Doing Business Smartly
HOW WE WIN
We keep ourselves informed about market trends and opportunities through ethical research.
WHY WE PUT VALUES FIRST
Monitoring developments in our markets to understand the competitive landscape helps us to continuously improve and to anticipate our customers’ needs. We put integrity first and always gather information about competitors ethically.
WHAT WINNING LOOKS LIKE
We gather competitive intelligence appropriately by:
- Being truthful about our identity and motives when making inquiries
- Not using third parties to engage in actions we would not engage in ourselves
- Not asking colleagues (or prospective employees) to reveal confidential information about their former employers
THINK FIRST
Q:
I work in business development, and I am in the process of negotiating and finalizing a bid proposal for a big project. Today, I received an email from a prospective customer’s procurement manager, and by mistake she attached one of our competitor’s proposals instead of my marked-up proposal. I noticed the competitor’s price was 25 percent lower than our bid. I want to lower the price in our bid to beat the competition. Can I do that?
A:
No. Our value of Integrity First requires us to gather and use competitive intelligence lawfully and ethically. Here, taking advantage of the customer’s mistake would violate their trust. If it ever became public knowledge that we took advantage of a customer in this way, it could jeopardize our reputation for honesty and fair dealing and we could even end up losing the contract. Instead of using this information, you should let the customer know about the mistake and tell her you will delete the email and attachment. You should also notify the Law Department of the mistake to ensure appropriate documentation, and continue to focus on the strengths of your original proposal. Remember, a good rule of thumb for deciding how to treat competitive intelligence is to think how we would feel if a competitor did the same to us.