I remembered today a case where one of our members that I helped years ago with his dough formulation and sauce asked me via PM for some advice after one of his employees--a very loyal and trusted employee--told him that she had been approached by one of his competitors and offered money for information on the member's business. My recollection is that is was the pizza sauce but it could have gone beyond that. I suggested several things that he could do. First, I told him to control his trash so that it was not accessible to dumpster divers. Second, I told him to maintain tight control over his dough formulation and his sauce recipe so that they couldn't be easily reproduced (he eventually put his dough recipe and his sauce recipe under lock and key). Third, I told him do break down functions and routines and, as much as possible, assign different ones of his workers to them. Fourth, I told him to keep work areas, such as where the dough and sauces were to be made, out of the view of customers and non-employees. Fifth, I stressed that he educate his employees on the need to protect his business, otherwise he could go out of business and they would lose their jobs.
Another one of our members, Thompson Ly, who now has three pizza delcos in China, told me when we last talked that he controls the herb and spice blends that go into his sauce. I don't recall if he makes the actual blend himself or just purchases it from others and controls its use so that his employees aren't able to reveal the contents or the source. I believe he maintains publicly that his dough recipe is a secret, but I view that as puffery although he has made some minor changes to the recipe I originally devised for him. China is not noted for respecting intellectual property rights, so I assume that Thompson feels that he has to take these kinds of measures to protect his business.
Peter
