Archive for the 'Industrial Espionage' Category

Britain drove the Industrial Revolution with a strategy of learning by experience. The age of science that followed was driven by formal education in abstract and theoretical knowledge that could be applied to many applications. The conditions and environment created by formal education produced the concept of competitive intelligence through the publication of scientific journals and the creation of the mass media.

Industrial espionage arises where the published data is non-existent or beyond the experience of those seeking to reproduce the success of others. They need somebody to show them how to put the pieces together. Sometimes, only people with hands-on experience can pass-on the knowledge.

For example, after 1916 France was desperate for field guns. They gave the USA blueprints for their 75mm gun, which was the best in the world at the time. It was so well designed that a glass of water placed on the carriage would go undisturbed as the gun fired. The Americans could not produce usable copies of the gun until French workers arrived to show them how to properly produce the gun.

After WWI, Germany’s lead in chemistry could not be exploited by the victorious allies, even with the confiscated patents and other documents. The Americans needed German chemists to show them how to make it all work. They got this expertise in the 20′s by hiring away the needed German chemists.

In earlier times, industrial espionage was the preferred method of gathering knowledge and building experience as published data was almost non-existent and experience was limited. Competitive intelligence works when you have the hands-on experience to do something constructive with collected and analysed data.

From 1718 to 1720 France launched a systematic effort to recruit English woolens workers, glass makers, clock and watch makers, ship wrights, and especially metallurgists. The recruiter encountered a characteristic of British industry: the division of labour. Workers only knew their own small portion of the process. This made the task too costly and inefficient. It’s easy to call the this industrial espionage due to the predatory “hiring away” by France, but the next two are not such clear-cut examples of industrial espionage.

In 1764 and 1765 the French monarch dispatched Gabriel-Jean Jars to visit English mines, smelters, and foundries. Amazingly, he was well received. His reports are used today by historians for the detailed descriptions of the industrial techniques he witnessed.

Insensible to international competition, the British Board of Longitude allowed French visitors to examine the revolutionary marine clocks of John Harrison in 1769. Harrison, quite rightly, flew into a rage when he learned of this.

Competitive Intelligence or Industrial Espionage?

These last two examples raise the question, is it industrial espionage if you knowingly give the data to the competition when they openly ask for it? Were the last two models for early competitive intelligence?