Procter & Gamble vs Unilever: A Case of Corporate Espionage

Since late 2000, the agents of these sub-contractors, which P&G later called rogue operators (espionage agents), collected extensive information on Unilever's hair care business in the US. To gain access to such classified information, these agents resorted to dumpster diving and also misrepresented themselves to Unilever employees as market analysts and journalists. The operation focused on gaining access to classified information about Unilever's best selling hair care brands such as Salon Selectives, ThermaSilk, Finesse, and Helene Curtis. These brands competed directly with P&G's popular hair care brands such as Pantene, Wash & Go, Head & Shoulders, Vidal Sassoon, and Pert...

Fuld said, "If the company had applied true CI, it would have never found its way into the press in the first place." Interestingly, analysts even blamed Unilever for being negligent about protecting its confidential information. They pointed out that, by failing to safeguard its information, Unilever had put its market share, profits, and the entire business at risk. Since P&G's rogue operators obtained most of the critical documents related to Unilever's strategies from dumpster diving, analysts criticized the latter for not taking even the basic steps to protect its information from rivals. They said that being a leading company in a highly competitive environment, Unilever should have at least taken routine precautionary measures such as using shredders to destroy its documents...