I am a big Panera bread fan, I just love what they do with dough. I also happen to love baking, so given that I am obsessed with Panera’s cinnamon crunch bagel and cannot get it to buy in the United kingdom where I live, I decided to hunt for the recipe. To my heartbreak, it is a secret recipe nowhere to be found of the web.

I have even subscribed to Google Alerts to search for the term “cinnamon crunch bagel recipe” about 6 months ago and till today still no joy. This got me thinking that it is unlikely that Panera use Enterprise Rights Management to protect its secret recipes. When I watch TV programmes like Man v Food, Adam Richman visit some of the best restaurants in the United States where some of these businesses have been able to keep their secret recipes under lock and key for 40, 50 years or more.

So what is the secret behind keeping a secret recipe secret? I remember my great Aunt, when I used to live with her she made the best porridge ever, but she had a secret recipe which she never shared with anyone. She’ll tell me to go and make the porridge but she never showed me what she added to it to give it that extra kick. unfortunately, she passed away and never had the opportunity to show me her secret recipe. Maybe, she told her children, I don’t know but my point is she kept it away from an over inquisitive mind like mine.

So here is my point. Sometimes employing tools like Enterprise Rights Management could be a case of using a sledge hammer to crack a nut. It may jest be keeping the secret under lock and key, and defining a water tight process of keeping the circulation very limited. Coca-Cola have been able to do so with its secret recipe for over 120 years. The way Coke have achieved this is by a rule restricting access to only two executives, each knows the entire formula and others, in addition to the prescribed duo, have known the formulation process. I am sure that there are other risk management procedures built into this process like making sure executives do not fly on the same aircraft or travel in the same car and so on.

It could be that this is what some organisations need to do when it comes to protecting their trade secrets. It just may be a case of breaking down the components of that trade secret with the formulation process known to a limited number of executives and building a risk management profile to protect those trade secrets. I understand that for some businesses this may not work, but for some it maybe an optimal solution, instead of Enterprise Rights Management.

Photo Credit: Roslyn in Starfish Island