The manager advises his superiors of the competitor's new plant but tells them that all the equipment will be new. To match the competitor's new capacity, management deviates from what had been a strictly enforced budget and installs new equipment in the manager's plant. The plant manager's capacity goes up to beat the competition, but margins fall. This is unethical. To curb or eliminate breaches of ethical standards you must establish guidelines or a code of ethics.
Guidelines determine the parameters of acceptable behavior in conducting competitive intelligence.
Help people focus on the ethically obtainable while steering clear of questionable activities that invite trouble and waste valuable time. Every company should establish a set of ethical guidelines, but this is only the beginning. The problem with ethics is not establishing a code but implementing it. To ensure compliance, a monitoring mechanism must be developed. In addition, training programs and a reaffirmation process must help employees to truly internalize the guidelines.