Confessions of a Corporate Spy What do you think it means to be an expert in "hard-to-get elicitation"? It means people tell you things. A competitive intelligence consultant discusses things that can help a business--at the expense of another. When I strolled into a Talbots near closing time on a Wednesday night, I wasn't expecting Phipps Plaza in Atlanta's ritzy Buckhead neighborhood to be so dead. Perfect for me. Less so for the store manager. I entered keenly aware of how completely out of place I must have seemed--a heavyset thirtysomething black guy in Walmart dress slacks, trying to look casual while fondling Hillary Clinton-esque blouses. If I were on staff, I might have briefly considered the possibility that I had come in only to knock over the place while things were quiet. And I would have been about right. I'm a competitive-intelligence...