{"id":248,"date":"2013-02-02T18:41:45","date_gmt":"2013-02-02T18:41:45","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2017-04-19T20:20:53","modified_gmt":"2017-04-19T20:20:53","slug":"confessions-of-a-corporate-spy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/erii.org\/dev\/confessions-of-a-corporate-spy\/","title":{"rendered":"Confessions of a Corporate Spy"},"content":{"rendered":"

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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.<\/span><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

And I would have been about right.<\/p>\n

I’m a competitive-intelligence researcher. A spy, of sorts. I don’t break the law. But I always feel like I’m right on the edge of it, never mind my rigid ethical standards. The information I secure is given freely and obtained legally, and I don’t lie to get it, but in the back of my mind I’m always thinking, You probably don’t want me to know this<\/em>.<\/p>\n

I found myself on this perverse shopping trip for a smart green pleated skirt because a company had hired me to learn the sales targets and promotional activity from Talbots store managers. I had been recruited to attempt face-to-face social engineering–basically wheedling out the information in person.<\/p>\n

At the time, I had only just launched my practice. I had left a decade-long career as a journalist a few years earlier to earn an M.B.A. With typically perfect timing, I entered the job market just as the financial services industry self-destructed. I had long wanted to start my own business; losing my marketing job at a Web start-up in a restructuring in 2010 simply accelerated things. Competitive intelligence seemed a good fit.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

More here: http:\/\/www.inc.com\/magazine\/201302\/george-chidi\/confessions-of-a-corporate-spy.html<\/p>\n

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And I would…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":547,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_bbp_topic_count":0,"_bbp_reply_count":0,"_bbp_total_topic_count":0,"_bbp_total_reply_count":0,"_bbp_voice_count":0,"_bbp_anonymous_reply_count":0,"_bbp_topic_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_reply_count_hidden":0,"_bbp_forum_subforum_count":0},"categories":[11,10],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nConfessions of a Corporate Spy - ERII<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/erii.org\/dev\/confessions-of-a-corporate-spy\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Confessions of a Corporate Spy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"[vc_row][vc_column][vc_text_separator title_level=”h1″ title=”Confessions of a Corporate Spy” title_align=”separator_align_left” align=”align_left” color=”custom” border_width=”2″ accent_color=”#c99d41″][vc_column_text] What do you think it means to be an expert in “hard-to-get elicitation”? 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