If the sales person is one of yours, and he obtains the information from the customer purchasing manager AFTER an adverse bid decision – in an effort to be more competitive next time, it would seem that the sales person is just doing his job, and that the information could be used internally as you see fit.

On the other hand, if the information is made available by the purchasing manager to your sales person BEFORE the bid decision, it would seem that a frank discussion is in order with the customer – on the premise that ethical, honest customers are the best, as he might disclose YOUR competitive information BEFORE another bid decision. To make the point, it might be well to return the material to the purchasing manager in line with your Golden Rule, non-dissemination guidelines.

-Bob Leisy

I often wonder if I’m doing the right thing when I disclose information related to how things are going. I guess on one level, people view our company as a proxy for how our market and industry is doing. So I can see how ‘it’s going well’ might simply embolden future competitors. On the other hand, when people know we’re doing well, it builds confidence and adds to our credibility as the leader in the space.

Like everything, pros and cons need to be weighed. I definitely feel what you disclose as a CEO is almost a tell on who you are as an individual and your leadership style.

Twitter and social media in general provides even more clues and pieces from which an astute observer can see ‘inside’ a company.

Richard Sudek at Chapman U. has an series called “Hard Entrepreneur Choices” that offers a series of real life stories similar to this one. He gives them to B School students and it causes a lot of head scratching. Learning how to identify and deal with moral hazards is a critical skill set.