Anonymous Consultations? No Thanks.

I recently had an interesting conversation with a Maven customer. This particular customer had been approached by an “expert network” company (a company which is also involved in the ongoing insider trading scandal) offering him anonymous phone consultations with industry experts. Yes, anonymous, meaning the expert would not know the customer’s identity. The customer expressed interest in this capability and asked if Maven could offer the same service.

After setting aside my astonishment that a company could be so unscrupulous as to ask experts to talk anonymously (or that ethical professionals would be willing to do so), I emphatically replied, “No, Maven Consultations are never anonymous,” and proceeded to explain why. You see, Maven’s ethical standards are very clear on this point: we believe that people have the right to know with whom they are speaking, with no exceptions. We reveal the identities of participants in anonymous consultations are unethical, and any company that offers them is unethical and unscrupulous. The fact that this service is being peddled by one of the investor-focused expert networks is even worse – companies should avoid such services like the plague lest their confidential information and areas of interest be shared with the big hedge funds to whom the expert networks are beholden.