Being Honest in a Dishonest World

Being honest in a dishonest world

By: Amy Berger

Being honest in a dishonest world, Vol. 01 No. 02, July - September 1998 Amy Berger Article

“No legacy is so rich as honesty” — William Shakespeare

In my two-plus years as a competitive intelligence analyst for a mid-size manufacturing firm in Silicon Valley, I have struggled with my company’s need for specific competitor data and my personal need to be ethical.

When I first arrived at my job, I was afraid that I if didn’t deliver the goods (e.g., hard-to- get competitor information) and fast, I would certainly be joining the unemployment lines. In my first week on the job I was asked to track down a retail price on a competitor’s product. I called my competitor directly to ask for the data. When I was connected to the appropriate person in customer service, I became so nervous that I made up a fictitious business name as my place of employment and gave the rep my home telephone number. The information I needed was not readily available, so the customer service employee politely volunteered to call me back. In my most friendly voice I assured him that would be fine and hung up.

Then the lighting hit—or at least I felt like it! My palms began to sweat (as did other parts of my body) and I became sick to my stomach. Clearly, lying was not going to work for me—job or no job. I quickly pulled out a blank company fax form, scribbled an apologetic note in which I explained my true identity, and sent it off.

Two months later a man who had worked at that competitor’s customer service division joined my company. When we were introduced, he said “Oh, I’ve heard about you and that call you made. We all laughed when we heard that story.” The comment stung and I feared that the barriers between me and my competitors would forever remain, making my job even more difficult.

A similar “struck from above” incident occurred several months later when, again, I was trying to secure retail pricing from a competitor. When I called that company directly I gave my identity to the receptionist. She didn’t seem to recognize our firm’s name and gladly transferred my call to a customer service representative. I explained who I was, my research function, and who my employer was. I braced myself for a hang up, a chuckle, or even a snide remark. The pleasant woman with whom I was connected apparently had not heard of my company, and if she did, she didn’t acknowledge that we were a competitor. In fact she showed a lot of interest in trying to help me, probably thinking I was a potential customer. After taking my name, phone number, and detailed request, she claimed that she would call me within 24 hours with the pricing I wanted.

At the end of our conversation I had the same physical reaction I had experienced earlier: sweaty palms, lurching stomach, and pounding headache. Most of all, I was terribly guilt ridden. I realized that I had withheld the most important piece of information from this innocent person: that I was doing a product comparison between her company’s widget and ours.

Have you ever lived through horror stories like these? Well, as you can see, you’re not alone!

Integrity Maintenance

There is hope, however, for those of us in the CI profession who consider ourselves people of integrity and wish to remain that way. Here are some tips for doing your competitive intelligence work without selling your soul:

 Rely on your in-house contacts first. Your sales reps can supply a wealth of knowledge about product features, pricing, and other significant tidbits of competitor information.

 Hire outside contractors that specifically do market research and competitive intelligence work. It’s worth every penny.

 Read constantly. More than 90% of the competitor information I need I find through the Internet or the trade publications that cross my desk.

 If you must contact a competitor directly, BE HONEST about who you are, what you need, and what you intend to use it for. Don’t leave out any detail. As a professional you won’t be asking unrealistic, offensive, or inappropriate questions, and it’s likely you’ll be requesting information that is already public.

On this last point, here’s an addendum: If you need to, offer your competitor some publicly available information about your products or company, in return for the favor. Even if you just copy a page or two off your Web site and fax it to your competitors, they will appreciate your effort. They will also feel respected by you and see how fairly you do business. Make sure you write your competitor a thank-you note to acknowledge their special effort in answering your question.

In a world where secrecy and falsehood has been the norm, you’ll find it refreshing to find other adults who are mature, professional, and eager to create a business relationship with you—regardless of what your company does. Using this approach, I have made connections with the nicest people—and, best of all, I can sleep at night.

Sidebar

Resources to Help You Sleep Easier

Have you had trouble sleeping recently? Are you prone to feelings of anxiety about somehow breaking the law at work? Do you feel as if you’re in a moral maze as you gather competitive information?

If so, there’s a one-page document that can help you more than any sleeping pill. It’s the SCIP Code of Ethics. Haven’t read it lately? Take a look at it now (go to www.scip.org/ci/ethics.asp on the SCIP Web site).

The Code of Ethics is a concise, clearly worded document. Its short length makes it easy to remember and easy to interpret. Following the code is the easiest way to ensure that you remain firmly on legal and ethical ground as you gather information. And on appropriate interview behavior, the code is very clear: members should “accurately disclose all relevant information, including one’s identity and organization, prior to all interviews.”

You may be surprised at how frequently your interviewees are happy to tell you what you need to know, even when they know you work for a competitor. And you’ll certainly appreciate the extra hours of peaceful sleep you get knowing that you’re acting in an ethical, professional manner.

Amy Berger is the market research manager at Larscom Incorporated, a leading provider of high-speed wide area network (WAN) access equipment. She completed her undergraduate work at the University of California, Berkeley, and received a master’s degree at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Ms. Berger is the first market research manager hired at Larscom and is laying the ground work for the company’s growing market research department. A SCIP member since May 1996, she can be reached at Larscom Incorporated, 4600 Patrick Henry Dr., Santa Clara, CA 95054, USA; tel.: +1 408-988-6600, ext. 388; fax: +1 408-986-8690.