Legal
How Charlie handles clients who compete with one another, so every client knows where they stand.
Last updated: July 2026
Charlie advises leaders and teams across many organizations, and sometimes those organizations compete. This policy sets out how he manages that, so a client never has to wonder whether their strategy, their people, or their confidential information is being carried across to a competitor.
A competitive conflict means two clients who compete directly for the same customers in the same market at the same time. Working with several organizations in one broad industry is not itself a conflict; head-to-head competition between two specific clients is the line that matters.
Charlie will not take on a new engagement with a direct competitor of an active client in a way that would compromise that client’s interests, without first disclosing the situation and getting the client’s consent. When a genuine conflict cannot be managed cleanly, he declines the later engagement.
What a client shares stays with the client. Charlie does not use one client’s confidential information, strategy, or internal workings to benefit another, during an engagement or after it ends. The frameworks and general expertise he brings are his to carry; a specific client’s private information is not.
If a potential conflict comes up, Charlie raises it directly and early. Depending on the situation, that can mean setting clear boundaries between engagements, sequencing the work so it doesn’t overlap, seeking written consent from the affected clients, or stepping back from the engagement altogether.
Speaking, writing, teaching, and the Leadership Labs are open to anyone, including people whose organizations compete. Public work and cohort programs draw on shared, published material, so they don’t create the kind of one-to-one conflict this policy is written to prevent.
If you’re considering an engagement and want to talk through a possible conflict first, get in touch. It’s better to name it up front.