R “Ray” Wang, CEO & Principal Analyst of Constellation Research, writes an intriguing post for Enterprise Irregulars entitled “The Sad State of the Industry Analyst Business and the Need for a Code of Ethics.” Mr. Wang admits upfront “there is a massive self-interest in my putting this out there.” He makes transparent various business practices that uphold Constellation’s integrity and admits to losing a lot of business due to these ethical practices. Believing that the integrity of the analyst business is at stake he offers simple rules for starting a code of ethics that needs to work on both ends – vendors and analysts. Here are the rules (directly quoted):
Vendor Code
- Agree not to support the pay to play game.
- Call out bad behavior.
- Train and educate internal sponsors and stakeholders.
- Disclose the analysts you work with and are on paid contract.
Analyst Code
- Just say no to pay for play.
- Call out bad behavior.
- Train and educate your team.
- Disclose your vendor client list.