The history of corporate/industrial espionage pro-bably dates back to the 6th century when Justinian3, theByzantine emperor hired two monks to visit China. Hewanted them to gain an understanding of silk productionin China and to smuggle silkworm eggs and mulberryseeds out of that country to break its worldwide monopolyon silk production. The monks smuggled these eggs andseeds out of China in hollow bamboo walking sticks.

Subsequently, in a few years the Byzantine empirereplaced China as the largest silk producer in the world.Over the centuries, industrial espionage practicescontinued to play a major part in the development of manycountries. In the 18th century, alarmed by the industrialand military supremacy of Great Britain, France sent itsspies to steal the latters industrial secrets.

Unilever, which entered the US in late 19th century,was one of the largest foreign multinationals in thecountry. It competed directly with market leader P&G inmany segments of the household and personal careproducts markets.

Over the decades, the rivalry between these twocompanies kept on intensifying as both of them expandedto the major markets in the world. In the early 21stcentury, while P&G dominated the US household andpersonal care market, Unilever dominated the Europeanmarket.

In Asia, these companies had equal dominance,with both being market leaders in different Asiancountries. They also fought fiercely for market dominancein other parts of the world. P&G and Unilever competedin every aspect of their operations such as new productdevelopment and launches, pricing and promotionalstrategies and entering new markets.