Spies in Suits

UK firms have never been more desperate for their rivals' trade secrets - and the growing number of corporate intelligence agents will go to almost any lengths to obtain them, says Esther Addley

...(Long section cut)...

`We always seek to distance ourselves from the less ethical kind of practice,' says Ted Howard-Jones, business development manager at Current Analysis, a consultancy firm specialising in the telecoms industry. `In the UK, people cannot put into perspective the tiny minority of cases where illegal or unethical conduct takes place.' He points to SCIP's code of ethics, to which all members sign up, and insists that the vast majority of CI work involves collating information already in the public domain.

Arthur Weiss, a managing partner at Aware, agrees. `It is not in my interests to lie in order to get information, and I'm going to be found out if I do. And if I call back I would have to remember who I said I was. There will be times that I won't get the information and someone who follows a different ethical rule will. But I prefer to be able to sleep at night.'

But surely masquerading as someone else to get hold of sensitive information, or at least allowing them to believe that you are an innocent caller, is a bit ethically suspect? `We wouldn't identify the client we never identify the client but we will always identify ourselves. I would say I was calling from a research company. Certainly if I was asked.' Talking to someone who doesn't appreciate the value of the information is often the best way to get hold of sensitive facts and figures, he admits.

SCIP insists that the worst excesses of rogue CI practitioners are a thing of the past, particularly since the US introduced the Economic Espionage Act in 1996, under which the FBI is believed to be investigating 800 cases of corporate misbehaviour. Howard-Jones argues that the Data Protection Act is an even more rigid constraint on the activities of information gatherers in this country. But with the demand for corporate investigations booming at an exponential rate, it is inevitable that companies and consultants will continue to dance round the more precarious limits of the law in order to get hold of that crucial figure.

`It's the speed of change. Look at the product life cycle. You now want a new mobile phone every six months, not every three years, and it's going to get faster. Many of the old-fashioned methods of planning that companies once used are now completely redundant. Five-year plans do not exist any more. Businesses don't make serious plans more than a year, or at most 18 months ahead. That's why you need to react so quickly, and that's why it is vital that you have information about what your competitor is up to. If you get it wrong, you don't have the time to catch up.'

(Article continues...)