Business Firm Approach

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This assignment requires that we evaluate each of the following approaches that a business firm could use to gather information about competition. Indicate on why these acts were either appropriate or inappropriate. For each approach, mark your feeling about its appropriateness using the following scale:

1. Definitely not appropriate, 2. Probably not appropriate, 3. Undecided, 4. Probably appropriate, and 5. Definitely appropriate

The business firm should try to get useful information about competitors by:

_ Careful study of trade journals

_ Wiretapping the telephones of competitors

_ Posing as a potential customer to competitors

_ Getting loyal customers to put out a phone “request for proposal” soliciting competitors’ bids

_ Buying competitors’ products and taking them apart

_ Hiring management consultants who have worked for competitors

_ Rewarding competitors’ employees for useful “tips”

_ Questioning competitors’ customers and/or suppliers

_ Buying and analyzing competitors’ garbage

_ Advertising and interviewing for nonexistent jobs

_ Taking public tours of competitors’ facilities

_ Releasing false information about the company in order to confuse competitors.

_ Questioning competitors’ technical people at trade shows and conferences

_ Hiring key people away from competitors

_ Analyzing competitors’ labor union contracts

_ Having employees date persons who work for competitors

_ Studying aerial photographs of competitors’ facilities
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Solution Preview

The issue here is ethics. What is morally or ethically acceptable? When we speak of ethics, we must speak of rights and wrongs. We’re not dealing with relativism at all. A simple way to understand ethics would be to ask yourself the following question. Am I acting toward another as I would wish they act toward me? Am I trying to harm them, or merely learning about them? Think of a race. Am I running a race or trying to trip my opponent? The former is acceptable, the latter is not.

With this in mind, I’ll give a few comments. You can give your own evaluation based on the scale you have been assigned.

Careful study of trade journals: There is nothing harmful to the competition in this action.

Wiretapping the telephones of competitors: This would be considered illegal under statutory law, let alone completely immoral and unethical. Would you want your telephones wire tapped?

Posing as a …