Corporate information gathering techniques are once again being reexamined after what is being called the Wal-Mart spy scandal. The following is an extremely brief summary of the philosophy and techniques of corporate spying throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.

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Sun Tzu’s Art of War

This is the basis of a lot of business theories and practices because many business school students are required to read Sun Tzu’s Art of War, especially in Japan. In these ancient tomes come some of the first recorded thinking about intelligence gathering.

“If you know both yourself and your enemy, you will come out of one hundred battles with one hundred victories. Therefore, one hundred victories in one hundred battles is not the most skillful. Seizing the enemy without fighting is the most skillful”. Sun Tzu