Corporate Espionage

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Corporate Espionage: A Case of Opel against Volkswagen
Corporate espionage is a striking scheme that affects organizations, individuals, government, and even countries. Those participating in this scheme use all means to gain a profit advantage over their competitors. Accordingly, those that practice corporate espionage also known as industrial espionage are aware that it is a form of illegal practice of spying competitors to gain a business advantage (Kiyuna and Conyers 176). Besides, the practice is also a covert of stealing and unauthorized revealing of a company’s private data and information to other companies or individuals. Despite the negative publicity, industrial espionage has increased due to improving technology. A typical case is that of Opel and Volkswagen (VW), whereby Mr. Lopez was charged with stealing Opel’s valuable trade secrets, computer files, and reams of documents when he was hired with Volkswagen beginning 1992.
Adam Opel and General Motors filed a suit against VW accusing Mr. Jose Ignacio Lopez de Arriortua, former general motors’ executive of industrial espionage (Kiyuna & Conyers, 175). VW, however, denied the charges citing that the claim had no basis and Opel was just playing a game of competition warfare.
In the contemporary business climate, conducting business emphasizing the ethical principles is crucial. Head of corporations and government institutions face dynamic challenges as they try to navigate the highly competitive business environment (Bowie and Schnieder, 223).

Mr. Lopez aimed at spearheading a recovery of VW heavy losses and looked at incorporating Opel’s secrets of business to achieve this goal. While his intentions were sincere, he defied the ethical principles by conniving with Ferdinand Piech, VW chairman, and Jens Neumann, VW board member in stealing a large quantity of Opel’s data. Darmstadt Public Prosecutor’s Office found MR. Lopez and Volkswagen guilty of having Opel’s data in their possessions, having keyed in the data in their computers and then destroying the data. Opel claimed to have suffered severe damage and loss due to the corporate espionage.
To stay away from such a scandal Mr. Lopez would have considered the four categories of ethical considerations: responsibility, respect, fairness, and honesty (Bowie & Schnieder, 227). He could have still obtained the information and data he needed from Opel without stealing but rather through business partnerships, negotiations, and borrowing of information.
The Opel case against Volkswagen in industrial espionage reveals that the practice takes place due to the negligence of the role of ethics in organizations. Companies should put in the effort to try and protect their documents against corporate espionage. However, those with charged with the responsibility of attaining organizational goals must look at the ethical dilemmas and challenges that they create to their reputation and that of their companies.

Works Cited
Bowie, Norman E., and Meg Schnieder. Business ethics for dummies. John Wiley & Sons, 2011. Print.
Kiyuna, A., and L. Conyers. Cyberwarfare Sourcebook. Lulu. com, 2015.