the struggle with transparency
About a year ago I went on a rampage about the importance of transparency in the "new marketplace". I talked about it's relevance, it's value and the absolute need for it; IF you plan to be in business for the next 100 years, and if you care about legacy... IF not, what I am about to say, will not resonate, it won't matter... However; if legacy matters, leaving something of value, than this will matter... REALLY matter.
Last year, when I talked about transparency, I was speaking as a person, who up until that point, had made all the right decisons. I had always stood up for what I believed and I inspired others to do the same... It was the RIGHT thing to do. Well... As the year played out, I was challenged with a series of events that altered my natural course of progression and catapulted me in a direction that felt more like a reversal than it did a forward momentum. Intellectually I was growing, however; as it pertained to "shipping" ... Business had flatlined. I produced Pretty Things for WFXL FOX 31, yeah... BUT there was more I was supposed to be doing.
Here is the deal... The struggle for most businesses in today's marketplace, OR let me say "some", as it pertains to transparency is, they are struggling with evolving from a marketplace where there was NO transparency to a marketplace where transparency is king. As I said earlier... From 1998-2007 my decisions in biz were dead on, in 2008-2009 I got off track and made some decisions that stripped some brand equity and, now in the Summer of 2010, my message is slightly (just enough) diluted. And my practice is suffering... NOT because I don't know what I am doing, but because I have been all over the place emotionally and professionally... AND I'm not communicating well at all... I lost transparency along the way. From 1998 - 2007 my message was clear, from 2008 - 2009 I made some bad decisions and rather than communicate, correct, and progress, I decided to bury my errors, not teach from them and keep marching... THIS diluted my message and took brand equity. Big companies do this all the time. They disolve brand equity in their message. They make big mistakes, cover em up and march on, they allow the virus of error to fester internally and they lose touch with their fans. Tiger Woods did it, Kolbe did it, Jesse, should I go on? Some error is moral, some political, and some financial... In the end, it's all stuff brands hate to talk about. Period. Bye bye transparency. So there it is... Talking about and resolving the hard stuff. If brands get a grip on this, we can get a grip on the emotional equity of our brands and NOT lose ground. NOW I am not saying that brands should spill ALL of the beans that are cooking back at the lab, BUT I am saying that the stuff that effects the fans needs to be on the table.

