Tools For Thought - Intelegia

I have spent the majority of my career in the field of competitive intelligence and the one of the most difficult mandates that I had to undertake was explaining the profession to family, friends and believe it or not, and other business professionals.

After all the numerous articles, books and presentations on competitive intelligence, the practice is still associated with “corporate espionage”. I have been wondering how and if the practice can shake this image. Well, large corporations are not helping the cause. I cite the following cases:

1. Recently, a former Hewlett-Packard executive accused by the company of stealing trade secrets is now saying that he was instructed by the company’s management to spy on rival Dell.
2. In 2001, Proctor & Gamble admitted breaking its own rules on corporate espionage to obtain information on Unilever’s hair care business.

I know that it is very frustrating to professionals which have been working in the field for years to be lumped in with corporate practitioners and contractors that are illegally obtain information on competitors. Every CI professional knows that competitive intelligence does not equal corporate espionage however; are professionals willing to stay within the guidelines which dictates the ethical collection of information?