Serving Competitors Policy
As is common in management consulting, we serve organisations in the same industry, including competitors. In doing so, we take seriously the protection of clients’ confidential information. Our protocols involve serving direct competitors through different teams of consultants and preventing these teams from accessing their clients’ competitors’ privileged information. Direct competitors will be identified by mutual agreement between Right Lane and its clients.
To safeguard our clients’ interests, Right Lane staff who lead strategic projects for a client will not serve a direct competitor of theirs for a period of two years after they last served the original client. Staff with lesser involvement – for example, industry experts, analysts and project managers – will not serve a direct competitor for a period of one year after they last served the original client. When serving competitors, Right Lane staff are unable to access files – electronic and physical – containing their clients’ competitors’ private and confidential information.
Right Lane is a small team with a focus on a few industries. As such it would be commercially impractical to ‘tie up’ our staff for two years on the basis of, for example, a single workshop for a client. The extent to which this policy applies to Right Lane staff who lead workshop only engagements on sensitive strategic matters will be determined by Right Lane on a case by case basis.
Right Lane will notify clients impacted if, for any reason, the firm decides to take a different approach to protecting their confidential information.