobox.com" <ignition-point at 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.

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


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