One
famous firm specializing in making mannequins for garment exporters, had
spent huge sums in foreign travel, client development, (European) human
anatomy research and future trends – to lose it all when a rival used a
telelens to photograph its dies as the crates were opened in their yard
from a roof top across the road!
And if
that sounds easy, think about the ease with which one operative got his
data. He had been trailing a senior R & D officer in a shoe
manufacturing units and got next to him at a hotel bar. After half an
hour, he moved in next to him, struck up a conversation on how his feet
were killing him – and received a two hour monologue on the future
trends in sports shoes, jogging shoes and tennis shoes – enough data to
give his client the exact direction of his rivals' production and
marketing plans.
Slips like this, by people caught at unguarded moments by trained operatives
skilled in behavioral sciences, cannot be easily a voided, but constant
reminders on the subject of secrecy can help.
At an All India Marketing Convention, the representative of M/s Blossom
Shampoos, a major player in bath care products, was flattered to receive the
close and breathless attentions of a personable young lady, whose badge
proclaimed her as a special correspondent for a leading women's fortnightly
“Mamselle”. However, her rather persistent and knowledgeable questions on
future research and marketing trends of his company rang warning bells and he
answered cautiously, in general terms. He later learnt she was an information
merchant, selling scoops to the highest bidder. Constant and on-going company
lectures, posters and videos on Information Security had paid off.
In
many ways, the computer revolution has made things even easier for someone after
your vital information. Computerization and the Internet have so taken over
business and the information industry that often it is hard to differentiate
between the two – the medium has become the message.
A
company nowadays practically resides in its computer. Anyone getting in can
steal whatever he likes – or so compromise information as to render it useless
or a source of acute embarrassment. Hackers got into the websites of the Indian
Parliament, as well as the ministry of Information Technology and created havoc.
Websites of Banks, insurance companies, firms, newspapers, none have been
spared. It rarely needs more than average skills. And it can make many a
thriller pale by comparison.
While formal documents are harder to get, draft copiers/print-outs are easier to
reach. It's human nature to neglect a draft, once the final copy is typed. One
operative had targeted the contents of people's WASTE PAPER BASKETS – in all the
companies he visited – either in the garb of a salesman, electrician, job
applicant or customer – he always tried to get two things, the rubbish in
people's WPB's and washroom gossip. At least twice, he has found draft
agreements relating to major business decisions like mergers, disinvestments and
joint ventures.
Few people keep note pads. Pressed to note phone number or address, they'll
reach for a paper napkin or memo-pad. Two executives were loudly talking in a
restaurant, on a forthcoming product launch that would shake the competition
badly. They made notes on little paper scraps, tissue napkins, even the
tablecloth! After they'd left, an operative who had trailed them and was
listening in, discovered a mine of information – names, dates, and phone
numbers. The product launch went off as scheduled, two months later. It was a
damp squib – their competitors had already launched parallel products.
We see so much ‘I spy' stuff in the movies; we get desensitized and refuse
to relate it to the real world around us – often with disastrous results.
All it took to reveal a merger between two giant industrial groups took one
operative, one sound intensifier (a device that is pointed at people talking
softly 200 felt away, to capture every syllable), and one pair of night
binoculars and good old legwork. These low-tech devices, available in the
SEARS ROEBUCK and all outdoor/hunting catalogues in the USA, can be easily
obtained. So next time you try to avoid a (possibly) bugged hotel room,
remember – even the outdoors are no longer safe from snoopers.
Simple things like old relationships and hometown loyalties can cut into
market shares of major branded products like Pan Parag. More than one
successful PanParag ‘copycat' used his Kanpur links to unearth the secrets of
the Kothari's best-selling month freshener.
