I was having a conversation about the HP brouhaha recently and there was some discussion of whether this was just a big company problem. The problem has many facets to it, questionable ethics being front and center, and that's what I'm focusing on, as the legality issues are just a corollary (in my opinion, if people had made ethical choices, there probably wouldn't have been legal entanglements).
So, would a startup ever run into a problem like this? Granted, startups usually can't afford the big-bucks snooping (never mind it was snooping on your own people) and 'pretext' would probably just be a fancy word for an excuse (or the precursor to an SMS). In my opinion, it is not the size or scope of the act, but its rightness (or wrongness), and it can happen in a startup as well as in a larger company.
A lot of companies, including early-stage startups with eager, idealistic entrepreneurs, have company 'values' and I bet everyone has 'integrity' in there or something that smells awfully close (even if it's like Google's famous 'Don't be evil'). And of course, one would expect that the leadership of the company (the ones who signed off on these values) would be hyper-aware of them and not ever get into a bind like the one at HP. Not to mention, HP has long been considered one of 'good guys', a company to emulate in its 'uprightness'.
So how do things fall apart? (I'm just speculating here, based on my own experiences with 'iffy' issues over many years. ) There are two major contributors to veering off the straight and narrow path. One, you lose sight of the big picture and focus on the single tree that is crowding your vision, instead of the forest. A small (in many ways) example: one of our competitors (another startup) used the exact same quote, and similar sounding text on their website as was on the home page of my last startup (and we were there a few months earlier). Our small team got very agitated and upset and were trying to figure out how to get back at them, or least make them cease and desist. It took a little while to get to the realization that just because they were unethical and didn't have class, it didn't mean we should be the same. We also figured out that the issue wasn't just this particular startup, we couldn't prevent every obscure startup out there from leveraging what we put out publicly on our site - the only way to do it was to be smart about what we said publicly (and yes, we were too small to initiate legal action). Ultimately we reminded ourselves of who we were and what we were about, and dealt with it appropriately.
Two, when you embark on something you've never done before, it needs more scrutiny. Business as usual has the advantage of already being vetted and blessed that it is kosher and fills legal, ethical and, of course, business requirements. When you veer off into new territory (it is safe to assume spying was not SOP for HP), you have to take extra efforts to make sure it won't come back to haunt you. And you have to do it thoroughly - not just from the legal and business perspectives, but the ethical one too. I'm in the middle of negotiating with a couple of different people on doing some IP-related work, and it is taking an awful lot of effort to make sure both our rights are protected. A template covers the legalities, but it is not so easy to get to a point where both parties feel it is equitable, especially when I have to anticipate what could potentially happen in the future. As far as I'm concerned, I'm aiming not only for a positive business outcome, but to believe it when I say it's a fair deal.
But, being ethical is easier said than done. Situations are not clear cut, especially when you're working on retaining your competitive advantage, profitability etc. It's all one gray blur like an MC Escher painting spinning by. So how do you figure out if an action is ethical or not? One trick is to use the gold standard of 'would you like it if someone did this to you'? It's always worked for me. (I'd hate if if someone spied on my calls, however boring and innocuous they may be, so rest assured I won't go there.) Simplistic, but easy to remember. And that, ultimately is the most important thing - you have to remember to be ethical.
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