In the case involving Avery Dennison (the label and adhesives maker), Fink provides a detailed look at what caused a highly respected scientist at Avery Dennison to sell his company's trade secrets to a foreign competitor, namely Four Pillars of Taiwan. The ensuing court trial makes for interesting reading.
Using the example of Eastman Kodak and one of its former employees, Fink again discusses the motivation behind selling one's former employers' trade secrets for personal gain. This human element, which Fink writes about with great ease and clarity, is often overlooked in other books on economic and industrial espionage.
The chapter on the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 and the types of information worth protecting should be 'must reads' for every business manager. I would like to have seen another chapter on methods that companies can use to protect their trade secrets.
All in all, a solid book that provides useful information in an easy to read format.
Mark Robinson, author of "Beyond Competitive Intelligence: The Practice of CounterIntelligence and Trade Secrets Protection."
Recent research studies have dentified issues of greatest concern to senior-level executives, following September 11th. The top five are mail processing(86%), travel(85%), protection of employees(79%), protection of infrastructure (75%), and risk assessment(71%). Obviously, there is widespread and quite legitimate concern about protecting human beings and physical property. However, as Fink eloquently explains, we must also be concerned about -- and take appropriate measures to protect -- information which is as important to the global economy as oxygen is to the human body.
As events on September 11th clearly indicate, even a country with resources such as those possessed by the United States cannot totally defend itself and its people against terrorists acts. However, because the U.S.A. remains the world leader in research, development, new technology, products, and trade secrets, organizations within the U.S.A. are high-profile targets and "economic espionage spies are still going to come after [them] and that only increases [the] global risk of economic espionage." As previously indicated, Fink's book examines the nature and extent of that potential risk, suggesting all manner of strategies and tactics to anticipate and then prepare for, as well as respond to, economic espionage because it is "a business crisis and should be treated as such."
Fink asserts that "Companies are under attack and at enormous risk every day. from the global threat of economic espionage, but the risk can and should be lowered and managed. Here's how." He organizes his material within two Sections and presents it in 29 interrelated chapters, followed by an Afterword in which he addresses the question, "EEA: Bear Trap or Mouse Trap?" To explain "here's how", he uses the largest economic espionage case ever tried in the United States -- Avery Dennison/Four Pillars -- from his vantage point as the lead crisis management expert for Avery Dennison. Fink guides his reader step-by-step through that seminal case, also also citing along the way relevant situations in other companies such as Bristol-Myers Squibb, Gillette, Kodak, Lucent Technologies, and MasterCard.
Who will derive the greatest benefit from this book? Obviously decision-makers in global organizations. Also service providers to those organizations (e.g. attorneys, accountants, insurance underwriters, management consultants) as well as officials in governmental agencies who are directly or indirectly involved in economic espionage threats as well as acts. I also highly recommend Fink's previous book, Crisis Management, first published in 1986 but more relevant today than ever before. America is at greatest risk because it has the most worth stealing. Those with "sticky fingers" know that and so must those whose task it is to deny them.