84 will often know about new pharmaceuticals months before they appear on the market. Competitive intelligence is gathering information for a company about its competitors. Companies are reluctant to let people know they use it because it has connotations of being underhanded.
Competitive intelligence is covered by strict legal and ethical guidelines.
Foremost among them is that competitive intelligence officers cannot ask a company for secret or propriety information. An important part of ethics is never to violate your conscience, to never do anything so you can't sleep at night. We don't tape record conversations, eavesdrop, or go dumpster diving. Norman says that competitive intelligence is a vital and expanding field. She estimates that half of the Fortune 500 companies now use competitive intelligence.