For a long time now I (and many many others) have been talking about transparency. I’ve even gone so far as to translate it into to corporate speak by telling companies that they need to adopt a Transparent Business Strategy. Most people when I say this nod their head and agree with me as if to say “oh yeah we have one of those,” which is quickly followed by a slight look of confusion as they start to wonder what that actually means.
The goal of a Transparent Strategy is to have trust.
To have trust in others and to have the trust of others.
I hate throwing around the much over used word, “strategy” without some context. The best definition of strategy that I’ve heard is: to create fit within all practices of an organization. Each function of a company should support the other business functions to drive profit. That is the goal right?
I believe that transparency drives trust which drives greater profits.
- When your employees trust you they will work harder.
- When your customers trust you they are more loyal.
- When your stakeholders trust you they are more likely to invest in you.
- When your strategic partners trust you they will more likely share valuable information.
I don’t know a single company (I’m sure they exist somewhere) that doesn’t want to have the trust of their customers, or the trust of their employees. Far fewer companies are willing to trust their customers or employees. Most say they do, but how many actually do?
If a company trusted their employees, why would it be so scary to let them blog or have an internal forum? If a company trusted that their customers would come to their defense if some wayfaring naysayer wondered by, why wouldn’t they have a company blog?
Of course an even more poiniant question is: if a company has trust in themselves what do they have to be afraid of? I think they are afraid of the truth.
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I think you hit the nail on the head here Tac. It’s unfortunate that a company can’t trust it’s employees to blog or say anything about the company (with-in reason). The thing is that those employees are going most likely going do it regardless. However, if those employees actually have a good trusting relationship with their employers, then anything they have to say about them is basically just free advertising. Same goes for their customers. And everybody wins!
Well done. Sure, it makes sense intuitively, but history and inertia are against this movement. There has to be some sort of significant carrot (i.e. $$$) if businesses are ever going to get onboard. I think this will happen in early adopter/majority/late comer scenario. People will gravitate to the few businesses who adopt this policy early. These will be the biggest winners. Then, the bandwagon will get rolling. Business will begrudgingly adopt the policy to survive. Then, the late comers who refuse to adopt the policy will eventually die off.
I think the only way that businesses in our area are going to adopt a (potentially very disruptive) policy of transparency (both internally and with their customers) and show that the they authentically trust their employees, customers and themselves is to prove to these businesses that trust does in fact influence profits. The only way to do that is to identify and reward the ones who do things right, and identify and punish (for a lack of a better word) the ones who don’t. Regardless of what side of that fence a business falls on, this tactic will resonate where it really counts: the bottom line.
PS - why moderation on your comments? Don’t you “trust” your readers?
Many companies are starting to realize the change but don’t know what to do about it. I honestly wonder how much of this will come as the established Baby Boomers leave the workforce and are replaced by the younger generations who seem to be willing to adapt to change.
I do trust my “readers”, that’s why once someone has been approved for a comment they are free to comment unmoderated. Akismet is a good WordPress spam filter but it’s not perfect.