Mariam Diab
ID:10931041
Sec: C
Date: 19-4-2014
Dr.Ali Dirani
IMGT497 Entrepreneurship

1- Competitive intelligence is the action of defining, gathering, analyzing, and distributing intelligence about products, customers, competitors, and any aspect of the environment needed to support executives and managers making strategic decisions for an organization Competitive intelligence is an ethical and legal business practice, as opposed to industrial espionage, which is illegal Competitive intelligence essentially means understanding and learning what's happening in the world outside your business so you can be as competitive as possible. It means learning as much as possible as soon as possible about your industry in general, your competitors, or even your county's particular zoning rules.
Ethics has been a long-held issue of discussion among CI practitioners. Essentially, the questions revolve around what is and is not allowable in terms of CI practitioners' activity. A number of very excellent scholarly treatments have been generated on this topic, most prominently addressed through Society of Competitive Intelligence Professionals publications. The book Competitive Intelligence Ethics: Navigating the Gray Zone provides nearly twenty separate views about ethics in CI, as well as another 10 codes used by various individuals or organizations. Combining that with the over two dozen scholarly articles or studies found within the various CI bibliographic entries, it is clear that no shortage of study has gone into better classifying, understanding and addressing CI ethics. Competitive information may be obtained from public or subscription sources, from networking with competitor staff or customers, disassembly of competitor products or from field research interviews. Competitive intelligence research is distinguishable from industrial espionage, as CI practitioners generally abide by local legal guidelines and ethical business norms. People should feel free to comment on other methods they have used. I’ll also provide some examples of activities that I either think are questionable or outright unethical. Here are some examples of ethical, secondary research methods for performing CI: -Pulling annual reports and shareholder presentations on competitors from the web -Analyzing securities and exchange commission (SEC) filings and financial statements. -Gathering marketing collateral information from trade show booths of competitors -Obtaining industry reports from investment banks and/or financial institutions -Reverse engineering the positioning focus of competitors from marketing collateral. http://www.scip.org/About/content.cfm?ItemNumber=578&navItemNumber=504
2- The Code of Ethics for CI Professionals are:
To continually strive to increase the recognition and respect of the profession. To comply with all applicable laws, domestic and international. To accurately disclose all relevant information, including one's identity and organization, prior to all interviews. To avoid conflicts of interest in fulfilling one's duties. To provide honest and realistic recommendations and conclusions in the execution of one's duties. To promote this code of ethics within one's company, with third-party contractors and within the entire profession. To faithfully adhere to and abide by one's company policies, objectives and guidelines. Employees who formerly worked for competitors can be valuable sources of competitive intelligence. However, employees owe a duty of confidentiality to their former employers. Therefore, before you interview employee(s) who previously worked for a competitor, you should inform them that you do not want them to tell you confidential information about the prior employer. If an employee reveals information that appears to be confidential, do not use it and report the matter to your management or legal counsel. Competitive intelligence is the process of legally and ethically gathering and analyzing information about competitors and the industries in which they operate in order to help your organization make better decisions and reach its goals. Corporate intelligence, business intelligence, market intelligence, and other similar terms are often used interchangeably, and more often than not any difference between them is one of semantics more than substance. It should be pointed out that the Code of Ethics applies to Competitive Intelligence Professionals; Nate is not a professional in this field so it really isn’t applicable. In any case, the guidelines state that one is to accurately disclose all relevant information, including one’s identity and organization, prior to all interviews and that one is to comply with all local, state and federal laws. With that said, the actions under consideration would be considered ethically borderline at best. Nate must research the legality of looking through garbage as it is likely illegal. http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/competitive-intelligence http://www.scip.org/About/content.cfm?ItemNumber=578&navItemNumber
4- I believe that use of publicly available information such as government records and filings, advertisements, and articles is ethical. Deceptive or sneaky tactics, such as hacking, designed to gain access to confidential information are not ethical. first address the issues that arise in the context of the cooperative obtaining of information. Next we will turn to those issues that might arise by obtaining information in the public domain or from third parties. Finally, we will conclude by proposing a method whereby competitive intelligence gatherers can seek to avoid breaching either legal or ethical constraints. all Employees must: a-record and report information accurately and honestly b-comply with the Company’s accounting standards, practices, rules, regulations and controls, and with those of relevant authorities in the United States and elsewhere; c-see that all entries are promptly and accurately recorded and properly documented. The Company’s records are subject to internal and external audit. No entry may intentionally distort or disguise the true nature of any transaction; d-never establish any undisclosed or unrecorded funds or assets for any purpose; e-maintain books and records that will fairly and accurately reflect the Company’s business transactions; f-Comply with the Company’s Record Retention Policy. g-maintain books and records that will fairly and accurately reflect the Company’s business transactions; h-Comply with the Company’s Record Retention Policy.
By JustChkg28, Feb. 2013 | 2 Pages (483 Words) | 2 Views School: | Course Title: Intro to Entrepreneurship | http://www.scip.org/About/content.cfm?ItemNumber=578&navItemNumber= References: 1. http://www.scip.org/About/content.cfm?ItemNumber=578&navItemNumber=504 Jump up ^ http://www.entrepreneur.com/encyclopedia/competitive-intelligence 2. Jump up ^ Haag, Stephen. Management Information Systems for the Information Age. Third Edition. McGraw-Hill Ryerson, 2006. 3. ^ Jump up to: a b Gilad, Ben. "The Future of Competitive Intelligence: Contest for the Profession's Soul", Competitive Intelligence Magazine, 2008, 11(5), 22 4. By JustChkg28, feb. 2013 | 2 Pages (483 Words) | 2 Views School: | Course Title: Intro to Entrepreneurship | Professor: Unknown