There is nothing wrong with gathering information. Information is an important part of
improving anything either internally or externally. Most of the things on the list I thought
were definitely not appropriate. Unethical things such as: 1) having employees date people
who work for competitors 2) hiring key people away from competitors 3) releasing false
information about the company in order to confuse competitors 4) advertising and
interviewing for nonexistent jobs 5) buying and analyzing competitor garbage 6)
rewarding competitor employees for useful tips 7) buying competitors products and taking
them apart 8) getting loyal customers to put out a phone request for proposal soliciting
competitors bids and 9) wiretapping the telephones of competitors. None of these things
could help the reputation of the company. There are many ways that we can get
information legally and ethically.
Some of those ways are the things on the list that I considered definitely appropriate. Some
ways that we can get the information we need is by: 1) studying aerial photographs of
competitors facilities 2) analyzing competitors labor union contracts 3) questioning
competitor technical people at trade shows and conferences 4) questioning competitor
customers and/or suppliers and 5) carefully studying of trade journals. These things are not
unethical because it involves you gathering and organizing the information to fit your
problem. It is no harm in asking questions. Questions are a great way to learn about