Business Ethics

[WatVentu]

Scenario:

A small business owner decides to open a wholesale roasting operation and is looking to hire a coffee roaster.

A local competitor (40 miles away) is the head of coffee operations at an established roastery poses as a potential candidate for the job, just to get the low down and inside scoop of their business plans.

Is this common practice? Is the local competitor acting insecure and are his actions not completely unnecessary?
Just curious how the coffee folks over here feel about such a situation and characters involved, thank you.

[salma]

I have no definite answer to this question
I have no definite answer to this question

[topher]

Are you hiring this person just to steal ideas from the other roaster? Or are you going to keep this person on after you learn all the secrets...just a heads up though. There really isn't any secrets anymore. If you need advice from experienced people in the business post your questions here. I am sure there is loads of people here that can help you out.

[ordobey]

Seems pretty sketchy to me.

But surely in the interview process you're not going to be giving out all your secrets?