“Conflict of interest” is one of those phrases people love to throw around—especially in public relations. It sounds serious—and it is—but it’s also one of the most misunderstood concepts in our industry.

Too often, someone hears that a consultant or agency represents two clients in the same space and immediately cries, “That’s a conflict!”

But here’s the truth: working for two organizations that do similar things isn’t automatically a conflict of interest.