As I suggested in my previous post (Article: Misrepresentation in CI: An Ethical Analysis) ethics in CI is a difficult subject. It is difficult to know where to draw the line between what can be tolerated and what absolutely cannot. Drawing this line is something each CI practitioner should do for him- or herself. Although this may be true, this doesn’t mean that there aren’t any guidelines. In my previous post I discussed an article from Julia Evans, where I outlined several positions concerning these guidelines. In this follow-up post about ethics and CI I would like to discuss the perspective of Devin Liddell as outlined in his article: “Are you gathering competitive intelligence ethically?”.

In this article Tom Hawes describes five signs to detect distress regarding strategy and competitive intelligence, as quoted below. Some of them may sound obvious, but there are also some quite useful signals described that can really help you detect distress (and therefore guide you in your next steps, which by the way Hawes will describe in his next article). Let’s take a look at the five signals:

• It is unfashionable to be identified with strategy.
• “Strategy” is equated only to cost savings.
• Competitive intelligence is stopped.
• Common arguments do not work.
• There is an unsatisfied, pent up energy for the future.