Transparency - the social ramifications

Rarely a month goes by when a corporate scandal does not hit the news pages nowadays and it is inevitably because someone, somewhere discovered a dirty little secret (or a big one) and made it public. Today, the Internet has given everyone with access to it, the powers of virtual policing and activism. There is nowhere to run and nowhere left to hide. I remember reading about the infamous case of the Diebold voting machines which were used in the US elections in 2000 (with Diebold insisting that they were un-hackable). They were hacked by a professor who posted a video of him doing it in a mock-up - he posted the video on Youtube and it went viral, notching over 300, 000 views. To heap insult on the infamy, internal Diebold memos indicating that the machines were not 100% fool-proof were leaked and found their way on to the Net!

Why is this phenomenon suddenly booming? I feel that it is for a very simple reason. Till recently, no matter what the advertising budget of an organization, the most effective route of communication was word of mouth. I mean, if you think about it, you would far rather rely on the word of someone you know or whose judgment you trust, while making a decision - whether it is to watch a movie or to make a computer hardware purchase. The only limitation that word of mouth has, is the outreach. There are only so many people you can talk to. But Internet-based tools like blogging and podcasting have changed all that. It is possible for any individual to put his or her opinion out there for the world to see. And for better or for worse, it is human nature to tend to believe something that is seen as a disinterested viewpoint (the sometimes specious reasoning being that an individual is more "honest"? than a corporation or has fewer vested interests.)

So what's the obvious message apart from "clean up your act, and fast"? The central message is that there are no secrets left anymore. If something that you want kept under the wraps has a potential (dis)affected audience, you can be sure they will get to hear of it, particularly if they are disaffected.

Also as more and more people loudly tweet that metaphorical whistle, it is time to take stock of not just what one is doing to impact the society and ecology at large, but also how one is representing it, or not, as the case may be. Today, the internet is the most powerful tool that NGOs and social watchdogs have.

A global survey by KPMG analysed the trends in CSR reporting, which indicate a steady rise in organizations publishing CSR reports. What this effectively means is that companies are realizing the value of not just doing whatever it is that they do as responsible corporate citizens, but also sharing in detail, their philosophy, methods and results.

Because if they don't, they might be facing another Cola-CSE situation.

The attitude that works seems to be "pre-empt and fix the problem rather than let it escalate and cost you much more money and reputation later."?

After all disaster prevention is far better than disaster management