Question

Assume you are a partner in a successful computer consulting firm bidding for a contract with a large insurance company. Your chief rival is a firm that has usually offered services and prices similar to yours. However, from a new employee who used to work for that firm, you learn that it is unveiling a new competitive price structure and accelerated delivery dates, which will undercut the terms you had been prepared to offer the insurance company. Assume you have verified that the new employee is not in violation of any non-compete or nondisclosure agreement and therefore the information was not given to you illegally.

Would you change prices and delivery dates to beat your rival? Or would you inform both your rival and potential customer of what you have learned? Why?

Answer 1

Even when the employee did not violate any agreement , what the employee did is unethical . We must inform the rival and the potential customer of the situation before altering any prices or delivery dates . This is because it becomes a competition and would not even be unethical as we have already informed the rival and only then we improved our terms . This would be an ethical approach to the situation .