Fast Company | There is No Corporate Privacy, and That's a Good Thing.
Seth Godin in Fast Company outlines the 'openness' of infomration that the web gives us,
One fascinating side effect of our networked world is that many things are now transparent. As consumers, competitors, colleagues, and citizens, we can see the inner workings of organizations (it's not that hard to figure out who does what anymore). We can see the traffic patterns in Detroit. We can monitor hidden cameras in London. And most important, we can raise our voices and comment.
He goes on to advocate this openness that business should actively engage in,
You can still keep secrets in a transparent world. The challenge is to enlarge the circles, to bring outsiders in. Let your customers and your competitors have easier access to your people and your data. Let your employees have two-way access to more processes and feedback. Every part of the business works better when the circles are enlarged.
The idea that companies can somehow hide rom the world or keep anything truely secret is gone. I know this to be true. Any project within ntl that effects customers will be within the public domain the minute it goes from a small circle in head office. Often customer services will complan that customers know of an offer, a problem or a change before they do. Is this bad management? Well, yes, but is based on old ways of working which are outdated, outmoded and should be abandoned.
You can try to forestall the inevitable, the way British Airways is doing, or you can embrace it. Go ahead: Post your org chart, your price list, your best-sellers, and your incoming complaints. Make it easy for customers and suppliers to understand who you are and what you do. Then get back to work. People are watching.
I'm with Seth. Let's tell people, share with them get their feedback, be open and push ourselves. After all 'people are watching' and quite rightly they don't care about shareholder value, the cost of a server or disputes with suppliers. They want a decent reliable service/product that does what they want. And they want to tell us about it too.
Posted by Paul Goodison at August 22, 2003 10:34 PM | TrackBack