Business as Spying in Disguise

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Andrew Bustamante
The Espionage Edge
8 lessons • 35mins
1
Business as Spying in Disguise
02:14
2
Gathering Intelligence Through Sensemaking
04:46
3
Getting What You Want from Other People
06:57
4
Using Secrets as Leverage
06:05
5
A Spy’s #1 Tool for Eliciting Secrets
04:30
6
A Leader’s Guide to Keeping Secrets
05:08
7
A 3-Step Model for Cultivating High Performers
04:01
8
The Last Man Standing Mindset
02:03

Business is the closest thing to spying outside of international espionage. The two different skill sets are absolutely complimentary. The people who make good business people really could be very good spies. And the thing that’s so surprising to me is how many good spies have never discovered that their skills apply in business. It’s a world where you have to find people that could potentially fit into the category of covert operative.

They are very good at thinking on their feet. They’re creative. They’re adaptable. They’re resilient and resourceful. They’re also able to blend in and disappear.

These are not people who want to be the center of attention. They are willing to trade items of value in order to maintain or keep some sort of competitive advantage that they wanna keep secret, not just from their competitors, but sometimes even from the people in their closest inner circle. Movies and books make espionage out to be something that’s sexy and fast paced and exciting, when in fact it’s actually very slow and very methodical and very deliberate.