Transparency, Essay Example

Naked and buff according to Don Tapscott implies that a corporation ought to transparent in nits operation in order to improve productivity. Accordingly, whenever a corporation adopts the concept of transparency the corporation’s activities must be good because the stakeholders and customers can easily find offensive attributes of the company. The argument here is that, where a corporation adopts transparency it is up to the company to work in accordance with its mandate. The emergence of the internet has made available a platform to find information regarding a corporation. In this regard, it acts as a platform for sharing such information and organizing collective actions where necessary. Therefore, it is imperative that transparency must come with good values, good products and services as well as good practices based on the fact that individuals can find such information if the corporation is not good. In this regard, naked and buff corporations are desired. The naked and buff concept advocates for transparency and better behavior by companies (Donn and David37). It is notable that this concept is gradually becoming mandatory for companies as technology opens up the global reach of these companies.

The realization by companies that marketing and compliance alone cannot encourage customers to their products makes transparency a critical tool in the productivity of a company. The motivators for the concept of transparency include availability and flexibility in information sharing. Ultimately, companies are forced to adopt transparency by activist’s employee’s customers and shareholders. An example of an organization that practices the concept of transparency with an aim of improving its market presence is Research in motion limited (RIM) trading as Blackberry. The company provides information regarding its latest products such as the Blackberry 10 platform. According to Donn in the Huffington post (2012), the company provided information regarding the platform even before the product was released. The company provides information on the platform’s architecture as well as the specifications and the details of the platform to the public. The company seeks to achieve global transparency through the provision of the information through the internet. The company made the information available to the public domain thorough its internet sites. The provision of the information to the public did not only provide transparency but enhanced the company’s position through an array of other factors. The information provided its customers with information on the platform as well as familiarizes them with the platform and making them loyal to the company. The information provided also gave an opportunity to software developers to come up with applications compatible with the platform. The information also gave the company the opportunity to assess the uptake and the reception of the platform from reviews and comments from both the customers and developers. The availability of the information in the public domain also acts to advertise the product and therefore increase its anticipated sales. The company adopted this concept in order to prepare the market for the new product.

Another company using this concept is Google. The availability of the company’s transparency report supports the company’s desire to become transparent in respect to its customers and the concerned individuals. Publishing of generalized information from Google on the number of national security letters received by the company makes a clear depiction of this. The company published these reports together with the total of its customers affected by these letters. The statutory provisions compelling the company to provide private information about its customer’s internet activity and communication to the FBI without judicial review inform the use of these letters. The company provides transparency about the law enforcement and legal aspects relating to its business operations. The provision of such information by the company provides an overview on how the government uses such information. The provision of such information by the company through publishing makes this information available to the public and therefore making asses to such information readily available. In providing such reports, the company aims to show its customers of its adherence to the legal aspects relating to its operations. Auerbach and Galperin (2013). This in turn legitimizes the operations of the company in the customer’s perspective since the company operates as stipulated by the law. Additionally such reports act as deterrence of criminal activities as it shows that the company provides the required information to the relevant authorities and in the circumstance of the crime, the company is willing to provide information regarding g the same. The report also sets the limit to what the company is obligated to share and what the company cannot share therefore providing assurance to its customers on the issues of confidentiality. The report also provides an understanding to the customers on the use of customer information collected from Google and the extent of the applicability of this information. Adoption of transparency and good attributes referred to as naked and buff by Taspscott by a company results in the improved interaction of the company and its customers and gives the customers the perspective of being in touch with the company.

Works Cited

Auerbach, D. and Galperin E. Google Transparency Report Highlights Just How Much We Don’t Know About National Security Letters. March 2013. https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2013/03/new-statistics-about-national-security-letters-google-transparency-report.Web. 10 March 2013.

Donn Tapscott and David Ticoll. The Naked Corporation: How the age of transparency will revolutionize business. Simon and Schuster, 2003.

Donn Tapscott. Does Apple’s Secrecy Prove That Openness Doesn’t Work? Huffington post. October 2012. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/don-tapscott/apple-the-case-for-more-t_b_1975108.html. Web 10 March 2013