Consultant Case - Alpha Consulting

You are a new consultant with Alpha Consulting. Your first assignment is to work at XYZ Equipment Corporation to help develop and market a durable and robust modem designed for the mining industry.

XYZ has developed a new technology that enables them to manufacture a modem with speed and robustness that is far superior to anything else on the market. From what you can see, XYZ has a sure winner in this product and should win a sizable market share. The sales rep at XYZ, Barry, is especially excited because he has been promised a major promotion if the new product launch is successful.

Barry then becomes panic-stricken when he reads that Hanato, a competitor, plans to launch anew high-quality and fast modem before XYZ does. If the Hanato modem has other new product features, Barry may want to modify the XYZ modem design. Barry wants this information immediately because he has to give the production department the final production specifications in a week. Besides, he feels pressed for time now that the Hanato will reach the market before XYZ’s product

Barry can’t think of any easy way to get information quickly, so he asks you to call Hanato and pretend to be a potential customer. When the Hanato sales rep visits your consulting firm’s office, you are supposed to ask for specs and photos and learn as much as possible about any novel product features, pricing, advertising strategy, etc.

You don’t have any experience with this type of research so you ask Barry if it is okay to contact Hanato in this manner. Barry says that such a practice (1) is not illegal because trade secrets would not be stolen; (2) research of this fashion place all the time, and it’s Hanato’s responsibility to develop security procedures to prevent information from slipping out before the product hits the market; and, (3) who knows, you and Alpha consulting may be a legitimate buyer sometime in the future.

You