Confidential [Hardcover]

In my practice as a marketing consultant to this size business, I'm amazed at how little companies often know about the competitors who are eating them for lunch. And then, how do they find the information that can make a difference? Where can they go to find expert help?

It is for precisely those reasons, I picked up this book. What an education I got and have already passed along to clients. The author very succinctly describes the whole gamut..from how to get information all the way to how to protect your company's trade secrets.

Of particular interest to me was the whole section on capitalizing on trade shows. This is typically a major expense yet, the opportunity is mainly wasted because companies don't realize the potential contacts they can make and information they can gather. Worse yet, they have no idea what the risk might be of having their employees give away information to those competitors "in the know" or who have already read this book.

While this topic is quite serious, the author manages to make it an fascinating read. He sprinkles enough stories from his career as a government intelligence officer to keep you guessing.

For anyone who thinks this is all bogus "spy" stuff, guess again. Everything the author recommends is completely legal and aboveboard. Those companies who are out there following his recommendations are pulling ahead of the competition. That's why this book is landing on my clients' desks.

The most valuable parts of the book are those sections that cover the elicitation techniques - there are 17 in all according to Mr. Nolan. Readers will gain valuable insight into each of the techniques and how to use them. Mr. Nolan uses clear and concise examples to make his points.

Once the reader becomes expert at using the elicitation techniques, Mr. Nolan shows how to protect information, what to protect, how to protect it and for how long.

Mr. Nolan's book is engagingly written, and above all, useful the day one starts to read it. 'Confidential' describes ethical and legal procedures and processes that, with some practice, yield greater confidence in decisions that must be made 'ahead of the curve.'

Once I started reading this book, I couldn't put it down!

Mark Robinson, author of "Beyond Competitive Intelligence: The Practice of CounterIntelligence and Trade Secrets Protection."

All of Nolan's strategies and techniques are legal. Even readers with squeamish scruples should remember that their competitors will not sit on their hands and let Mr. Nice Guy finish first. Citing Nolan, who quotes Frederick the Great: "It is pardonable to be defeated, but never to be surprised."

While the reader is left to speculate about the exact source Nolan's 22 years of Federal service in intelligence collection and counterintelligence special operations on three continents, Confidential reads like "Confessions of an ex-CIA Spy." The focus, however, is on how companies can employ tools of the Intelligence trade to the corporate world.

"Elicitation" is one of those tools. Exploit it in the heat of corporate battle, and it's both the primary assault weapon in the psychological guerilla war for intelligence, and the best defense against would-be infiltrators. Elicitation offers many techniques for obtaining intelligence from people. However, if you just learn Nolan's techniques, you miss the best part: A glimpse inside the mind of a 30-year veteran of intelligence and counterintelligence special operations.

Nolan's Confidential strikes gold - and fear in the hearts of unwary competitors. You may have fallen asleep in economics class and nodded off over many business books, but trust me, they *definitely* don't teach you this at Harvard Business School!