If the goal is maximum profit, transparency can potentially be a liability. If the goal is make the best or most helpful product or service possible, with profit being seen more as a ‘side-effect’ of sorts, transparency is an asset and can only help.

/idealism

A little information can be a dangerous thing, because your customers start to fill in the gaps for themselves. Unless you’re Sunshine & Rainbows, Inc., there are things you can tell your customers that, in a vacuum, would frighten them. Hell, I’m betting Sunshine & Rainbows have some skeletons, too… unicorn skeletons.

Personally, unless it’s giong to harm me to not know, or it’s morally reprehensible, I’d rather the companies I do business with don’t show me their nasty underbits. To roll with the naked analogy, there are a lot of people I simply do not want to see with their pants around their ankles. I don’t want to hear your story about why it looks that way or what kind of medicine you’re taking for it, just put your clothes back on, wash your hands, and we can all get back to doing business.

Paraphrasing:
— “People are too stupid to understand…”
— “Transparency is BS because it might not only be the right thing to do and also make a profit?”

Next you’ll tell us that centralized State planning by the elite ruling party (the only truly smart citizens) leads to an enlightened nation without the natural forces of “making money”…

i read ezra’s piece, and i didn’t think that any of the “transparency” examples were what i would even refer to as “transparency.” but that’s kinda my point. maybe we don’t use the word in a similar manner…

but, it sure was a good enough reason for you to write a nice post :-)

personally, i prefer to use the term “always be visible” over “be transparent” when it comes to running s/w dev projects… but for companies and governments, transparency means being open to all.

> the only reason I’m going to turn on comments is because in that particular case it will get me more traffic/links

Many Companies and Governments have wandered far from the straight and narrow, and been “caught” wandering… so the only way they can try to claw back is to start throwing around the T word.

Companies that post policies, have clearly visible rules that make good common sense, and are looking for a win/win with their partners… the ones who truly are transparent… will prosper.

The others… who talk the talk, but don’t walk the walk ? They will eventually stumble over themselves in the murk.

I believe Karma works, more slowly perhaps, but just as effectively, in business.