商界搞情报工作要学习中情局

    富尔德说：“很多时候，当制药企业的一款新药即将获批投入市场时，他们很想知道竞争对手会如何反应，这时他们就会聘请我们。”另外，临床试验的结果、医学期刊的文章，以及制药企业用来营销药品的文宣材料统统都是商业情报机构感兴趣的内容。同时富尔德也在密切关注业内的兼并收购信息、政府监管信息，以及其它任何能影响客户前景的信息。

    另一个搜集情况的策略就是监控网络上的声音，尤其是博客和社交媒体。富尔德称，Twitter是一个收集信息的好地方，可以从这里知道顾客对一款产品的看法以及竞争对手的回应。他说：“患者会谈论他们的经验、病情和需要，他们就是将把药物带到市场上的人。”另外，制药企业也会通过社交媒体渠道发布活动信息，比如邀请志愿者参加临床试验的通知等。

    不过，现在竞争情报行业仍然在学习如何使用社交媒体数据。竞争情报从业者协会（Society of Competitive Intelligence Practitioners）临时CEO米歇尔•伯奈切表示，社交网络上的信息量可谓浩如烟海，很难处理。他说：“信息量可能非常巨大，而数据分析方法也不是能轻易复制的。如果我们能找到成功利用社交网络数据进行情报收集的方法，它甚至将改变游戏规则。但我认为，我们离实现这个目标还有几年的时间。”

    “我们确确实实不是间谍！”

    伯奈切和富尔德都强调，收集竞争情报并不是商业间谍活动，因此也不违返法律和道德。富尔达表示，他不会揭露交易秘密，搜集内幕情报，也不会在与人交谈的时候编造自己的身份，因此他收集的任何信息都是合法的。他还表示，如果他同时为一个客户和他的竞争对手工作，他会避免出现任何类型的利益冲突。

    几年前，企业调查及安保公司Kroll Inc曾因为“走了邪路”而受到激烈的批评。当时这家公司为德州金融家艾伦•斯坦福提供了服务。斯坦福因策划了美国历史上规模最大、时间最长的庞氏骗局之一而闻名。当时，美国国务院的一名官员正在对斯坦福展开调查，而斯坦福则雇佣Kroll公司调查这位官员的隐私秘闻。后来Kroll公司称这位官员的妻子是一名同性恋者，她为了另一个女人而离开了他，担这个消息显然不属实。

    伯奈切承认，竞争情报也包括收集某些企业高管的背景信息以及进行尽职调查，但不会揭露他人的隐私。伯奈切说：“我们之所以这样做，是为了找出他们做出决策的动机是什么，有可能的话预测他们的下一步行为。我们会分析他们的教育背景，平常喜欢和谁在一起，最近研究了什么，之前的决策是什么，从中经常可以看到一种共同的模式。”

    "A lot of times, companies will hire us when one of their drugs is about to be approved for the market and they want to know how the competition will respond," says Fuld. Other points of interest include results from clinical trials, articles in medical journals, and "messaging," the words and rationale companies use to market a drug. Fuld will keep a close watch for news about mergers and acquisitions, government regulations, and anything else that could affect his clients' prospects.

    Another strategy is to monitor online voices, especially on blogs and social media. Fuld says Twitter is a great place to glean information about customers' thoughts on a product and how the competition responds to them. "Patients will talk about their experiences, their illnesses, and their needs," says Fuld. "They'll be the ones who bring the drug to market." Companies also use social media channels to send out alerts for their activities, such as notices for participation in clinical trials.

    However, the CI industry is still figuring out how to use data from social media. Michel Bernaiche, CI practitioner and interim CEO of the Society of Competitive Intelligence Practitioners, says the amount of information available on social media networks can be overwhelming and thus hard to process. "The amount of information can be cumbersome, and the data analysis is not easily repeatable," says Bernaiche. "It's going to be a huge game-changer if we can figure out how to harness it, but I think we're still a couple of years away from that."

    'We're not really spies, promise!'

    Both Bernaiche and Fuld assert emphatically that gathering intelligence on the competition is not spying, nor is it unethical or illegal. Fuld says he does not uncover trade secrets, gather dirt, or mislead anyone about his identity when talking to people, so any information gleaned is fair game. He says he also makes sure to avoid the kinds of conflicts of interest that could arise from working for a client's competitor.

    A few years ago, corporate investigation and security firm Kroll Inc. came under fire for its work for Texas financier Allen Stanford. Stanford, best known as the mastermind of one of the largest and longest-running Ponzi schemes in U.S. history, hired Kroll to unearth embarrassing information on a senior State department official who was investigating him. Kroll obliged by reporting that the official's wife was a lesbian who had left him for another woman, information that was patently untrue.

    Bernaiche admits CI can involve gathering information and doing due diligence on some executives' backgrounds, but not to uncover dirt. "We do it to find out what motivates their decision making and to possibly anticipate their actions," says Bernaiche. "We look into their college background, who they hung out with, what they studied, and their previous decisions, you can often see a pattern."