If everyone knows your business, you don't have one. Yielding to the cry for complete corporate transparency is the first step down a slippery slope that leads to your company's failure. The question that needs to be asked in every boardroom is "how transparent do we need to be?"
The best response is that your business must have a "need to know" transparency policy. Providing people with the information they need to know at the time they need it is good business. Operating in a glass house with no boundaries is reckless endangerment of your company's future.
What do people need to know?
Specific answers have to be defined by your executive board. The roles people play determine the information they need. In general:
Customers need to know:
- Buying and return policies
- Operating hours
- How to place an order
- Who to contact when there is a problem and how to do it
- How to use your products and services
- Where to find answers to frequently asked questions
- How to connect with your business online
Vendors need to know:
- What's required to introduce new products and services
- Purchasing and payable policies
- How to submit invoices
- Who to contact if there is a problem and how to do it
- What's acceptable in social sharing
Employees need to know:
- Hiring and firing policies
- Who to contact if there is a problem
- What's expected from them (this includes a specific job description)
- How to improve their job position
- What's acceptable in social sharing
- Everything that is required for them to do their job (including cross-departmental information.
Competitors need to know:
- As little as possible
There are different expectations for private and publicly traded companies. All legal transparency requirements must be fulfilled. Shareholders need to know how the company is doing and what to expect.
Transparency is good when it provides information on a need to know basis. Companies prosper when people have the information they need at the time they need it. Operating costs are lower and sales are higher. When transparency crosses the line to free-flowing information, company activity becomes an operating manual for competitors.