Sharing Trade Secrets?

“Staff at lower levels want to guard their information. They are worried that if data generally were shared, it would be used against them. Also, it gives our main customer the opportunity to 'hit us over the head'. They have done this to us in the past.”

Senior Engineering Manager, UK Rail Supplier

 When you collaborate, you both bring know-how to the table. The idea is to combine it to create something different that will allow you both to seize new opportunities. Over time this new knowledge will have significant value for both partners and for the joint enterprise. Examples of these might be unique processes, equipment, product designs, sales leads, R&D results, market information and margins.

 However, companies are naturally reluctant to share information with their partners because they don’t have trust and confidence that specialised knowledge will not be misused. The solution is new knowledge and its ownership must be properly managed.

From the beginning you should establish agreed rules about who owns what and how the partners exploit it. These are often buried under the heading of Intellectual Property in the commercial agreement. From a practical point of view, there should be a joint Knowledge Management policy to harmonise the detailed management arrangements. Relationship Managers must make sure that all their managers understand what is required.

“They have put their company up for sale without telling us and all the good work on agreeing intellectual property rights could be lost.”

Project Director, UK Defence

 This is likely to be a very challenging and crucial function. The Relationship Managers will need to keep a close eye on what is being shared and ensure that it is being used as agreed. As new knowledge emerges, they will manage it within the joint arrangements. The Knowledge Management policy will need to be kept up to date and include a tracking record of new ideas. Making this information freely available to all managers allows them to be more effective and at the same time fosters an atmosphere of trust and confidence in their partners. If you fail to get this right you could end up in court in a highly expensive dispute.

 “They are going through a process of rationalising information handling and processing. We are faced with thousands of individual databases and huge resistance to change.”

Project Manager, Global Computing Services