Engaged in Corporate Espionage?
This is an open letter to my competitors.
Just so you know, if one of my clients or prospects were to offer me your materials (proposals, brochures, etc.), I would happily accept the offer.
I compete with you. By beating you, I get to put food on the table; put my kids through college; buy that dream chalet in the mountains. By beating you, I provide that same opportunity to SHIFT’s 100+ hard-working employees.
It’s important to beat you. I take pride in it, because it’s never guaranteed – it is always, always hard, you cagey and talented SOBs!
So if you have better ideas than me, a better presentation, etc., I want to learn from you. So I can improve. So I can beat you next time.
I assume you feel the same way. I hope you do.
So, are you reading my best-of posts? Are you reading Brian’s blog? And Dave’s? And Geoff’s? And Mike’s? And Maggie’s? And Steve’s?
I read their blogs. Not just because I like them and support their work (which I do). Make no mistake: at some level, we are competing for clients. So I read their blogs religiously to see if I can “steal” their ideas and share them with my staff.
Except, it’s not stealing. They offer up some of their smartest ideas – for free. In the hopes that prospective clients will be impressed, sure, but just as importantly as a karmic service to the industry – including their competitors.
By reading your competitors’ finest thinking, by incorporating their proven strategies and cutting-edge concepts into your own agencies’ DNA, you have a golden opportunity to kick their butt in the next RFP.
But, are you?
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This is just a sly technique to smoke out the competitors who are reading your blog, right? Nice try, Todd. Of course none of us do…
it has always been my thought that one of the greatest benefits of reading blogs and participating in social media communities is the avalanche of great information provided for free.
you HAVE to look at what your competitors are doing and you HAVE to get to know them, if only in a professional setting.
Great post Todd; we all love a bit of healthy competition.
However, I wonder how much people really do share on their blogs. Not to say that we don’t offer up our knowledge and expertise for free, but at what stage?
During the PRSA conference, presenter Kami Huyse answered the question – “How can you afford to share all of this information with us?”
Her answer was simple – this stuff is old news. It’s her job to stay ahead of the game, in order to be competitive.
I feel pretty confident that no one shows their cards unless they’ve already started moving on to the next game.
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That’s why we’re here, no? I don’t follow competitors if I don’t think they are savvy.
Interesting post. Dying to know what the trigger for it was.
Todd, if you have a copy of Shift’s client list and contacts lying around, I’m happy to review for you.
Todd, if you have a copy of Shift’s client list and contacts lying around, I’m happy to review for you.
Great post! I know I take these words to heart on so many levels from following competitor blogs and proposals to watching the Title tags and SEO targets of our closest competitor websites.
Just today, by following a competitor CEO on Twitter, I discovered a technique he was using on the side to generate business to his main company. It’s a great idea and gave me some ideas, but I would never have come across it without keeping this “enemy” a little closer than my friends.
Hey Todd – great post, and Shel asked a very good question indeed. But I’d like to take a it a little further. In most cases, employees have NDA clauses in their employment agreements that sharing a document would breach (during or after their employment). What’s your comfort level with encouraging someone to breach a contract (essentially breaking their word) in order to obtain competitive advantage?
Aside from that – thanks for the nod, and I think that Isaac Newton put it best, noting that if he had seen further, it was because he had the luck to “stand on the shoulders of giants.”
@Maggie – “breaking the law” ain’t my bag.
Let me say that I did not exactly say that I only share “old news.” What I really said was that it would be old news within three months and that is is my job to stay on top of the curve.
I think you are pretty much the same Todd, though I have to say that as a competitor you are always gracious in my experience.