The spy stone that skipped across the Pond…Espionage and the “Harm Rule”
The spy stone that skipped across the Pond…Espionage and the “Harm Rule”
European Formula One racing apparently beat out American’s football in the who-can-spy-and-get-caught game. During the Spring, McLaren, the storied British race car company, allegedly stole technical secrets from its rival, Ferrari. It’s all out of a classic spy novel. Technical secrets critical to the performance of Ferrari’s race cars found their way into McLaren’s offices.
Only a few short weeks ago, American football fans witnessed the New England Patriots, a three-time Super Bowl team, attempting to steal defensive signals from its weaker rival, The Jets. My partner, Mike Sandman, spoke on CNBC about this deliberate theft and called it for what it was, an act of deception.
Why is it that large, well-known, successful companies find themselves stepping over the ethical and possibly legal lines to win a race, a football match, or market share? Is it the same pressure stock analysts apply each quarter, is it hubris, or is it the will to win – at any cost?
The answer is difficult and likely is a combination of many forces. The will to win can be positive. It can motivate and make you test your abilities. You can learn many lessons from winning (some would say you learn more from losing).
Business schools write cases from the likes of the Patriots and McLaren. But do cases taught in the somewhat sterile and often comfortable surroundings of the classroom match the adrenalin-filled atmosphere of a locker room or the fast-moving chaos of a race car pit? No way.
What then can you do to prevent your company from entering the embarrassing and potentially expensive realm of a law suit? (By the way, McLaren was expelled from the 2007 constructors’ championship in early September and received a £50m fine).
Clearly conscience alone is not the best barometer; apparently, the Patriots left theirs in the locker room and McLaren left theirs on the shop floor. Perhaps a better measure is what we call The Harm Rule: How would we feel if what we are about to do were published on the front page of the newspaper – or blog, or MySpace, or you name your medium. If any harm or embarrassment would result, then don’t do it. Don’t do it even if you have no qualms about your action. If you believe someone else might, then at the least ask your boss what he or she thinks. Seek out other opinions if you can’t find a rule written down. But do not, I repeat “DO NOT” go it alone and jeopardize your company’s reputation as well as your own.
Because my firm works in the arena of competitive intelligence every day, it has long had a set of guidelines to cover employee behavior. They are not perfect. We have to test ourselves all the time to make sure our staff understands the rules and their implications. We use examples in our in-house training. We make sure the loop is always working and that if anyone feels uncomfortable in any way, they ask a question. This is not a world of black and whites. New situations arise that may present new problems or challenges. Remember The Harm Rule. If someone at McLaren or in the Patriots organization had only asked, “Would we want this to appear in the newspaper the next morning,” I don’t think I would be writing this blog to you now.
