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&lt;p&gt;Where would you draw the line at collecting intelligence about competitors?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A new survey by consulting firm Fuld &amp;amp; Co. shows that while financial services firms and tech companies might be the most aggressive in collecting intelligence, other industries aren&amp;rsquo;t that far behind. As reported by the WSJ, &quot;104 business executives were presented with hypothetical scenarios that gave the executive an opportunity to collect intel about a competitor, but straddled the ethical line. Participants could rate the scenario as &quot;normal,&quot; &quot;aggressive,&quot; &quot;unethical&quot; or &quot;illegal.&quot;&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The results seem partly on target, but mostly worrying.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;For example, &quot;One scenario asked whether it was all right for the executive to remove his identification badge during a trade show, which would make it easier to speak to competitors without them knowing his identity.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;The result: &quot;Most industries rated removing the ID badge as aggressive, while health-care and pharmaceutical executives thought it was unethical.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the report didn&amp;rsquo;t restrict the questions to public forum etiquette. &quot;The executives were asked if it was alright to sign up for an interview at a rival company&#39;s job fair to see what they could learn from a recruiter.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Result: &quot;Every industry thought the tactic was unethical except for government, which merely found it aggressive.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While I&#39;ll let you get over the fact that this scenario suggests our government has a completely different outlook on ethical behavior, overall the report seems to give health care and pharmaceutical brownie points for being squeamish about their approaches.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;One factor detailed by the Journal: The level of regulation weighs heavily on the consequent level of squeamishness.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;While each industry seems to be toeing its own line of ethics vs. competitive intelligence, risk for most means higher profits, and as Larry Kahaner, author of &lt;em&gt;Competitive Intelligence&lt;/em&gt; says in the report, &quot;The more money that&#39;s involved, the less squeamish people become. &quot;If companies have gotten away with stuff over the years, they don&#39;t clean up their act.&quot;&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Is it then okay to assume that the surveyed companies probably have some sort of written guidelines on intel collection?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;A third, says the report, neither have guidelines nor do they share them with employees. What you don&amp;rsquo;t know doesn&amp;rsquo;t hurt. Right?&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;&lt;em&gt;WSJ&lt;/em&gt;&lt;/p&gt;

Aman Singh Das

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