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Strategic Management And Business Policy

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's garbage 6) rewarding competitor's 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's technical people at trade shows and conferences 4) questioning competitor's 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 competitors or even your own business. I was undecided on three things on the list because I was not sure if they would cross the fine line of ethical or unethical.  

Those three things were: 1) taking tours of the competitors' facilities 2) hiring management consultants who have worked for competitors and 3) posing as a potential customer to competitors.   I see no harm in taking the tours but if it is to sabotage them, I would say definitely not...