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>> Employees will attempt to steal IP and copy the business. > This sounds a lot like the unfounded "don't tell anyone your idea, it might be stolen!" fear in

>> Employees will attempt to steal IP and copy the business. > This sounds a lot like the unfounded "don't tell anyone your idea, it might be stolen!" fear in Silicon Valley. Its much different. Mechanical drawings, materials processes, and electrical designs that might have taken thousands of man-hours to develop, test, and refine are actually valuable, unlike "this great app idea I came up with in the shower." > If you are relying on security through obscurity to protect your business' viability, you're doing it wrong. Security through obscurity refers to computer security processes. "Business by obscurity" is the industry standard, unless you think Apple, Microsoft, Coca Cola, and Wall Street traders are doing it wrong.

contingencies 11y ago
Mechanical drawings, materials processes, and electrical designs that might have taken thousands of man-hours to develop, test, and refine are actually valuable Sure, but even these things are not valuable unless you can actually use them to start a successful rival business within a reasonable amount of time. In other words, if there are 10 idle factories tooled to copy your product for the same price or less and your only security is "nobody else has produced the same ballpark product yet" then you are walking on thin ice (even without internal bad actors), since market demand, reverse engineering and technological change will ensure your current sales run is short-lived. This was my point. Technology businesses often need a combination of reasonable speed product evolution, good client/partner relationships, adequate capital and good name and legal standing to effect a greater sense of business security. A single rogue employee is unlikely to have all of these, and thus appeal to clients. To look at it another way, if your perspective of evil rogue employees duplicating products was correct, how do you think https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YKK_Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YKK_Group survive? There's no crown jewels to walk away with, and there is significant anti-Japanese sentiment from the Chinese government. Security through obscurity refers to computer security processes Much knowledge is transferable between different types of complex systems... apologies for not appealing your terminological preference.
- argonaut 11y ago
  I think this is missing the forest for the trees. It is totally fine to tell people in China your idea. But the point is, your local employees might steal the execution as well. That is, they'll steal blueprints, designs, code. They'll poach other employees. They'll take with them knowledge of your suppliers, your buyers, your customers. And so on. In SV the common wisdom is that it's fine to tell people your ideas. But nobody is suggesting you give out your code or your blueprints and designs, and put up a spreadsheet on your website of the contact info for all your suppliers and buyers, and all your customer data.
  - contingencies 11y ago
    Where did you get the idea "Evil Chinese want to steal all your goodies"? I am sitting here on the ground in China with actual experience getting things done, and you are someplace else making some ridiculous hand-waving assertions about the character of 1.4 billion people you've never met, and I am getting downvoted ridiculously. Thank god I don't live in the US: the arrogance, introversion and ignorance is absurd.
    - argonaut 11y ago
      I was restating / clarifying what the person you were replying to was saying. I think I was overly dismissive (can't edit my comment now), but my response was more in response to my perception that you were being overly dismissive of the parent's ideas ("This sounds a lot like the unfounded", "Sure, but even these things are not valuable", etc.)

contingencies 11y ago

Mechanical drawings, materials processes, and electrical designs that might have taken thousands of man-hours to develop, test, and refine are actually valuable Sure, but even these things are not valuable unless you can actually use them to start a successful rival business within a reasonable amount of time. In other words, if there are 10 idle factories tooled to copy your product for the same price or less and your only security is "nobody else has produced the same ballpark product yet" then you are walking on thin ice (even without internal bad actors), since market demand, reverse engineering and technological change will ensure your current sales run is short-lived. This was my point. Technology businesses often need a combination of reasonable speed product evolution, good client/partner relationships, adequate capital and good name and legal standing to effect a greater sense of business security. A single rogue employee is unlikely to have all of these, and thus appeal to clients. To look at it another way, if your perspective of evil rogue employees duplicating products was correct, how do you think https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YKK_Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/YKK_Group survive? There's no crown jewels to walk away with, and there is significant anti-Japanese sentiment from the Chinese government. Security through obscurity refers to computer security processes Much knowledge is transferable between different types of complex systems... apologies for not appealing your terminological preference.

argonaut 11y ago
I think this is missing the forest for the trees. It is totally fine to tell people in China your idea. But the point is, your local employees might steal the execution as well. That is, they'll steal blueprints, designs, code. They'll poach other employees. They'll take with them knowledge of your suppliers, your buyers, your customers. And so on. In SV the common wisdom is that it's fine to tell people your ideas. But nobody is suggesting you give out your code or your blueprints and designs, and put up a spreadsheet on your website of the contact info for all your suppliers and buyers, and all your customer data.
- contingencies 11y ago
  Where did you get the idea "Evil Chinese want to steal all your goodies"? I am sitting here on the ground in China with actual experience getting things done, and you are someplace else making some ridiculous hand-waving assertions about the character of 1.4 billion people you've never met, and I am getting downvoted ridiculously. Thank god I don't live in the US: the arrogance, introversion and ignorance is absurd.
  - argonaut 11y ago
    I was restating / clarifying what the person you were replying to was saying. I think I was overly dismissive (can't edit my comment now), but my response was more in response to my perception that you were being overly dismissive of the parent's ideas ("This sounds a lot like the unfounded", "Sure, but even these things are not valuable", etc.)