In spring of 2001, John Pepper, then chairman of Procter and Gamble, discovered that members of P&G’s competitive analysis department engaged in corporate spying practices at its rival corporation, Unilever. 1 The spying operation gathered about eighty documents detailing Unilever’s plans for its U. S. hair care business over the next three years, including information on its launch-plans, prices, and margins. 2, 3 This information came as a complete surprise to Pepper, who had not commissioned nor condoned this operation. How exactly did P&G gain this information? First, managers at the company hired an outside firm to.
