Company Loyalty

If you're in business, do you think your employees are loyal to you and to your company? You probably think they're pretty faithful. But are you really and truly sure?

I'm sure the executives at Coca-Cola are still reeling over the secretary who was accused of trying to sell company trade secrets to the competitors over at Pepsi. Fortunately, the executives at Pepsi were honorable and immediately turned her in. She and her accomplices were busted and now face some serious charges.

The case has made Coke and other corporations re-evaluate how to keep sensitive company information safe. It has also made them look at the screening process for hiring. Everybody's careful when they're hiring somebody who is going to handle payroll, someone who is going to be writing checks. But you need to be just as careful when you're hiring someone who is going to have access to your company's most critical information - whether a vice-president or a receptionist.

There's one other way to avoid the problem in the first place. If you make all your employees feel like part of the team - if they all feel as if they have a vested interest in the overall success of your business - then most likely these situations won't happen.

It's lucky for Coke that Pepsi did the right thing and I have a lot of respect for the people at Pepsi for doing it. A lot of competitors might have played a lot dirtier.

In the meantime, what could be so secretive about Coke? Doesn't everybody already know what that stuff is made of?

Donald J. Trump is Chairman of Trump University and featured in the new self-learning course, The Wealth Builder's Blueprint.