This exercise gives you an opportunity to discuss in class ethical and legal issues related to methods being used by many companies to spy on competing firms. Gathering and using information about competitors is an area of strategic management that Japanese forms do more proficiently than American firms.
Instructions
on a separate sheet of the paper number from 1-18 for the spying activities listed as below indicate whether or not you believe the activity is ethical or unethical and legal or illegal. Place either an E for ethical or U for unethical and either an L for legal or I for illegal for each activity. Compare your answers to those of your classmates and discuss any differences.
1. Buying competitors’ garbage,2.Dissecting competitors’ product,3.Taking competitors plant tour anonymously,4.Counting tractor-trailer trucks leaving competitors’ loading bays,5.Studying aerial photographs of competitors’ facilities,6.Analyzing competitors’ labor contracts,7.Analyzing competitors’ help-wanted ads,8.Quizzing customers and buyers about the sales of competitors’ products,9.Infiltrating customers’ and competitors’ business operations,10. Quizzing suppliers about competitors level of manufacturing,11.Using customers to buy out phony bids,12.Encouraging key customers to reveal competitive information,13.Quizzing competitors former employees,14.Interviewing consultants who may have worked with competitors,15.Hiring key managers away from competitors,16.Conducting phone job interviews to get competitors’ employees to reveal information,17.Sending engineers to trade meetings to quiz competitors’ technical employees,18.Quizzing potential employees who worked for or with competitors,