Transparency for business

Transparency for business « Edmund Scanlan

I think part of the reasons why the economy is in such a turmoil is because many public companies did not have enough transparency and the credit rating agencies are too lazy to the accurate data.

Your post reminded me of an article I bookmarked a while back about Loic LeMeur “10 rules of success for start-ups.” (http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/459447d6-a28c-11dc-81c4-0000779fd2ac.html)

Number 2 on his list is this: Share your idea. The more you share, the more you get advice and the more you learn. Meet and talk to your competitors.

This is a big part of what you’re talking about. Yet entrepreneurs often go the other route, essentially closing themselves off from the world while they build their product. I met with a company about a month ago who did the “design the product in a vacuum” approach and they were regretting it big time.

Again the primary concern seems to be competitive reasons — they don’t want anyone to discover what they are doing and potentially copy the product and get it to market before they do.

But in this day and age it’s pretty much true that “everything has been thought of.” So this strategy is a non-starter. It’s more important to execute quickly and maintain an ongoing dialogue with customers. Loic makes 2 other good points with respect to this:
- Don’t wait for a revolutionary idea. It will never happen.
- Launch test versions as early as possible. Keep improving the product in the open.

Kudos for making this approach part of the culture of Total Attorneys.