stevenal,
I didn't say made on company time but your point is valid even if we allow that the list is created by people entering details from business cards they collect. It would be created on company time and with company resources.
But it has to be maintained to be of value. Mostly this includes simply adding new contacts. It may involve deleting a few bad payers or those that have gone out of business but those not in the top 20% that deliver 80% of the business are usually assumed to be still in the bottom 80% who pad out the list.
The point is most such lists are filled with useless names.
The list itself is a convenience and has little real value.
If you wanted to could buy a list from pretty well any source.
Magazines regularly sells such lists. Or you can usually recreate such a list from pretty much anywhere.
Heck, companies often start with such bought in lists.
So the chances are you could buy a list commercially which could contain the companies that are also in your employer's list and often the names of the relevant people. But the names change most rapidly of all and as often as not getting the right name is no problem. Not even for the most wet behind the ears salesman. Just call whatever name you have and then ask for it.
As I said, the list itself doesn't have any real value.
What does have value is knowing who among them is spending money and regularly spends money. The list doesn't tell you that but if the list is to be any use to you, you have to know that already i.e. in your mind.
I'd be interested to see any cases of prosecutions exclusively based on the contact list and which found in the employers favour.
Some such cases are simply malicious. The general response of companies is "who cares?"
For example my boss at one company was hauled back from the USA (due to some brown nosing politicking) and told they would find him a new job in the UK. He didn't like the new job they found but had nothing better so accepted it.
Two days later he was offered a job with a global company which was a competitor (the way an elephant competes with a mouse).
He immediately accepted the new job (much better than any with his current employer) and politely resigned his current two day old job.
The CEO was incensed.
He then wrote a very malicious slanderous character attack and sent it to his new employer.
The new employer was no dummy. If anything I reinforced the idea they got the right man. So when my old boss took his chance, flew back to the States and walked into his new employer all nervous and spoke to them about the letter they laughed and gave him an unexpected signing bonus.
The point is that one or two cases may not be evidence of anything at all except malice and expensive lawyers.
Most companies also can choose to send a circular to their clients saying "So and so has left the company and is no longer associated with us."
If they are at all good they shouldn't need to worry about losing key clients, not if they look after them well.
It isn't even as if they are deprived of the contact list which would be cause for upset.
JMW
